Director: Nicholas Meyer
Cast: Malcolm McDowell, David Warner, Mary Steenburgen, Charles Cioffi
Have I Seen It Before?: Many, many times.
Did I like it?: It’s a solid bet that I’m going to be effusive about anything even tangentially related to Nicholas Meyer, the director of a solid candidate for my favorite film of all time, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982). I have a certain soft spot for Volunteers (1985), and I even find some charm in Company Business (1991), even though Meyer largely disowns the film, and I have a hard time getting through it in one sitting.
But this movie is one for the books. As a zealot of the time travel genre, this is in my personal pantheon. I love it without question. I love it so much that I had no choice but to watch the abortive attempt to make a television series out of the concept several years ago. If I ever make something half as good as this movie, my time in creative endeavors will be well-spent.
And it’s odd, even for the year in which it was released, it has a certain antiquated feel. It has far more in common with a film like The Time Machine (1960) than later films like Back to the Future (1985). It even influenced later films, influencing the casting of Back to the Future Part III (1990) and meriting a reference along with other entries of the genre in Avengers: Endgame (2019).
The films strengths rest in the writing and performances. Meyer is physically unable to produce a script that isn’t thoroughly literate. The film ebbs and flows on the philosophies of H.G. Wells, which is only made more ironic when one considers that with his utopian ideals and gentlemanly manor, he is the idealized Star Trek hero in the Gene Roddenberry mold at the center of a film made by a man who tried to revitalize that same genre with newer and fresher interpretations. It doesn’t hurt that left-over ideas from this film helped fuel the eventual screenplay for Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986).
Malcolm McDowell eschews the hostile icon he made of himself in A Clockwork Orange (1971) in favor of a hero who is comedically overpowered by the proceedings, but will not be obliterated by an uncaring world. David Warner is so quietly effective as the mad Jack that to this day I’m delighted when I see him appear in anything.
If you haven’t watched the film before today, please go make arrangements to view it immediately. We can then keep being friends once that deficiency is rectified.