dee.reid
The 1981 Ivan Reitman-/Leonard Mogel-produced, Gerald Potterton-directed "Heavy Metal" is a pure guilty pleasure. Its hard rock/heavy metal soundtrack notwithstanding, it's very much a product of its era, an early '80s adult animated flick that's clearly not for everyone.The film is based on the French fantasy magazine "Metal Hurlant," which then became "Heavy Metal" when it was licensed in the United States, and specialized in science fiction, fantasy, and horror stories and art that was gratuitous in the areas of graphic violence and sexuality. The film "Heavy Metal" was perfect for its time - 1981 - which was right in the middle of the Hollywood craze for epic science fiction and fantasy stories in the wake of the popularity of "Star Wars" (1977)."Heavy Metal" is adapted from stories originally published in "Heavy Metal" magazine, as well as original stories made up specifically for the film. Its screenplay was written by Dan Goldberg and Len Blum, and features eight stories set across time and space that were written by Richard Coben, Angus McKie, Dan O'Bannon (the scribe behind "Alien" in 1979), Thomas Warkentin, and Bernie Wrightson; one story was omitted from the film due to time constraints but has since been included as a special feature on VHS and DVD releases.Events of the film center around Loc-Nar (voice of Percy Rodriguez), an evil green orb that terrorizes a young girl with eight sinister stories of good and evil.Some of my favorite stories in "Heavy Metal" are:"Harry Canyon," where the title character, a cynical New York City cab driver in the year 2031, has a fare to remember when a beautiful young woman gets into his cab one day and she involves him in a lethal intergalactic conspiracy."Den" is pure wish-fulfillment fantasy, where a nerdy 18-year-old is transported to another planet where he becomes a Herculean warrior who must save his dream girl."B-17," a grim horror tale, scared me when I was a kid, and is about a B-17 bomber crew during World War II that is terrorized by zombies."Taarna" is the most ambitious story in "Heavy Metal," and is a sci-fi/fantasy tale that features a beautiful warrior-woman who sets out to avenge her slain civilization. (This story more or less serves to counter the portrayal of women in this film as buxom sex-bombs - though the title character shows ample flesh here, anyway.)"Heavy Metal," despite being animated, is clearly not for children, and gladly presses the limits of its "R" rating with its graphic violence, sexuality, and nudity; this is animation that was MADE to push boundaries, and satiate the fantasies of its adolescent male target audience. (Additionally, some of the animators had previously worked for Disney, but were glad to be free to draw figures - particularly women - the way they wanted. You obviously can't get that kind of creative freedom at a place like Disney.) But there is just so much here to love in a cheesy nostalgic way, and is a wonderful relic of a much darker, much more cynical time in our history.8/10P.S.: The soundtrack features music from Black Sabbath, Blue Oyster Cult, Cheap Trick, Devo, Journey, Nazareth, Sammy Hagar, Steve Nicks and others, and is a perfect background noise to the madness and titillation on the screen.P.S. #2: This last piece is a bit personal, but I thought that it was a huge omission on the part of the soundtrack staff for this movie to not include anything by Iron Maiden - my favorite heavy metal band. But this may have worked out for the better, since "Heavy Metal" was made in 1981 when they were still with their original lead singer Paul Di'Anno (and before they began recording their best material), who was replaced by the legendary Bruce Dickinson one year later in 1982. So, it's all good, really, but I felt I had to mention that here.
Neil Welch
A glowing orb called the Loc-nar proves to be the linking device for an anthology of science fiction tales.This film, seeded by the magazine Heavy Metal, is very much an animated movie for adults - there is a moderate amount of nudity and sex in it. Old school comics enthusiasts will recognise some of the names whose pieces live behind the 6 pieces (and linking sequence) here - Richard Corben and Bernie Wrightson, to name but two.It's well worth a look if you know your interests lie in that direction, albeit it isn't 100% successful - for one thing, you can have too much of a good thing. Having said that, it's not the sort of film that gets made very often, so we should value the fact that it exists at all.
Pozdnyshev
This is an animated movie that's awesome and sucks at the same time. It's awesome because of its spirit of adventure and experimentation. I'd rather see ten weird, experimental, and personal movies like "Heavy Metal" than one boring pander-fest like "500 Days of Summer" which, like a smooth politician, is guaranteed a wide audience because it's engineered to appeal to as many people as possible. What it loses in the process is a human touch, the sense that I'm getting to know a real person's dreams and aspirations, not being manipulated into thinking that it's hip for young women to have borderline personality disorder (as in most popular RomComs like "Juno"), or that grand special effects are more exciting than a good story (as in the Avengers or the Phantom Menace). This is just a guess, but I think these animated stories are very close to the hearts of the people who wrote and designed them, and this movie was made out of love for the stories instead of expecting to get rich off of it. I love it for that alone because even if it's a bad story, someone believed in it enough to not let it get (too) watered down by someone who didn't think it had enough mass appeal. So for better or for worse, it's a window into another person's heart, which makes me feel connected to humanity. You can't buy that with all the special effects and cinematography in the world.So I love this movie for the spirit behind it. But the movie itself - eh. It's a mess. Stunningly detailed background plates vie with very hit-and-miss animation. In fact it's shockingly bad in many places, the battle scene in "Den" is almost as choppy and wooden as in "GI Joe." And it's juvenile -- there's not much going on underneath the boobs, violence, and cool drawings. I want some kind of cohesive message to justify all this eye candy, like making the green orb only destroy people who are evil anyway (the B-52 pilot wasn't necessarily evil). And why is it some busty chick, of all people, who defeats evil? Since this plot device is just plopped in there, it makes me think that the answer to this question is that the filmmakers thought chicks with swords and big boobs just look cool, that's why. I want more reason why it's HER who defeats evil, because I don't think hot Amazonian chicks who dress like pole-dancers defeat evil in real life; they'd create it by frustrating men with their hot and exposed bodies. A more plain- looking woman in a monk's robe would be more believable, but (I know) a lot less cool-looking. That's not to say there aren't some gems here and there that shine on their own. There's a scene towards the beginning of the "Taarna" part where townspeople are turned evil by being immersed in green slime. That part on its own has a strange, resonant power like a story from the Bible, and is worth the entire movie. I think it resonates because of its chilling similarity to Marxist and feminist brainwashing, but that's just my opinion. :PA must-see if you're into the art of animation or just have a taste for strange movies, its heart is in the right place but watching it is like looking through a talented fourteen-year-old boy's sketchpad.
