Customer Reviews

The Terminal Man

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

A brilliant film with superb acting, and an absolutely fascinating exploration of the human brain and its relationship to consciousness and behavior. This is an early work, and represents the author's scientific imagination at its best.

A brilliant film with superb acting, and an absolutely fascinating exploration of the human brain and its relationship to consciousness and behavior. This is an early work, and represents the author's scientific imagination at its best.

Holy nun monkeys is this movie slow! I've seen molasses on concrete move at a rate faster than this. Good storyline (that's because it's based on the Michael Crichton novel) the film it self is just a tad bit dated for the times. The story as I said was good execpt the ending which left me clueless. They obviously changed it from the ending in the novel. I really don't recommend this film to anyone not even the Michael Crichton fans.

One has to wonder, after the success of Westworld which Michael Crichton wrote and directed, why he would allow Mike Hodges to make such a mess of The Terminal Man. At least Crichton had the sense to do his own Coma. The premise of this film is akin to Crichton's ongoing concern with the impersonality that seems to go with advances in medical technology. Here it is believed that surgery can correct violent behaviour, since it is thought that those disposed to violent acts are simply brain damaged. George Segal plays Harry Benson, a computer genius who suffers from "para-epilepsy" which has resulted him in having blackouts with uncontrollable rages. He agrees to surgery, which is untried on humans, (we never find out the effects on the animals that came before him, but presumably they are no longer "brain damaged") and has an electronic computer implanted into his brain to tranquilise and abort the violent impules. There's no prize for guessing the treatment is a failure and soon the computer is overloading stimulants and pushing Harry into regular seizures. Hodges gives such painstaking detail to the operation that we soon realise that his interest is the miniature of the surgery and not in giving his audience a good time. His hospital plays Muzak in the corridors and he otherwise has Glenn Gould playing Bach on his soundtrack. The fact that he doesn't use an action score is probably symptomatic of Hodges' inappropriate restraint. He teases us with eye through a peephole observations as Harry's mind (I think), Them on TV, and one great image of Harry running maniacally through cemetary headstones. Just when the final cemetary scene arouses your interest, with Harry fallen into an about-to-be used grave, Hodges disappoints us by turning him into a Christ-figure. George Segal has previously demonstrated his range in comedy and drama, but here his uncontrollable rages are pretty tepid. I guess when one considers who to cast as a paranoid psychotic, Segal doesn't come to mind. Hodges actually never shows him in a direct attack, and when he tries to break through a locked door a la Jack Nicholson in The Shining, I was waiting for the "Here's Johnny" gag. It also doesn't help that Segal is dressed in a ridiculous wig and white suit as if he is in a dubbed Italian movie. Playing Segal's girlfriend, before her Unmarried Woman breakthrough, Jill Clayburgh is given thankless scenes but still manages to contribute some goofiness. As Harry's doctor, Joan Hackett is also under-used. Hodges recalls the infamous photos of Frances Farmer being arrested with similar pics of Harry, and there is an objection to the surgery from someone who reminds us of how disastrous frontal lobotomies were at the time. What is unintentionally amusing is how one of the doctors on staff is played by an actor with a huge bare forehead, as if he has already been under the ice-pick.