Things to Come
1936 Directed by William Cameron Menzies
Synopsis
The future is here!
Late 1960 and the world consists of feudal cities after decades of a global war and plague. 2035 and the world has been rebuilt with fantastic technology, but has progress gone to far and has man learned anything.
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My immediate reaction to Things to Come is essentially the same as it was to Avatar - a big budget spectacle with a too-preachy message and a fairly dull story. While I did appreciate the anthological structure to Things to Come, the stories of each of the time periods (present-day war, dystopian fiefdom, and futuristic utopia) were littered with overly dramatic, overly talkie, and overly dry characters that I really couldn't care less about, let alone the sheer horror I felt imagining having these types of people running society. Without a lick of intentional humor and a surprising lack of overt optimism until the end of the last act, the film beats the horrors of war over your head while…
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Quaint vision of the future with some hammy acting, but powerful visuals. The movie is strongest in the beginning. Predating WWII by only a few years, the movie makes some startling predictions that came to pass. But as the movie reaches further into the future, it becomes increasingly silly. I mean from the vantage point of 2013, it's funny to see that the filmmakers imagined 2036 as an underground world full of futuristic sets and man skirts. A world where we haven't even been to space yet. A world where men rail against the evils of "progress" itself. The movie deals in vast, broad strokes where characters speak only in terms of lofty subjects: peace, progress, death. Little is personal in this movie, but how can it be when it bounces from generation to generation so fast? It's a fascinating movie, but not a very affecting one.
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In some respects, this is an Interesting foray into the barbed narcissism of mankind's megalomania. In others it's an exercise in production design.
The dialogue is an afterthought, and the acting is victimized by its own inability to elevate itself out of what seems like a community sponsored stage play where everyone is desperately trying to show their chops ("I AM SHOUTING!" "I AM FURTIVELY LISTENING" "I AM WEARING A CLOAK").
From an academia standpoint it's interesting, but it's also indulgent and boring as hell.
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If we don't end war, war will end us.
-John CabalA flawed masterpiece directed by William Cameron Menzies from an H.G. Wells screenplay which in turn is a loose adaptation of his own novel The Shape of Things to Come. It's said that Wells had unprecedented control over the production of the film. Whether or not that was beneficial to how it was made I'm not sure.
The movie clearly has some wooden performances accompanied by a few instances of pompous diatribes but all that is overshadowed by the scope of the story and it's incredible visuals. We follow the fictitious future history of the world from the years 1940 to 2036 which includes some truly inspired visual montage…
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Sometimes, when I watch an old film like Things To Come, I wonder if I'm being really patronising with my thoughts towards some aspects of it. I even felt patronising calling it an "old film" just then.
By this I mean that I looked at so many things in Things To Come with such utter amazement, always partnering this amazement with thoughts like, "Cor, how could they do that back then? Surely that was impossible! They didn't even have computers back then!" I can't help it. Maybe the makers could have regarded this as a complement to their ingenuity, though, I don't know.
Of course, they got by, on this occasion, on using what they had available and astonishing levels…
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The effects are quite nice, but that's a slim thread of interest to cling to. A turgid affair lacking any subtlety, this movie plods through paper tiger arguments with all the life of the walking dead. Even the novelty of a pro-scientist stance can't make me recommend this for any but the most determined film historians.
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This review reportedly contains spoilers. I can handle the truth.
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Quaint vision of the future with some hammy acting, but powerful visuals. The movie is strongest in the beginning. Predating WWII by only a few years, the movie makes some startling predictions that came to pass. But as the movie reaches further into the future, it becomes increasingly silly. I mean from the vantage point of 2013, it's funny to see that the filmmakers imagined 2036 as an underground world full of futuristic sets and man skirts. A world where we haven't even been to space yet. A world where men rail against the evils of "progress" itself. The movie deals in vast, broad strokes where characters speak only in terms of lofty subjects: peace, progress, death. Little is personal in this movie, but how can it be when it bounces from generation to generation so fast? It's a fascinating movie, but not a very affecting one.
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Taking the card game of Hearts literally
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In some respects, this is an Interesting foray into the barbed narcissism of mankind's megalomania. In others it's an exercise in production design.
The dialogue is an afterthought, and the acting is victimized by its own inability to elevate itself out of what seems like a community sponsored stage play where everyone is desperately trying to show their chops ("I AM SHOUTING!" "I AM FURTIVELY LISTENING" "I AM WEARING A CLOAK").
From an academia standpoint it's interesting, but it's also indulgent and boring as hell.
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William Cameron Menzies' "Things to Come" is a stunning to look at. It rivals Fritz Lang's "Metropolis" with grand sets. It is a shame the film's politics are often murky and when they are decipherable... disturbing.
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Not much of a film, but the set designs are breathtaking.
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The effects are quite nice, but that's a slim thread of interest to cling to. A turgid affair lacking any subtlety, this movie plods through paper tiger arguments with all the life of the walking dead. Even the novelty of a pro-scientist stance can't make me recommend this for any but the most determined film historians.
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Der Film wirkt in seiner Theaterhaftigkeit und dem unverhohlenen Pathos, das in den Dialogen und der Handlung auf die Folgen des unverantwortlichen Krieges hinweist, etwas befremdlich. Wie ein Schultheaterstück, das die Folgen des Krieges in allen Aspekten in 1,5 Stunden auf die Bühne bringen will und wenig Zeit hat für Zwischentöne und unausgesprochene Wahrheiten.
Aus dem Film spricht die Angst, die in den 1930er Jahren - nach den Erfahrungen des 1. Weltkrieges, angesichts des technischen Fortschritts und mit der Konfrontation der Nationen vor Augen - vor dem großen nächsten Krieg herrscht. Waren Kriege vormals auch Gelegenheiten für Heldenmut und schweißten die Menschen zusammen, haben die Menschen bereits im 1. Weltkrieg miterlebt, dass ein mehr und mehr technisierter Krieg nur noch…
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My immediate reaction to Things to Come is essentially the same as it was to Avatar - a big budget spectacle with a too-preachy message and a fairly dull story. While I did appreciate the anthological structure to Things to Come, the stories of each of the time periods (present-day war, dystopian fiefdom, and futuristic utopia) were littered with overly dramatic, overly talkie, and overly dry characters that I really couldn't care less about, let alone the sheer horror I felt imagining having these types of people running society. Without a lick of intentional humor and a surprising lack of overt optimism until the end of the last act, the film beats the horrors of war over your head while…