''The Last Dymaxion: Buckminster Fuller’s Dream Restored'' is a 2012

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...

directed by Noel Murphy. about

Buckminster Fuller Richard Buckminster Fuller (; July 12, 1895 – July 1, 1983) was an American architect, systems theorist, writer, designer, inventor, philosopher, and futurist. He styled his name as R. Buckminster Fuller in his writings, publishing more t ...

's 1933

Dymaxion car The streamlined Dymaxion car was designed by American inventor Buckminster Fuller during the Great Depression and featured prominently at Chicago's 1933/1934 World's Fair. Fuller built three experimental prototypes with naval architect Star ...

as well as Fuller himself. The film features

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

Norman Foster Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

, who called the car "an incredibly beautiful aesthetic object" and rebuilt the fourth

from drawings and study of the first three cars. In the film, noted automobile collector

Jay Leno James Douglas Muir Leno (; born April 28, 1950) is an American television host, comedian, writer, and actor. After doing stand-up comedy for years, he became the host of NBC's ''The Tonight Show'' from 1992 to 2009. Beginning in September 2009 ...

calls Buckminster Fuller a genius. Buckminster Fuller's advocacy for humanity permeates the film. Director Noel Murphy said describing "Buckminster Fuller as a car designer would be like describing

Jimi Hendrix James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942September 18, 1970) was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. Although his mainstream career spanned only four years, he is widely regarded as one of the most ...

as a guitar tech". Fuller was a visionary environmentalist; his lightweight teardrop-shaped car spun on three wheels, held a dozen people and was originally meant to run on alcohol fuel. The documentary explores his other green innovations, including his geodesic domes and philosophical approach to architecture.

Story

Exploring Fuller's invention of the

Geodesic Dome A geodesic dome is a hemispherical thin-shell structure (lattice-shell) based on a geodesic polyhedron. The triangular elements of the dome are structurally rigid and distribute the structural stress throughout the structure, making geodesic dom ...

and its innovative structural system, the documentary also examines Fuller's early heavy drinking, expulsion from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

and suicide attempt. In 1927, after Fuller had lost his 4-year daughter due to Polio and had lost his job, he contemplated drowning himself in the freezing waters of

Lake Michigan Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is the second-largest of the Great Lakes by volume () and the third-largest by surface area (), after Lake Superior and Lake Huron. To the east, its basin is conjoined with that o ...

. Fuller reported an "intense mystical experience" realizing he belonged to the universe and could not take his own life.

Production

Filming took place over two years and tells the story of

. The director Noel Murphy traveled to

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

and all over the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, researching, filming and interviewing Jay Leno and Norman Foster. Fuller designed and built three car prototypes shaped like zeppelin and called them

Dymaxion Dymaxion is a term coined by architect and inventor Buckminster Fuller and associated with much of his work—prominently his Dymaxion house and Dymaxion car. Dymaxion, a portmanteau of the words ''dynamic'', ''maximum'', and ''tension''; ...

, short for Dynamic Maximum Tension. The filmmaker, Noel Murphy, a descendant of a

General Motors The General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest automaker in the United States and ...

founder, has spent about $100,000 so far, traveling to Fuller archives and

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

factory sites and interviewing those interested in Fuller. Murphy has acquired Fuller artifacts during his research, including a 1941 photo of a Dymaxion prototype taken just before an unsealed gas cap caused it to catch fire and be destroyed. One Dymaxion prototype survives, and was recently returned to the collection of the

National Automobile Museum The National Automobile Museum is a museum in Reno, Nevada. Most of the vehicles displayed are from the collection of William F. Harrah. The museum opened on November 5, 1989. History William F. Harrah collected approximately 1,450 automobiles, ...

Reno Reno ( ) is a city in the northwest section of the U.S. state of Nevada, along the Nevada-California border, about north from Lake Tahoe, known as "The Biggest Little City in the World". Known for its casino and tourism industry, Reno is the c ...

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...

. Murphy personally took part in the restoration at Crosthwaite & Gardiner, car restorers in

East Sussex East Sussex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England on the English Channel coast. It is bordered by Kent to the north and east, West Sussex to the west, and Surrey to the north-west. The largest settlement in East Su ...

. It had spent years rusting on a farm before ending up at the museum. "Part of the car was destroyed but Bucky’s true legacy was his thinking," the historian Jay Baldwin explains in the documentary.

Screening

The film has been screened at McPherson Museum of Art and History,

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

and Earth Day Cabrillo College.
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Last Dymaxion 2012 films American documentary films 2012 documentary films Documentary films about automobiles Buckminster Fuller 2010s English-language films 2010s American films