The machines have already taken over. Think about it. You wake up in the morning and check your phone, possibly before you even get out the bed. You have it attached to your person all day long and consult it before making any major decisions, or for directions to your next destination. When you get to work, there's a decent chance you do the majority of things with the help of another computer. For far too many of us, if our wi-fi goes down, at work or at home, the Earth stops spinning until it comes back up. I mean, YouTube was down for a bit yesterday and you would've thought someone dropped a nuke on us. And I haven't said anything of our reliance on simpler machines. Our mobility is completely tied to the whims of planes, trains, and automobiles. They've won. We're all just waiting on them to figure out we're no longer needed and go about the business of exterminating us.
I'm okay...
I'm okay...
I just need a minute...
Okay, okay, okay...
This week's topic for Thursday Movie Picks hosted by Wandering Through the Shelves is...um...technology.
The Car
(1977)
A huge and mysterious Lincoln Continental suddenly shows up and terrorizes a lazy country town by running over anyone in its path. And no one's actually driving, at least no one human. Of course, this means there's lots of figuring how to stop it. However, there's also plenty of the eponymous car wreaking havoc. That makes this campy, craptacular fun. (Full Review)
Videodrome
(1983)
Max (James Woods) is a program director for a network that resides way down at the end of the dial. And he will put just about anything on the air. He gets hold of what's said to be series of snuff tapes and wants to find out if it's real or not before he televises it. This leads him down a rabbit hole where he gets closer to that videotape than he ever thought possible. For my money, this is David Cronenberg's twisted, satirical, and insightful masterpiece. (Full Review)
The Day After
(1983)
Back in the 80s, the technology we all feared most was the nuclear bomb. Since the Cold War threatened to heat up at any moment, it seemed entirely possible that launch codes would be put into use. In the midst of all this came a television movie showing us what it could be like the day after a nuclear strike and the entire world was shook to its core. And I'm not even kidding. It's airing was one of the most widely watched shows in the history of television. A huge part of the reason was that many kids all over the country, including yours truly, had to watch this for homework so we could discuss it the next day in school. I haven't watched it since, and I'm not sure I want to.
I've always wanted to see The Car as I first heard about from Guillermo del Toro when he did that opening credits sequence for an episode of The Simpsons. I've never seen The Day After but I heard it was a total jerk-off of a film for its time. Videodrome is of course a classic though I often wonder which film of Cronenberg's is the best as I went on a theme within a theme for my pick.
ReplyDeleteThe Car is a glorious mess while The Day After is a total downer. As far as I'm concerned Videodrome is Cronenberg's best by a wide margin.
DeleteI haven't seen your other picks but we match on Videodrome! What you mentioned about our phones. I think Black Mirror put it best: "These things absorb who we are. They know everything about us." Freaky, but I can't give mine up.
ReplyDeleteYes! They do know everything...EVERYTHING about us! And none of us can truly give them up.
DeleteI'm hating myself so much for not thinking of Videodrome. That film is so brilliant! I haven't seen the others but I picked a movie with a car too, Christine.
ReplyDeleteI almost went with Christine and Maximum Overdrive for a little theme within a theme action, but chickened out.
DeleteTHE CAR!!!! What a piece of Limburger cheese that is! But fun in it's low-budget nonsensical way. I remember when it came out, it was James Brolin's attempt to salvage his big screen career after the high profile fiasco of Gable & Lombard which he made while he was co-starring on Marcus Welby, M.D. the year before. It was supposed to have made megastars out of Jill Clayburgh and he but it was such a sorry fictitious mess all it ended up doing was insulting the memories of two truly great stars, Clark Gable and Carole Lombard, and laying an enormous egg at the box office. That The Car was the best he was being offered after says alot about just how badly it wrecked his chances.
ReplyDeleteI haven't seen Videodrome in so long I barely recall any of it but it fits well.
The Day After is a sobering, terribly, terribly sad document. Brilliantly acted but so soul suckingly depressing, I've only watched it the once as well.
I thought this would be harder to come up with three than it happily turned out to be. My three just popped right into my head, it's been the easy week of October so far.
Frankenstein (1931)-Dr. Henry Frankenstein (Colin Clive) of whom it might be generously said has a screw or two loose attempts with the latest technology to create life by assembling a creature from body parts of the dead in his laboratory deep within the walls of his remote castle. Assisted by the loyal, deformed Fritz (Dwight Frye), he succeeds in bringing his monster (Boris Karloff) to life in florid fashion. However, trouble is brewing when the confused and traumatized monster escapes into the countryside and begins to wreak havoc. Iconic and seminal film impressively director by James Whale, with a touching performance by Karloff, set the standard for all horror movies to follow.
