Subject: Retrospective: The Time Machine (1960)

From: "Dragan Antulov" <[email-masked]>
Date: 25 Feb 1999 06:02:23 GMT

THE TIME MACHINE
A Film Review
Copyright Dragan Antulov 1999

One of the most popular subplots in the entire science
fiction genre is time travel. That concept, although many
purists doubt its scientific credentials, spawned many
interesting novels, comic books and films in the last
century. However, the big grand-daddy of time travels, H.G.
Wells' novel THE TIME MACHINE, wasn't written with the
intention to speculate about that concept or its
consequences. The author, H.G. Wells merely used it as a
convenient way to express his socialist views and condemn
the great social gap between the rich, idle capitalist class
and impoverished labour. Whatever intentions Wells had, the
future generations of readers were less impressed by his
political messages. Instead they were fascinated by the idea
that the strange new worlds could be explored without
traveling trough space. The novel became one of great
classics of science fiction genre and it natural for
filmmakers to use it as inspiration. First of them was
George Pal, who in 1960 directed film which would, through
the years, become genre classic of its own.

The plot revolves about George (Rod Taylor), Victorian
scientist who discovered the way to travel through the
fourth dimension - time. At the eve of the new 20th Century,
George gathers his friends in order to present them his
invention - machine that would enable him to travel through
time. They are skeptical, but that doesn't prevent George
from carrying out his plan and traveling into the future. At
first, he travels slowly, seeing London as it changes
through the years and three world wars. Finally, after
witnessing World War Three, he travels far into the future,
hoping that he would cease to witness wars and senseless
destructions. When he finally reaches year 802,701 AD, at
first glance, new world looks like utopia - humanity
consists of young, beautiful, but idle Eloi, people who are
fed, clothed and taken care of by unseen machines. But,
Weena (Yvette Mimieux), Eloi woman, tells George about
another side of the coin - in the night, her people is
preyed upon by Morlocs, humanoid creatures from the
underworld.

THE TIME MACHINE became the cinematic classic for the very
same reason the novel became the classic in science fiction
literature - the fantastic concept was a brilliant way for
the authors to talk about burning issues and fears of their
respective times. For H.G. Wells it was frightening threat
of class struggle; for George Pal and his screenwriter David
Duncan, who produced the film in the worst days of the Cold
War, it was the constant and more imminent threat of nuclear
holocaust, underlined with the negative references to war
throughout the movie. Even the modern audience, which would
be tempted to discard the film as old-fashioned, could find
some values in its universal messages, fit for each era.
Compared with the genre films of today, THE TIME MACHINE is
even better, and could serve as a good example how to make
intelligent, thought-provoking films.

Of course, since this is Hollywood product after all, THE
TIME MACHINE delivers such concepts in the form of classic
adventure, sometimes sacrificing plausibility for the sake
of attractiveness. For example, it is hard to imagine that
someone would be able to understand perfect English million
years in future; same is with Morlocs degenerating into
mutant monsters, while Eloi remain undistinguished from the
people of today. Some of the final scenes, that turn
Victorian scientist into an action superhero, are also
rather unconvincing. But, on the other hand, the film is
very well directed, cleverly paced and the special effects,
although definitely old-fashioned, are more than adequate
for this kind of picture. The acting is good, with Rod
Taylor in one of his most remembered roles, while in the
same time Alan Young brings rather memorable performance as
George's trusted friend Filby. Yvette Mimieux, who plays
Weena, on the other hand, would be remembered more by her
looks than by the complexity of her role. However, despite
all those flaws, THE TIME MACHINE is a very good piece of
cinema, something that connoisseurs of quality
science-fiction films sorely miss these days.

RATING: 7/10 (+++)

Review written on February 23rd 1999

--
Dragan Antulov a.k.a. Drax
Fido: 2:381/100
E-mail: [email-masked]
E-mail: [email-masked]
E-mail: [email-masked]