Things to Come

Dreadful film of things to come. I still have nightmares after viewing this master mess of a film. True, the story tells us of the devastation of war and its aftermath. True, the sets are good and appropriate for what the film is trying to show. However, the writing is very bad and the acting even worse. As the boss, Sir Ralph Richardson gives one of the worst performances on record. It is almost laughable when in reality it is so tragic. As the hero, Raymond Massey is impressive but he is given such poor material to work with. The acting by others is extremely stilted. Cedric Hardwicke as the man against progress is another joke. I thought he was trying to act like a pharaoh-like character as he did 20 years later in "The Ten Commandments." That's a movie, not this piece of trash. While the set decorations were good, is that what Welles thought the world would look like in the 1970s? Who was that woman who played Richardson's wife? She came off as an Amazon, reminding me of Phaedre. Her performance was truly wretched, but so is the rest of the film.

This film starts off with an overlong, documentary style segment about war breaking out. There are a couple of acted scenes but it is mainly a montage of soldiers and headlines declaring war. It is repetitive and goes on for too long. We then have a section about plague which is yet again described to us through headlines with the occasional acted out segment. At this point, we still don't know where the film is going other than to point out the obvious message that war is bad. We then move to an acted segment which is too dumb to talk about. I shall only say that it is appallingly acted with actors pontificating to us about the new order. It is truly crass with the good guys, eg, Raymond Massey coming across as smug and smarmy coz they know best and the bad guys coming across as cartoon characters who are totally unreal. We get another segment about technological progress that endlessly bores us with a montage of machinery. I thought the film was going to finish at this point. Unfortunately not. We go on to a further segment about taking the human species into space which is done in a similarly patronizing style by all the actors involved. You can tell that they are taking this crap seriously and it has the effect of insulting the audience. The script is terrible, the acting is terrible, the characters are confusing and I can't be bothered to remember the story. It is VERY boring. If you enjoy this film, there is something wrong with your brain. That is a fact.

Aside from the great movie METROPOLIS, this is about the oldest pure sci-fi movie. While at times the film is a bit preachy and the acting can be a bit broad, it is a great film for two reasons. First, it is extremely original in both style and content. Even in the 21st century, there are no films I can think of that are anything like it. Second, for its time, the special effects were absolutely incredible--using matte paintings, models and huge casts to create amazing scenes of both a post-apocalyptic world and a vast city of tomorrow. Sure, you could sit back and knock the film because, by today's standards, the effects are only so-so. But, you must appreciate that this was state of the art when the film came out in 1936 and it must have really amazed audiences. In many ways, the sets look highly reminiscent of the "modern cities" featured at the 1939 WORLD'S FAIR. I think the movie is also interesting because it seems torn by the question "are people really THAT stupid or are we destined for greatness?" The end result seems to be a little of both! How true! A final note: I saw this twice on TV and just a short time ago on video. All three times the sound and print quality stank--particularly the sound. If this is available on a DVD, hopefully it is a lot cleaner and will provide optional captioning. As the sound on the video kept cutting out, I really would have appreciated this!

Things to Come is a look into the future from the perspective of the people of 1936. By today's standards and with hindsight, it seems a little corny but to the people of that time, the movie showed what could have been a real possibility. This sci-fi movie shows the horrors of war and the price of progress predicted by a film made in 1936 by eyes that were looking at a world on the brink of World War II. It's a movie that shows what they thought the world would be like if a major war broke out. One good reason for viewing this film is because it shows this perspective, and because it was one of the early serious attempts of a science fiction film that takes a look into the future. For those interested in the history of early sci-fi in the cinema, Things To Come is a must see.