 Most
audiences will know this film from the 1984 re-release running at 87 minutes with
a soundtrack by disco king Giorgio (Midnight Express, Flashdance) Morroder.
The music's cack, but Morroder should be thanked for giving modern audiences
a chance to view this hugely influential sci-fi classic and see where George Lucas
got the idea for C3P0 and where Ridley Scott got some of his ideas
for the futuristic Los Angeles in Blade Runner (1982).
 They,
of course, aren't the only fans of this film. Apparently Adolf Hitler was so impressed
by the film - despite its very obviously socialist leanings! - that he got his
propaganda minister Goebbels to offer its director (Fritz Lang) some
kind of high post at his ministry. The legendary German expressionist director
(who detested the Nazis) calmly listened to the proposal, said he would consider
it and was on a plane to permanent exile in America by that evening! Sadly Lang's
wife (who was more enamoured of the Nazis) declined to join him and the role envisaged
for him was probably fulfilled later on by Leni Riefenstahl who gave
Hitler (and the world) propagandistic "classics" such as Triumph of
the Will (1934). After World War II Riefenstahl would claim that she never knew
what the Nazis were on about. Maybe she didn't - but Fritz Lang as
sure as hell did!
Review by James O'Ehley from The
Sci-Fi Movie Page. |
