Duration: 94 minutes
Film Quality: 3.5/5
Gore Content: 3.5/5
Entertainment Value:4/5
Originality: 2/5
Introduction
When music video director Richard Stanley managed to get funding to adapt one of his own short films into a full blown feature, not many people took notice. Seemingly based on a 2000AD story called ‘SHOK!’ (certainly, that's what the courts found), and featuring a few ‘past their prime’ rock stars and barely recognisable bit part actors, it didn’t exactly spark a wave of expectation. However, word of mouth praise, a decent cinema run and a resurgence during a VHS release that was shrouded in controversy resulted in an unexpected cult hit that has been called everything from derivative and crass to original and brilliant.
In a nutshell
A drifter picks up some scrap metal which winds up in the hands of a reclusive sculptress who lives in a tower block and immediately uses it as the centrepiece of a new artistic endeavour. But when the parts begin to fuse themselves back together, her apartment becomes a battleground between man and machine…but who will be the winner?
So what’s good about it?
It is a triumph of style over content. The main criticism of the film is that it’s derivative but it comes across as a mosaic of clashing styles and a rehash of key cult movie plot points, almost post-modern. Stanley’s background in music videos is there for all to see as the film very much breaks down into over-stylised, five minute segments and quick fire editing that is an assault on the senses and exhilarating to watch. Just watch the death of Moses which is almost surreal in its drug induced depiction, slap bang in the middle of a whacking great action set piece – a clash of styles! What Stanley lacked in budget and backing, he makes up for in sheer enthusiasm and drive to turn in a film that is wholly professional looking and beautiful in its destructive vision.
Stanley bathes the entire film in a reddish orange glow, explained away as radiation tinged smog, and plunges us into a multicultural London where the dredges of society scavenge and live off each other. Deserts surround the city, you get the sense that the higher classes live elsewhere (although this is never shown) whilst the authorities close in on the lower classes and keep them in line through fear and poverty and is very reminiscent of ‘Blade Runner’ in this respect. It’s far from a fully realised universe but it has conviction and again, Stanley (who by his own admission says it’s one of the worst scripts he’s written) makes the most of the clunky screenplay with stunning visuals.
It has some excellent effects and is, at times, a very violent film that landed itself in a certain amount of trouble in some territories, most notably the US. The practical robot effects are also impressive, especially considering Stanley wanted to employ stop motion, eventually falling back on robotics to the film’s advantage. I’m sure that the fact that the film is dark and very claustrophobic in its setting (90 percent of the film takes place in Jill’s modest apartment) certainly work in the effects team’s favour by papering over the cracks and favouring the close up shot but, by and large, it’s all done very well. It’s a credit to the entire cast and crew that they were able to turn in a film this impressive looking for less than a million pounds!
A quick word about the soundtrack as well…it is seriously loud and perfectly in keeping with its cyberpunk tendencies! Any film that manages to include almost the entirety of Ministry’s ‘Stigmata’ is okay in my book and it also features key music by Motorhead and Iggy Pop…in fact Lemmy and Pop have minor roles as a cab driver and shock jock respectively.
What about the bad?
As mentioned above. It’s a triumph of style over substance and to say it is derivative of other work is putting it mildly. The film got itself into trouble for its comparison to 2000AD’s ‘SHOK!’ story, so much so that a lawsuit was filed and the producers had to give the writers of that particular story (Steve McManus and Kevin O’Neill) and publisher Fleetway Publications a credit in the film’s titles. There are clear nods to the work of Ridley Scott, James Cameron, Isaac Asimov, Harlan Ellison and Philip K.Dick as well as stylistic nods to Dario Argento, Richard Fleischer and David Cronenberg. The script is stripped to the bone with very little memorable dialogue, clearly a mannequin on which to display Stanley’s rich tapestry of visuals.
Any themes?
(Spoiler alert)The class system is very apparent through suggestion and the robot is central to this. Referred to as M.A.R.K. 13, one of the characters figures out that the robot is a form of population control that is to be administered in the form of human genocide…”No flesh shall be spared”. It is announced on the radio the morning after the film’s main event that the government has approved the M.A.R.K. 13 programme for mass production, indicating that events could have been some sort of elaborate test. Sci-fi has used this theme several times before and since, with technology bringing about genocide on the lower classes from authoritarian regimes. This makes it an ultimately cautionary tale about what can happen when technology gets out of control in the wrong hands when weighed up against the value of human life.
Release History
It had a hard time on release, particularly in the United States and Australia where it was heavily cut to receive an ‘M’ and ‘R’ rating respectively. Much of the gore, particularly the extremely graphic doorway decapitation and the death of Moses which features explicit close ups of chainsaw eviscerations were drastically shortened. There was also a minor scene cut from the theatrical version for most VHS releases, an hallucination experience by Mo during his psychedelic death scene that features him reading from the bible whilst a veil is drawn over him.
It was a long time before it received a DVD release due to issues over who owned the rights which meant that we had to wait until 2009 for a special edition to come out. UK audiences came out pretty well from the VHS era for a change…we got an uncut version from the very start which was released in a widescreen print without fanfare, even on budget label 4-Front.
Cultural Impact
Unfortunately, it’s a case of what could have been. Richard Stanley clearly demonstrated that he had considerable talent and followed up ‘Hardware’ with an astounding mystical horror road movie, ‘Dust Devil’. The film was completely ruined by studios who butchered it, Stanley claiming that there’s a version out there that runs just 67 minutes, compared to the director’s cut which runs 105 minutes (there’s also a version with no post production, in other words it was released unfinished which ran 120 minutes). The DC contained huge amounts of back story and mysticism that US audiences didn’t get to see, resulting in a confusing mess of a movie that tanked.
He then got a shot at a big budget with ‘The Island of Dr Moreau’, during which producers were dissatisfied at the direction the film was taking and the quality of the dailies, firing him just days into production. The film was troubled from the start with personal issues for actors (particularly Val Kilmer according to reports), studio interference and all manner of disputes. It’s heart breaking to know that Stanley had spent years developing this only for it to fall apart in a matter of days for reasons almost totally beyond his control. He later appeared to suffer some kind of breakdown, never directing another feature film. A real shame for such a promising talent to have the enthusiasm clearly displayed in his first two films beaten out of him.
Final thoughts
What it lacks in originality it more than makes up for in individual talent thanks to the sheer bloody mindedness of Stanley’s insular vision and outward talent. A cult classic and one of the few films genuinely deserving of the term ‘cyperpunk’ (or even splatterpunk!) it’s a highly imaginative merging of ideas and styles that, whilst dated by a moment in time and indebted to other, superior films, is still more than satisfying to watch.
Memorable Quotes
Shades (as the robot plummets out of a window): “I hope it didn’t hit anyone.”
Lincoln: “Oh we all walk, the wibberly-wobberly walk.”
Angry Bob “And the good news is…there is no f@cking good news!”
Jill: “This your population control.”
You’ll like this if you enjoyed…
‘The Terminator’, ‘Soylent Green’, ‘Westworld’, ‘Saturn 3’
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