H.G. Wells - Things to Come
by William Cameron Menzies
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Cedric Hardwicke, Edward Chapman, Margaretta Scott, Ralph Richardson, Raymond MasseyDirector: William Cameron Menzies
Brand: Image Entertainment
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Black & White, DVD-Video, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 97 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2001-02-27
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Image Entertainment
Movie Reviews of H.G. Wells - Things to Come
Movie Review: More interesting than entertaining
Summary: 3 Stars
Calling the acting stiff would be an understatement, and no one in the movie ever says anything - everyone declaims, and in bold, often stentorian tones. Every point made in the movie is made with the subtlety of a jackhammer. To modern ears the result is vaguely ridiculous, and sometimes irritating.
Like everyone else in his era, Wells was a great deal too optimistic about the Wonders of Science (the capitals are essential). But the movie made a lot of good points and Wells clearly made a handful of good guesses. He foresaw European war (even if he clearly had no idea what the battle lines would be drawn over), and anticipated germ warfare, non-lethal crowd control, and the general "scaling up" of science. Even where he was wrong (his ideas on spaceflight were unworkable, his apparently fond hopes for an uprising of scientists and engineers unlikely) the guesses were interesting. (Whoever it was that dreamed up the movie's clothing fashions for the far future era, though, was out to lunch.)
I can't imagine the impact that would have had on a 30's audience. It was probably little short of mind blowing. Watching it with that in mind makes it worthwhile. And some of the sets were fascinating, providing eye candy for when when the actors aren't quite holding up their end. If you like sci-fi at all, worth a rental.
Summary of H.G. Wells - Things to Come
One of the most important science fiction films of all time, H.G. Wells's "Things to Come" opens prior to World War II and takes the viewer on a hundred-year time trip to 2036 A.D. when a man and a woman are rocketed to the moon. This inspired saga predicts television, jet planes and evil dictators. Featuring fabulous sets, a rich musical score and sweeping visual grandeur, "Things to Come" is a truly spectacular film event! Features a pristine new film-to-video transfer from original source materials.Based on H.G. Wells's speculative meditation on the price of progress, this 1936 English science-fiction epic shows the painterly touch of director William Cameron Menzies, an American whose career in art direction and production design, as well as uncredited directorial work, attached him to such visual triumphs as Gone with the Wind, Alexander Korda's sumptuous 1940 Thief of Baghdad, and Menzies's better-known SF achievement as director, the original Invaders from Mars. Things to Come traces a generational saga that begins, presciently, with a global war that outlives its own political purpose, unraveling society to a Balkanized world of isolated communities. In the wake of a subsequent, devastating plague, a new technocracy arises, evolving toward Menzies's striking vision of vast, subterranean cities, rendered in matte paintings building on then-contemporaneous art-deco "streamlined" aesthetics. Driven more by theme than plot, Things to Come lacks the sheer momentum of other Wells classics brought to film (The Invisible Man, War of the Worlds, and The Time Machine, among them); but Menzies's bold look and a strong cast including Raymond Massey, Ralph Richardson, Cedric Hardwicke and a young Ann Todd explain the film's enduring appeal. --Sam Sutherland
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