Colossus: The Forbin Project (1970)
This was a favorite of my grandfather’s, who was fascinated by technology in general but computers in particular. It’s taken on something of a cult status over the years for its prescient take on the dangers of AI and man’s tendency to rush blindly along in the name of progress, only stopping to consider the consequences once it’s too late. That following grew recently thanks to an online conspiracy theory when the film became hard to find on home video, the implication being that the powers-that-be in the AI world were trying to bury it lest we awaken to our plight.
So it was with great curiosity that I finally sat down to watch the Blu-Ray. Overall I found it well-done, if a bit bleak thematically. The effects work that went into the massive Colossus mainframe itself was very impressive for the time (or to be fair, even by modern standards), the performances were solid and the score was okay. Most of the action occurs in the same few sets: a control room, Forbin’s quarters and a White House War Room that looks more like the NASA flight center. But they do get the most out of a rented helicopter and a brief side trip to Italy.
Looking back on this film more than a half century later, it’s kind of funny to see Colossus depicted literally, taking up the better part of an entire mountain, where today it’d be more of a “hive mind” with nodes spread out across the globe. In one scene, Colossus and its Russian counterpart Guardian attempt to reestablish a connection when their creators break the first, and one can’t help thinking it would take all of a microsecond today, when they could also reach a few million other computers, toasters, refrigerators and fish tanks along the way. Much is made of the invasion of privacy that comes with constant video surveillance, while today of course we’ve all willingly signed that right away with a million hastily scrolled-through Terms and Conditions. At one point, Colossus throws a fit when it can’t find its maker Dr Forbin, whereas today there’s nowhere on Earth he could go that the computer’s eyes couldn’t follow, least of all the public park in Rome where he’s gone. But if filmmakers in 1970 could only imagine a bigger computer, instead of one spread out across the globe like a spider web, they do get brownie points for imagining the scenario at all. Anyway a city-sized computer makes for better visuals, and judging by the size of the data centers scarring today’s landscape, maybe they weren’t so far off on the “colossal” part after all.
Was this the first film portrayal of the coming “Singularity”? It feels like a prequel to The Terminator, only more cerebral and chilling.
Eric Braeden (nee Hans-Jörg Gudegast) does a tremendous job, here. It’s anyone’s guess why he didn’t end up having a bigger career in films, though I guess he’s done well enough for himself with television work, and still looks amazing.
Joe Sargent does a good job with direction. I only knew him from a Star Trek episode, but it looks like he also did “Sybil” and the “The Manions of America” mini-series that brought Pierce Brosnan to the US, pre- Remington Steele.
Anyway, a good if unsettling film from the days when SF was more about ideas than spectacle.
