Print the Legend (2014)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2014
	Director: Luis Lopez, J. Clay Tweel
	Actors: Chris Anderson, Bruce Bradshaw, Craig Broady
	Country: USA
	Genre: Documentary
	Conditions of visioning: 03.04.2015, SD VOD, 11" computer screen
Synopsis: A brief History of 3D printing at home, from early concepts to the current status of the market.
Review: When reviewing a documentary it is always difficult to differentiate between the interest of the topic (which should not enter into account in the rating, or not much) and  the way it is told (i.e. the talent and originality of the documentary crew which should be rated). I think in the past I have overrated documentaries like Side by Side  and Visions of Light because I found the topic fascinating. I have now realised that and rated for example Life Itself more fairly, because the topic interested me a  lot (well, this is why I chose to watch documentaries in the first place) but the telling of this story has nothing exceptional. For once, I can say that the message in Print the Legend is more interesting than the story used to carry it: Indeed we follow mainly two start-up companies in the field of 3D printing (i.e. manufacturing in your home any small object based on its computer design). Since recently (about two years) it is said that this technology bears an enormous potential and that in no time everybody will have such printer at home. The documentary shows the evolution of this field in the past five years since prototypes were built, the companies funded (one of them with more than 2 Million $ against 100 000 expected on Kickstarter), their industrial giant concurrent companies responded, conflicts divided the companies' founders, and different applications are debated: robot-arm for children vs. 3D printed guns. It is interesting that the documentary relates this story while we don't know yet what will the future bring to this technology, but where it is very strong is in using this example to draw a sad image of the American Dream, i.e. developing a project (usually a company) to reach the highest success after starting from nothing. The documentary shows examples of the untold consequences of reaching this dream: being unable to deliver what you promised, entering in conflict with your co-founders to the point of  becoming the only CEO after loosing them even as friends (didn't I see that also in The Social Network?), selling out your dreams and beliefs, becoming a tyrant at work, abusing of your employees. Someone tells in the documentary that everybody has read the biography from Steve Jobs, and they think it gives them the right to become assholes at work. I find in general very extreme the way young entrepreneurs not only want to succeed but want to succeed a lot and become extremely rich instead of simply succeeding in life (nowadays the dream career is to become very rich very quickly by inventing a killer app), and that they want to do it as quickly as possible (the start-up concept) and don't take a lifetime to build their company. Finally at the end of the documentary, it seems to me that not so many 3D printers are sold, but that simply the concept generates a lot of virtual money and attracts investors, i.e. makes money with money and not yet with a valuable product.
Rating: 7 /10