Demon Seed (1977)-Susan Harris (Julie Christie) and her husband Dr. Alex Harris (Fritz Weaver) a renowned scientist live in a home he has modified to be run by voice-activated computers. Dr. Harris has also developed Proteus IV, an extremely advanced and autonomous artificial intelligence program. When Harris becomes disturbed by Proteus’s demands to be let "out of this box". Harris switches off the communications link but Proteus restarts itself, constructs a robot takes control of the house and traps Susan inside. Object: impregnate Susan to assume human form. Strange, unsettling sci-fi based on a Dean Koontz novel is strengthened by having a talent like Julie Christie in the lead.
Tron (1982)-Young computer engineer Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) discovers that his work is being stolen by one of his company’s executives-Ed Dillinger (David Warner). He attempts to hack the system but something goes awry and Flynn is transported into the digital world, facing off against Dillinger's computerized likeness, Sark, and the imposing Master Control Program. Aided by Tron (Bruce Boxleitner) and Yori (Cindy Morgan), Flynn fights a technological battle for control. Though the graphics are wildly dated now they were cutting edge when this was released.
I love The Car for all its nuttiness, but to think THAT was supposed to be his big comeback vehicle is hilarious, pun intended. To be fair, Brolin wasn't totally washed up. A couple years later, he was a major part of The Amityville Horror.
DeleteFrankenstein, and the even better, Bride of Frankenstein are two movies I toyed with choosing before deciding not to. I love both of those.
I've never seen Demon Seed, and to be honest, I'm not a big fan of Tron. Part of the reason it doesn't work for me is because I only saw it for the first time around 25 years after its initial release. The once-revolutionary visuals had become terribly dated and all I was left with was a weird, poorly executed story.
Ya, Tron is a very different viewing experience today than it was when it came out. I saw it in the theatre back in the day and it was so of the minute but like all technology everything about it has aged immeasurably. We're talking a period where IF you had a "cellular" phone it was bigger than a troop walkie-talkie that basically required a bag to carry around! I tried to watch it a while ago and felt similarly to you, my only real takeaway this time was how young Jeff Bridges was in it.
DeleteBrolin did have that one movie high with Amityville but then it was straight back to TV. Not that that's a bad thing he's had a long successful career there but I know he was being touted as The Next Big Thing in film until G&L came out. I'm sure it was also kind of tough to watch Jill Clayburgh just slough off the disaster going directly into megahits Silver Streak, Semi-Tough, An Unmarried Woman and Starting Over one right after the other and receiving Oscar nominations for the last two while he was making junk like Steel Cowboy and High Risk.
Ughh Gable and Lombard is horrible but I like schlock so I have seen it since then. Brolin really wanted the career his son got.
DeleteI haven't even heard of Gable and Lombard. You guys have me curious about how bad it is, lol. And Brolin's son really got the far better career.
DeleteI still have to see The Car and Christine...speaking of cars. Have you ever seen Duel with Dennis Weaver? That is excellent and for camply crap there is Dozer-some unseen force inhabits a bulldozer and starts a killing rampage. I watched a TV show about cars and one guy wanted his car to look like The Car and he got his wish..weird. The Day After...I watched this with my dad and I might be naive but, even though nuclear fallout would kill the lot of us, I think we would still be alive and not in a Mad Max kind of way. That movie was so depressing and pessimistic, I still hear my dad yelling at the TV. I have yet to see Videodrone and might one day.
ReplyDeleteYes, The Duel is a very fun movie. Haven't seen Dozer, but that sounds craptacular. The Day After is oppressive, to say the least, but it hovered over my childhood. Had to pick it.
DeleteThat piece of drivel which Dell has rightly termed Craptacular is inventively (not) named Killdozer! And it is just as cheesy and low rent as you would imagine but happily you don't have to wonder because it's on YouTube! Here's the link: Enjoy or suffer at your leisure. :-)
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=1r3y-SRsNPI
Kildozer! Yup that’s it...hahahahaaa...so bad
DeleteMissed this post.
ReplyDeleteIf you think The Day After is a downer, you should hunt down the British version, Threads or the other British version, The War Game.
They're even sadder? Don't know if I can handle that.
DeleteI haven't seen any of you picks.
ReplyDeleteI think I may have heard of The Day After from one of those docuseries about the top 80s things.
It's a doozy.
DeletePlenty of great movies about computers have come out since these smart machines began playing such a huge role in humans' lives. Filmmakers have created fictional, factual and documentary-style movies about artificial intelligence, gaming, hacking, online communications, programming, viruses, web sites and other subjects relating to computers. Even films about war and supernatural themes have focused on computers.
ReplyDelete