Idaho Transfer

Rating:
Summary: Yes, dated, but a pleasure and haunted me for 30 years
Review: Hey, Peter, if you're out there, I liked your unappreciated film.

Look, I like Fellini and Antonioni and DeSica and Scorcese, but this early, unsung effort by Peter Fonda has some eerie spell, and a haunting litte music theme that was ahead of its time. Yes, it has 1973 written all over it, so what. It's competently done, and I found myself ... transported. The ending is sick, twisted, funny, and hey, considering how the yuppies behaved in the 80s and 90s, I don't see it as altogether improbable.

It's not a popular film to like - even then it was hushed away by Big Money, even after Jay Cocks gave it a great review in TIME. The prognistication for man changing his greed was dire, and no one in SUV-Consciousness still wants to hear anything bad about their football team. I mean, 'Get With the Program! '

Ummm, to quote the little kid in the UltraLexus at the end,
"What happens when we run out of them, Daddy?"

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant, Low-Key Sci Fi Stunner
Review: I first saw this movie about 10 years ago on video and was amazed at how affecting it was. This low-budget sci-fi shocker is about a group of college kids who transport themselves 50+ years into the future and discover that mankind has been wiped out by some sort of natural disaster. Watching it again recently on DVD, I was stuck by the fact that it doesn't seem that out of date. The early 70's fashions are now back in style, so the kids seem appropriately hip, the special effects (while minimal) are realistic, the cinematography is quite good, and the music was certainly ahead of its time. A soundtrack of the film would be interesting mood music. My only complaint is the quality of the disc - looks like someone burned a copy of an old VHS tape right onto DVD. But, since this is the only way to see it (for now), I'll let it slide. This movie has several memorable scenes, including a "transfer" gone bad, the discovery of an abandoned railroad train, and the ending, which seems even more ironic today. If you're a fan of intelligent cinema and don't need to be stimulated constantly by lots of action and violence, then this movie is for you. If not, go rent "The Matrix".

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant
Review: The 1 star is for the DVD which is appalling. It appears little more than video quality transposed to DVD which defeats the point. Surely someone can find the negative or a 35 or 16m print somewhere?

The film itself is of it's time, but probably brilliant. It's environmental warning is as pertinent as ever and it shows that there was plenty of early scepticism amongst the forever young/free love generation. The film is populated by barely clothed, nubile, erotic dollybirds (Isa's protruding tongue and peeling of a banana got me all of a quiver) and strapping young men. I thought there might be some other agenda behind the hiring of these unknowns but it's right for the story. The young scientists are emotionally immature and easily distracted (Karen with her ring) and their free love idealism soon receives a painful rebuke. Their lack of foresight over the possibilities of lingering contamination, especially in the light of their 'discovery', is puzzling. Idaho Transfer is a strangely serene and relaxing experience, a spell that even the introduction of aggression and inevitable tragedy cannot dissipate. It's disturbing ending, described in a review I read as 'ridiculous', is actually to my liking, brilliantly banal in the way life tends to be. The pessimistic metaphor is the skimming rock earlier in the film. We can only go so far in the natural order is the message. Subtly directed, this Paradise Lost set in the future is well worth investigating, but a better print is sorely needed.

Rating:
Summary: Complete Waste of time / Film
Review: The premise seemed alluring... saving the world in secret by use of time travel to the future... But nothing makes much sense in this movie. all of The charactors can't think past their nose. What drives them on? oh yeah their unknown B actors getting paid to play in a truly pathectic Sci-Fi... Like most reviewers I tend not to write about somthing that really just sucks, but I had to this time cause this one pissed me off so. I've seen many B-movie Sci-fi's but this one takes the cake. Of all the movies waiting to be transfered to DVD what Exec. Booted this one into production? Must be another groopie friend of Peter Fonda. I thought with Fonda's name attached to it, it couldn't be half bad. But was I wrong!

Rating:
Summary: So what?
Review: The title is the answer to what a woman say after she's transported to the future and finds out she is sterile from the transfer process; she says (as best I can remember after 30 years), "But that will mean the end of the human race!"

I have quoted that line every since; I can't begin to count the number of times. There were 10 people in the theatre, and it was the 3rd day after opening; no one I know has seen it except for the 9 other people I went with. However, like "A Boy and His Dog", it's a film you will never forget.

The ending is also something I've talked about for 30 years; it'll be nice to be able to show this to the many people I've told about it. (I think it should have been a Craftsman screwdriver, and not a Great Neck.)

Rating:
Summary: So what?
Review: The title is the answer to what a woman say after she's transported to the future and finds out she is sterile from the transfer process; she says (as best I can remember after 30 years), "But that will mean the end of the human race!"

I have quoted that line every since; I can't begin to count the number of times. There were 10 people in the theatre, and it was the 3rd day after opening; no one I know has seen it except for the 9 other people I went with. However, like "A Boy and His Dog", it's a film you will never forget.

The ending is also something I've talked about for 30 years; it'll be nice to be able to show this to the many people I've told about it. (I think it should have been a Craftsman screwdriver, and not a Great Neck.)