A group of dwarfs confined in an institution on a remote island rebel against the guards and director (all dwarfs as well) in a display of mayhem. The dwarfs gleefully break windows and dishes, abandon a running truck to drive itself in circles, engineer food fights and cock fights, set fire to pots of flowers, kill a large pig, torment some blind dwarfs, and crucify a monkey.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Even_Dwarfs_Started_Small

LOL

Sounds like MST3K material. :D

Fuck yeah, early Herzog. Not one of my favorites of his, but definitely a strange and fascinating film. It's fun to see different people's reactions to it and theories on it -- some see it as an allegory about the futility of revolution, some think it's anti-war or anti-religion, some people just think it's funny as hell, and others view it as simply a disgusting exploitation film disguised as arthouse fare. Notable as one of the few films from that time that managed to offend both hippies and the religious right.

Personally I find it pretty impenetrable, impossible to categorize, and alternately hilarious and disturbing. But one thing is for sure, it's a fucking unique film experience, nothing else like it even within Herzog's oeuvre (although Crispin Glover's recent "What Is It?" is similar in some ways, and certainly heavily influenced by it).

Herzog is unique among the New German Cinema directors in that he never studied film at all, and in fact never even saw a movie until he was nearly a teenager -- almost totally self-taught, and the bizarre, raw quality of his early work reflects this, though it is by no means amateurish. Particularly during the '70s, he had a talent for showing the absurdity of human existence in a way that you don't often see in the frequently heavy-handed Euro art films from this period, and this is very apparent in Even Dwarfs Started Small.

A vicious indictment of society, and necessary viewing for any totsean worth their salt.

Sounds like MST3K material. :D

Not at all. And it's kind of hard to make fun of a film that makes fun of itself.