2007 SXSW NARRATIVE SHORT! Tintori’s “Death to the Tinman” is (what I assume) a radical re-imagining of the Tin Man’s back story from the perspective of an indie filmmaker who isn’t keen on a creative spin. “Death to the Tinman” tells the tale of a young man with everything to live for, a man with a lot of courage who begins to lose limbs in job accidents. His friend, a zany inventor, creates arms and legs made of tin until he’s completely made of it, and he becomes a cult rebel who helps others, and defies authority. “Death to the Tinman” would be a creative re-imagining if it were creative in the first place.
The story of the tin man sadly doesn’t have too much imagination where we can fill in the gap between Oz and Tinman, but as he loses the limbs, and then realizes he’s lost his heart, my brain had already checked out. Sub-plots go unresolved, plot devices are under used, and the film is a bust. “Death to the Tinman” has enough ideas and potential to spin the story into a fun and original direction on the character, but it’s really just stilted, scattered in story and lacking in the acting element.
