Reviews

Dennis Hopper and Michael J. Pollard (Doc Tesla) lead a crew of misfit Vietnam veterans highly trained in psychological warfare and armed with a B29 equipped as a flying pirate TV station creating havoc for the broadcast networks and authorities as they fly the country on a crusade to bring radical philosophies and classic audiovisuals to a conservative and media brainwashed viewing public.

On the verge of retirement they are compelled to mount one last campaign to destroy a demographically engineered presidential candidate who would see the country brought to war again.

Extensive explorations into concepts of non-violent defiance of authority and pursuit of justice, questioning conventional morality, exposition of criminal activities in the guise of righteousness by righteous people being classed as criminals by a corrupt establishment, existentialist themes, technology and rock music versus violence and force, nature of religious beliefs, political corruption and post Vietnam issues.

Some excellent 60's and 70's music in the soundtrack. Not to be missed.

A minor masterpiece by any standards, this movie is truly a good introduction to the realms of the weird. A science fiction black comedy that was made as a film school project predominantly by John Carpenter and Dan O'Bannon. Given a greater budget and release by promotional forces it ended up as possibly the most bizarre example of movie making from the early days of the Great Scifi Renaissance of the seventies.

The whole movie is rife with all the design and concepts of both O'Bannon and Carpenter's classic and landmark projects of more recent years. O'Bannon himself acts in one of the leading roles as Pinback, and his solo part of the movie is like a parody of Alien six years ahead of time.

This movie deals heavily with concepts of isolation and "cabin fever", weird depersonalization, radical philosophies versus logical philosophies, strong studies into the human condition in general, humanity's complacency with technology versus technology's complacency with the humanities, alienation and well above average studies in mixed morality.

N.B. I have heard that due to frictions with "The Establishment" John Carpenter experienced, that it is never wise to even mention the movie to him in polite company. This is an unfortunate thing.

Bruce Dern plays yet another brilliantly typecast role as a dedicated environmentalist with tendencies toward extreme mania blasted out into space with the last remnants of nature from an industrialised earth. You've got a grab-bag of mixed morality issues, shades all the way from total complacency to total active expressions of determnation, alienation due to convictions, atonement and acceptance of fate.

Filmed inside an actual decomissioned battleship named Valley Forge, notable castmembers included as "The Drones" were amputees who walked on their hands inside the little robot costumes giving a baffling lifelike effect for creating these very integral parts of the plot.

This film is interesting in so much as it was directed by Douglas Trumbull, so there was clearly an insistence on excellence of special effects.

I'm still not fully convinced Joan Baez can be seen to fit in to the soundtrack of a film such as this, and sometimes the sound of her voice can be a little alarming to the contemporary viewer. It only happens about twice though so I don't think there should be too much danger to your sensibilities, especially after this warning.

This movie, by definition, must be added to the Essential Viewing list if only to see Marlon Brando in what must be one of his last roles before the actual logistics of transporting him became an insurmountable problem for production. This combined with Val Kilmer as the drug dispensing Montgomery and being filmed in Australia, in addition to the amazing afro/counter rhythm strong sound track demands it a place in the realm of essential viewing. I feel confident that H.G. Wells would approve of the rewrite of his material too, in concept at least. Notable studies in concepts of ethics and mixed moralities.