BEFORE: Woody Allen takes a stab at sci-fi tonight - this one sort of feels half-familiar, but since I may have watched a scene or two while dubbing it to DVD, I can't be 100% sure. Better to err on the side of caution and watch it, I can always stop if it feels too familiar and move on to the next film.
THE PLOT: A nerdish store owner is revived out of cryostasis into a future world to fight an oppressive government.
AFTER: Even though it can hardly be considered big-budget sci-fi, I have to regard this as a ground-breaking film, the Rip Van Winkle-like story no doubt inspired "Idiocracy" and "Futurama".
I feel like I'm coming around to Woody Allen's dry sense of humor. There were several lines in this film that made me laugh out loud, which was unnecessary since I usually watch films by myself. But soon I'll be entering Woody's more serious phase, with films like "Interiors" and "September", so I'm going to have to make an adjustment in a few days.
Here Woody plays Miles Monroe, who ran a health-food store in Greenwich Village in 1973, and he's frozen and thawed out in 2173, to find that wheat germ and kale are banned substances, and that fat, hot fudge and tobacco are now considered healthy. This sort of reversal was funny then, and is still funny now. Think of how many times the FDA has flip-flopped on eggs - cholesterol is bad, but protein is good, so we should all eat eggs, but not too many. Jeez, make up your minds! What can you say about a character who, after realizing he's been asleep for 200 years, does not think "Wow, what wonders will I discover in this future society?" but rather says, "My friends are all dead, and my rent is 2,000 months overdue!"
Miles is first regarded as an expert on the 1970's, and since a lot of information was apparently destroyed in the great war, his assistance is needed in figuring out who Josef Stalin and Charles De Gaulle were - we slowly come to realize that the future U.S. is something of a totalitarian state, which is probably why they need to know more about Stalin. This is also a chance for Woody to get in a couple digs at Richard Nixon's expense - in fact, one could see this whole future as a reaction to Watergate, as the government is all-powerful, but also completely inept.
And sex in the future involves getting into a machine called an Orgasmatron, and although we can't see the process, we can assume that somehow that machine causes a sexual response almost instantly, allowing the busy people in the future to get back to their lives sooner. I can't help but think of the way sex was depicted in "Barbarella", released 5 years earlier, in which two people take pills and touch their fingers together, eliciting a near-instant sexual release.
This is my last film for February, so any more examination of romance in Woody's films means the topic is going into extra innings... I spent so much time getting to these, there's no way I'm delaying the others until next year.
Also starring Diane Keaton (last seen in "Play it Again, Sam"), John Beck (last seen in "Rollerball"), with cameos from Howard Cosell (last seen in "Bananas"), and the voice of Jackie Mason.
RATING: 5 out of 10 robot butlers
No comments:
Post a Comment