The Big Shave is a short experimental film directed by Martin Scorsese in 1967, which has been interpreted by many as an allegory for the Vietnam War. The film begins with a close-up shot of an immaculate, white-tiled bathroom. A young man dressed in a crisp white shirt enters, presumably for a routine shave.
The film then shows several shots of the man shaving, each time with more intensity and aggressive strokes. As he finishes, he notices a small cut on his cheek and proceeds to make increasingly violent and reckless attempts to remove it. Blood begins to gush from his face as he destroys his skin with the razor.
As the camera zooms out, we see that the once spotless bathroom is now covered in a thick layer of blood, with the man standing in the middle, covered in his own blood. The final shot shows the words "The End" written in blood across the screen.
Although the film has no dialogue, the images of the blood-soaked bathroom and the man's violent shaving have been interpreted as a comment on the senseless violence of the Vietnam War. The white, sterile bathroom represents America's idealized image of itself, while the blood-filled room reveals the brutal reality of war. The film's abrupt ending with the words written in blood suggest a grim resolution and the idea that the ultimate cost of war is written in the blood of its victims.