Things to Come - 1936
January 7, 2008 - 12:36 am - Posted by Administrator
After the world witnessed the horrors of the second World War, the science fiction genre became a psychological sounding board, reflecting nuclear nightmares and a fear of technology. Moviemakers populated their films with mushroom clouds and UFOs, harbingers of our inevitable technological doom. These are the movies I grew up with.
Unknown to me were the movies of the previous generation, the post-World War I movies which portrayed the horrors of the day. Poison gas attacks. Things to Come is one of those movies.
Filmed in 1935, and released in 1936, as Europe was on the brink of another World War, Things to Come is the story of one hundred years in Everytown, a city which is popularly believed to be a thinly-veiled London.
Things to Come is based on The Shape of Things to Come novel by H.G. Wells, and the movie was written by Wells himself. Director William Cameron Menzies [Around the World in 80 Days, Gone with the Wind] was said to have entertained Wells suggestions during the production process as well.
The story covers a timeline that stretches from 1936 to 2036, and that timeline is the main shortcoming of the script. The movie becomes an unceasing parade of new characters and they can become laborious to keep track of. In the beginning, Everytown is an idyllic community of peaceful citizens. They spend Christmas in fear of a war which eventually decimates the city. The war goes on for thirty years and is followed by a plague called the “Wandering Sickness” which runs rampant for years more. They slowly become isolated from the world, communication is cut off, and the survivors shun technology. Things to Come is, to my knowledge, the first post-apocalyptic science fiction film. Although many would argue Metropolis deserves that honor, this is the earliest one I ever saw which looked… dirty. Like Mad Max. A crucial component for any post-apocalypse picture.
Eventually the local techno-phobe warlord who rules Everytown is surprised by the appearance of a stranger in possession of high-technology–most notably, futuristic airplanes. The stranger is able to convince the citizens of Everytown that social order is making a comeback in other parts of the world, and technology plays a big part of it. He brings a message of hope for a future tech-savvy civilization–”Wings Over the World”.
After Everytown’s World War I-era air force is easily defeated by the highly-advanced Wings Over the World Air Force, the citizens embrace technology whole-heartedly and begin rebuilding Everytown Utopian-style, underground and highly futuristic. The movie comes to a conclusion in 2036 as humans prepare to send our first astronauts to the moon via a giant “Space Gun”, as yet another group of techno-phobe citizens threatens to revolt.
Many have called Things to Come cheesy, the story preachy, and the dialogue corny. All of those things are true at times. Honestly the choice of costumes for the futuristic characters is a little too Flash Gordon for my taste. I don’t get into the whole Toga-and-Shoulder-Pads look. And the dialogue is generally too wooden and, well, 1930s-ish. However, the real legacy of Things to Come is the look. If you were mesmerized by the visuals in the otherwise-terrible “Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow” then you will enjoy Things to Come. The first time I watched it, every ten minutes I had a light-bulb moment… “Oh, so that’s where they got the idea for that…”
Director Menzies would go on to contribute to the motion picture industry primarily as a producer, and especially in the field of Art Direction and Design. His flair for the artistic shows. The sets, models, and locations used in this movie are nearly unparalleled, and I had to keep reminding myself that this was a movie filmed in 1935. In Things to Come, you’ll see portrayals of Auto-Gyros (an early type of helicopter), super-highways, flying wings, elevated monorails, moving sidewalks, flat screen video monitors (transparent no less), and more. Watch for the 2036 scene where the guy turns on his video monitor to show his granddaughter what Everytown used to look like, and you can see through the screen from the back. Prophetic. Keep in mind, this is during a time when nobody had a television.
Anyway, this is not your movie if you need today’s special effects and dialogue. The sound is especially bad in this movie. But if you can appreciate it for its occasional moments, definitely check it out. It’s a science fiction classic. If I could split it up, I’d give it three stars for story, but four stars for the look.
Posted in 1930's, Four Star Rating, Post-Apocalypse, The Future | No Comments »
