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The
Thing from Another World
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9
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6 |
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10
= Highest Rating |
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Guest
Review by Rod
Barnett |
Stationed
in chilly Anchorage, Alaska, Captain Pat Hendry (Kenneth Tobey)
and his military aircrew are sent to a research station near
the Arctic Circle. Tagging along is newspaperman Ned "Scotty"
Scott (Douglas Spencer) who's looking for a story at the North
Pole and hopes this call from a scientific research team will
be it. Hendry has been sent to the station after a request for
plane transport from the world renowned Professor Arthur Carrington
(Robert Cornwaithe). The scientists are excited because of a
magnetic disturbance and the sighting of a falling object that
might be a meteor. Once the group gets to the landing site of
the object they quickly realize that what they've found sunk
into the ice is flying saucer! They attempt to melt the thickening
ice around the craft but accidentally destroy it only to find
the occupant frozen in ice several yards away. They chop the
eight-foot tall biped out of the ground and cart him back to
the research station where Hendry decides to keep their visitor
on ice (literally) until higher brass arrives. But when a storm
delays the general's trip and an electric blanket thaws out
the E.T., circumstances change quickly. The visitor from another
world (James Arness) turns out to be an evolved piece of vegetation
that feeds on blood and intends to conquer Earth for its own
kind!
Released at the beginning of the 1950s, The
Thing's box-office success was the spur that drove the
sci-fi/horror film genre for most of the decade. High-minded
science fiction films like The Day the Earth
Stood Still were pushed aside for an onslaught of invading
creatures, slimy mutations and action. All of the various science-gone-mad
and giant bug films that marched across drive-in screens for
the next 8 years could be traced back to this one movie. All
the classic conflicts of science vs. the military, intellect
vs. emotion and compassion vs. violence are perfectly articulated
in The Thing (even if the military
is given an unfair advantage). These conflicts would continue
to inform science fiction films, from the best (Them!)
to the worst (your choice here), until the ideas were reduced
to nothing but clichés. Of course the '50s were fertile ground
for the kind of terror these stories thrust into the mass consciousness.
The nuclear age was newborn, with no one really knowing what
might come of man's splitting of the atom; reports of unidentified
flying objects were making the news regularly. The next obvious
step was to posit a sinister explanation for the UFOs and link
it to the general public fear of invasion (if not by communists
then walking vegetables were close enough). Since The
Thing is a thriller, the rational scientific men who
want to study and learn from the alien are reduced to the role
of decrying violence against such a monumental discovery. Somehow
I don't think a movie about a friendly alien vegetable seeking
peaceful coexistence would have fired the public's imagination
as much, but half a century later it's possible to see the scientists'
point of view a little clearer.
The
Thing was adapted
from John W. Campbell's short story Who Goes There? but
really only the idea of an alien invader and the arctic setting
were used by Howard Hawks and his screen writers. The real joy
of the film is in watching another great Hawks ensemble cast
enact a sharp tale in the most entertaining fashion possible.
It's a shame that Hawks' lack of respect for the science fiction
genre is evidenced by the fact that he allowed Christian Nyby
take director's credit for The
Thing. It's now known
that this was done so that Nyby could get into the Director's
Guild, but it clearly shows that Hawks didn't take the film
very seriously as part of his career. Luckily for us he gave
the film his usual 100% when on the job, as did the entire cast.
There isn't a weak performance in the film, with my favorite
being from genre stalwart Kenneth Tobey. Playing one of the
few leading roles of his career, Tobey is simply great — whether
he's trying to romance the lovely Margaret Sheridan or giving
rapid-fire orders to his men while under attack from the murderous
carrot. If you dig this movie and want to see more of the underrated
Mr. Tobey, I recommend the new DVD of It
Came from Beneath the Sea, in which he has another good
role up against a gigantic octopus (courtesy of Ray Harryhausen's
marvelous effects).
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The
Thing from Another World
is a great film and one of the best of the genre — I only wish
the same could be said for Warner's new DVD. Oh, don't get me
wrong... The film itself looks and sounds fantastic. It's perfectly
presented in full frame with the rich black & white movie looking
better than any video tape ever has. Where the disc falls down
is in the complete lack of ANY extras. You know they didn't even
try when the back of the case lists "Interactive Menus"
as a Special Feature! When I think of the historical significance
of this movie the fact there was no attempt to do anything
for this release just angers me. Of course Warner knows that they
don't have to do much and their classics will sell just fine,
but to ignore the possibilities for even more sales with added
documentaries, commentaries, essays, or even a photo gallery seems
penny-wise and pound foolish. (Unless they're already planning
a later Special Edition to get our money again!) To be fair, there
is one extra — the theatrical trailer. But I really wish
they'd put just a little more effort into this DVD. Hell, even
the old Laser Disc had a frame by frame version of the original
Campbell story tacked on for the fun of it.
I guess we should be
glad to have this great movie on DVD at all. But I'm picky sometimes.
8/24/03 |
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