I ask this, because there has probably been enough water under the bridge about it, but what are the scattered thoughts of Cafe Society on The Original Heavy Metal Movie.
Givens:
Anthology movies are uneven, this is no exception.
Some groundbreaking techniques were used to create the film’s animation sequences.
Some of the stories creak with age these days and some of the groundbreaking animation looks crappy now.
Questions:
Was it too obsessed with sex in that teenage boy way or was it truly an adult feature?
What was the best feature?
Worst?
Did it manage to ever make sense to you?
Sure Den was funny, but was it anything more than that? If it wasn’t, does that matter?
What do we think on the whole?
The last thread on this from not too long ago seems to center around groundbreaking trash. And denials of any sequel.
I would say “in that teenage boy way”, but you seem to think that’s a bad thing. Even as an adult, it makes me feel younger.
Best features would be the silly/giddy attitude, number of quotable lines, and general wierdness that appeals to me.
Worst is that, when sober, I cannot stand the bomber sequence. When I first saw the film (not sober), I loved it. Now it’s fast forward material. “Sober” in this paragraph is unrelated to alcohol.
Groundbreaking? Definitely. Trash? Well, as a movie compared to other science fiction movies I’d say it was slightly above average. I’m sure the “film snobs” hated it. :rolleyes: This may be (I’ve never seen “Fritz The Cat”) the only good erotic animated movie ever made in the US and that really is a shame. :mad:
I had heard so much about this movie (mainly from my stoner friends who had seen it at the midnight movie), so when it finally came out on DVD, I bought it sight unseen.
It certainly didn’t live up to their chemically-enhanced hype, but it wasn’t horrible.
I can’t really answer all of the questions, but I was obsessed with this movie when it first came out and saw it several times in the theater (both indoors and at the Drive-In). I never read the comics, and I hated heavy metal music, so the only reason I went to see the movie in the first place was that everyone else I knew was going to see it. After I saw it though, I couldn’t wait to see it again. And again. And again. I was the only person I knew who ended up really liking it, so I went to see it many times by myself. I never did read the comics or get into heavy metal music (though I liked the music in the movie), but I still remember the movie fondly. I haven’t seen it for years and don’t know if it would hold up. I own the DVD but I’m almost scared to watch it thinking it won’t hold up for me. Plus I heard that the music is different so it wouldn’t be the same anyway.
I liked all the segments but I could have done without “Den.” It and “Captain Sternn” were my least favorites, though I liked elements of each. My favorites were “B-17,” the opening, connecting, and end segments, and “Harry Canyon.” My very favorite, and the thing I was most obsessed with was “Taarna.” I wanted to BE Taarna. I dearly wished I’d had a good body because I longed to make up a costume like hers for a Halloween party. Sigh, my body betrayed me and it was not to be. I don’t know if the animation was groundbreaking, I just knew that it blew me away. One of my favorite scenes is Taarna swimming to the altar. It looked so real, but in a very surreal way.
Even then it was far from being a favorite movie, and I realized I was not the target audience for the movie, but I was only too happy to overlook all the heaving bosoms because for that time, in that phase of my life, the movie worked for me. The movie made sense to me in that I was willing to enter its world and not make the film work within mine.
I also loved Ralph Baksi’s Wizards from a few years earlier, which a lot of people hate.
“Heavy Metal” was the first adult animation movie I ever saw, so I was blown away by it. I was a teenager at the time (mid-1980’s), and the only animation I had seen was cartoons on TV and Disney movies. So it really blew my doors off.
The animation does look creaky compared to what we see nowadays, but it will always occupy a soft spot in my heart for showing me that animation could be more than Saturday morning cartoons.
Favorite feature: “Hanover Fiste.” Though “So Beautiful and So Dangerous” (the one where the secretary at the Pentagon gets sucked up into the spaceship) runs a close second. The funny segments just seem to hold up better to me.
Least favorite: “B-17.” Don’t know why, but it’s never really done anything for me.
It is what it is.
And what it is is funny, sexy, silly, occasionally exciting and all around entertaining.
It’s trashy, but not trash.