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Fatal systems error >> Colossus: The Forbin Project runs the paranoia program
by RUPERT BOTTENBERG
Here's the flowchart: American scientist invents megacomputer. Megacomputer is sealed in impenetrable bunker. President inaugurates megacomputer. Soviets announce their own "electronic brain." Two megacomputers hook up of their own will. Americans and Soviets sever megacomputers' contact. Megacomputers launch a couple of nukes--to make a point, y'know? Americans and Soviets hook 'em back up, but fast. The megacomputer elects its inventor, Dr. Forbin, as liaison between itself and the (defective, unreliable, autotoxic) human species. Like a spoiled child, Colossus demands round-the-clock attention from its "daddy," making him the bearer of bad news to his fellow upright monkeys. The machine's calculations dictate that, logically, humans would be better off doing exactly as it instructs. What baby wants, baby gets. The possibility of human submission to our own machines is a theme that's popping up a lot lately, quite noticeably in the world of film--The Matrix and The Thirteenth Floor, for instance. What neither of those films has, though, is the sharp ring of reality so strongly heard here (and in its shinier cousin, 2001, released one year earlier). Colossus isn't an action film--unless guys in suits chainsmoking and rubbing their temples constitutes a white-knuckle thrill ride in your book. Nor was Colossus intended as bubblegum sci-fi fun for the kids--the biggest "name" in the cast is Gordon Pinsent(!), there's not a single bug-eyed monster and the musical score is remarkably downplayed. Moreover, while the art direction rocks in that swank '60s way (dig the vidphones, etc.), this isn't op-art eye candy, either. What Colossus is is a relentless, systematic process, an irreversible domino chain. Given the increasing ubiquity of computer technology in our lives, the film has not only remained relevant but, in fact, become increasingly so. So bring on your vampires, mutants and serial killers. Bring on Joffe's damn Khmer Rouge if you want. I've seen the true face of horror--hell, I'm pounding this article into it right now.
Colussus: The Forbin Project, at Dimension SF at the Imperial on Friday, June 18, 7pm, $5 |
Whenever someone asks me what the scariest damn film I ever done saw might be, I have to hesitate for a moment. On the one hand, there's The Killing Fields, Roland Joffe's examination of Cambodia painted red. That scared the biscuits outta me. On the other hand, though, there's this obscurity from the late '60s called Colossus: The Forbin Project.