Dystopia

In "Alphaville" Jean-Luc Godard has created his vision of a world where technology dominates society. Alpha 60 controls not only how people behave, but also how they think. Free will has been replaced by the cold efficiency of computerized logic, and people no longer ask questions that seek out knowledge (words like "Why" and "Love" have been removed from dictionaries).

Borrowing from other sci-fi sources, this movie is still cool. You know the characters are acting, you know it's fiction, but you can't help but be drawn into their world. The more you realize the artificiality, the deeper you go into it.

Although the uncut version of the film was justly praised, it was the awful "Love Conquers All" version that dominated U.S. screenings. When the film flopped in the U.S., it was its' critical success abroad that brought American critics to the uncut version. In the years since this post-production interference, Brazil has become a cult film, in no small part due to the reputation Gilliam developed as the lone iconoclast who stood up against Hollywood compromise.

That being said, this futuristic vision is a movie now considered a 20th century masterpiece of the imagination, on par with Fritz Lang's Metropolis. Brazil is a "love it or hate it" experience, but whatever your opinion, one can't argue that it's a unique film from an imaginative director. Gilliam's original vision was to extend a view of the future as seen from the past. Just like all of those "Popular Science" magazines in the 40s and 50s which pictured the world we would someday live in coupled with beauracracy. Surely one of the most original films ever made, Terry Gilliam's Brazil remains his most influential work. It's not only a collection of marvelous images, it's a thinking person's movie that has things to say about individualilty.

Shoot a cop
With a gun
The Big Apple is plenty of fun

Stab a priest
With a fork
And you'll spend your vacation in New York

Rob a bank
Take a truck
You can get here by stealing a buck

This is bliss
It's a lark
Buddy, everyone's coming to New York!

No more Yankees
Strike the word from your ears
Spin the roulette
There's no more opera at the Met

This is hell
This is fate
But now this is your world and it's great

So rejoice
Pop a cork
Buddy, everyone's coming to New York!

Mark 13; No Flesh Shall Be Spared

Desert style, post-apocalyptic, cyberpunk horror that one will either love or hate. A former soldier salvaging for scrap brings the head of a robot to his girlfriend to use in her scrap metal sculptures. The gesture is enough to get him through the door and into her bed when we find the robot head is actually an experimental battle robot from a failed "population-control" project.

Hilarity ensues as blood, guts, spit and ass paint the walls in a washed-out-color world. Though at times it becomes a bit tedious and seems to offer no more than visuals, Hardware is still worthy enough for any fans of cyberpunk.

The Road Warrior is a film stripped of its' barest essentials to concentrate almost entirely on its action. Director George Miller and Gibson created the character of Max in 1979's Mad Max, a film that gained an instant cult following. That film wasn't too popular at first in the U.S., hence the name change of the sequel to The Road Warrior instead of the original title Mad Max II. Here we get the best of both worlds; The Western - with the lone horseman wandering into town to the inevitable showdown with the bad guy on a dusty road. The Eastern - with a ronin wandering the countryside trying to find peace in solitude instead finds a small village threatened by bandits, and is only interested in helping for self-preservation. The costume and production designs are bizarre but brilliant. Humungus and his gang are the kinkiest bunch of psycho nomads you'll ever meet, clad in chainmail, leather harnesses and shiny helmets, they look like they've strayed off the set of William Friedkin's Cruising. The good guys meanwhile sport Middle East-meets-Dynasty robes and shoulder pads. Then, of course, there is the action....FANTASTIC.

The Road Warrior is about a drifter who sees no need to disrupt his lifestyle. Once he lost his family in the first movie, nothing else mattered. He took to the roads without a destination. That's the big picture for Mad Max. He doesn't wander around in hopes of finding civilization. He wants to stay as far away from people as possible. The wasteland is a large place, and it's easy to get lost there.

Although Mad Max is often called a post-apocalyptic movie, it really isn't. It is more precisely a dystopian vision of the future, where civil society is under siege by increasing crime and disorder. The vision of future in Mad Max is in many ways similar to that presented in A Clockwork Orange. However, people don't watch or remember Mad Max for its' social commentary. Mad Max is remembered as a great action movie. George Miller directs all the action sequences with a wild, frenetic energy.

I remember how cool of a movie I thought it was as a kid in the theater and, as time goes on and action movies have less heart and originality, this one remains at the top with the best of them. Mad Max is truly a product of the 1970s; a time capsule of fears about rising crime, collapsing legal systems, and oil shortages. It is also an extremely well made low-budget movie. If it pales compared to The Road Warrior, it does so only by the latter's larger budget and more intricately choreographed stunts. Mad Max has an energy, especially in its action sequences, that have only been matched in a handful of movies.

Highly misunderstood when first released, THX 1138 is a chilling exploration of the future and an examination of the present involving breaking away from
a world where thoughts are controlled, freedom is an impossibility and love is the ultimate crime.

It's only fault, in my opinion, is the lack of dialogue and loads of inaudible chatter make it seem like we're watching THX like a frog in a jar. For me, there's enough offered in this movie to rarely acknowledge it.

On the technical side, THX is brilliant in offering cinematography that captures a sterile, sanitized world with layers of sound that reflect the rise of empty consumerism. People are stripped of their individuality by conditioning and drugs into a conformed society encouraged to "buy more".

Changeable. Alterable. Mutable. Variable. Versatile. Moldable. Movable. Fluctuate. Undulate. Flicker. Flutter. Pulsate. Vibrate. Alternate. Plastic.

Battle Royale is one of those films so controversial that its reputation has eclipsed its content. The problem with this kind of public profile is that it focuses all attention on the films' violence, and it is a very gory film. But it's also witty, satirical, engrossing, and thought provoking.

Obviously the concept of school kids murdering their classmates seems tasteless, but Battle Royale handles it with maturity, thanks to the talented directing of Kinji Fukasaku. The kids are forced to become killers, but the movie provides them with interesting personalities and human reactions to the horrible situation in which they find themselves. Throw Takeshi Kitano, great music selection and awesome cinematography into the mix and there you have it.

If you enjoy seventies Dystopian science fiction, you could do a lot worse than to catch this little post-atomic-holocaust story, A Boy and His Dog. I could hardly call myself a Don Johnson fan, but he's not bad as Vic the boy, roaming the wasteland with a most unlikely canine friend. Recommend this one purely for it's oddness and unique approach to the post-nuclear-holocaust story. Nobody would try and remake the film these days without a bloated budget, massive CGI bombed-out cityscapes, mutants and wars, and ten times less charm.

Good cast with Johnson and the dog forming a believable relationship, and a world-weary performance from Jason Robards as the head of the Committee. How many other films can you see Don Johnson hooked up to a machine that is extracting his sperm? Please don't answer...

Very understated drama about the aftermath of a nuclear war. This film is the direct opposite of The Day After and has no flashy special effects, no explosions, scenes of mass devastation and so on. Instead the focus is on an American suburban family which has to contend with the inevitable effects of World War III.

Testament shows very effectively the possible reality of what would have happened to any small town in America if a nuclear attack had happened in the early eighties. Jane Alexander does a great job as the mother trying to keep her family together during the beginning of the end. I would recommend this movie for the serious movie watcher who is looking for more substance and drama from a movie rather than action and suspense. Remember to recycle your batteries.