How sad is this?

Excellent but underrated film

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

The USA proudly announces the completion of a supercomputer called Colossus, meant to supervise the defence system. While the champagne is still bubbling in the glasses, problems begin : soon after declaring that the Soviets have developed a similar computer, Colossus starts communicating with its counterpart. It soon becomes clear that both twins get on like a house on fire... Although the ending leaves something to be desired from a narrative viewpoint, "Colossus" is a genuinely taut, suspenseful science fiction movie. It is most notable for containing a crucial warning. Whether this warning will be heeded, is quite another question. I get the impression that it's a "vox clamantis in deserto", the voice of one who is crying out in the wilderness, what with thousands upon thousand of scientists just panting for the chance to become complicit in Mankind's dethronement...Whatever our ultimate fate may be, as humans we're already well provided with age-old failings and flaws. The movie is not only a cautionary tale, but also a black satire about some of these flaws. For instance, there is the sad tendency to expect someone or something alien - if necessary, the Dancing Fairies from Flowersong Wood - to solve our problems. Another flaw consists of the love that human beings feel for their oppressors. People who live under a tyranny start out by being relieved that they have lived to see another day, as opposed, say, to being thrown to starving hyena's. Then, gradually, they start loving their dictator, with a toxic mix of fear, adoration and paranoia. Give it a few generations, as in North-Korea, and you will end up with babies who start praising the Great Guide five seconds after drawing their first breath. In the movie, the Colossus / Guardian entity predicts that people will come to regard it as their rightful and kindly lord and protector. It may very well be right...

Following close on the heels of the lip-reading HAL 9000 in the seminal 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, COLOSSUS: THE FORBIN PROJECT projects a "marriage of the minds"- The Master Minds, that is; the American-made Colossus and the Russian-bred Guardian. The All-Knowing hybrid echoes the mighty AM in Harlan Ellison's masterpiece, I HAVE NO MOUTH AND I MUST SCREAM (in which the supercomputer achieves self-awareness and concludes: "Cogito, ergo sum." Or: "I think, therefore I AM."). It doesn't take long for Forbin (Eric Braeden) to realize that he's made a colossal mistake and that his foolproof fail-safe safeguard is just about as foolproof as any OTHER fail-safe measure (which is to say, not VERY). Machines have no nationality, unmanned drones no discretion. "Don't personalize it," warns Gordon Pinset as the Pre$ident: "The next step is deification." "This is the voice of World Control," Colossus announces the moment it's given tongue. "We CAN co-exist, but only on MY terms." A world at the mercy of a calculating machine? A computer capable of spying on everyone in the world? A mind-boggling notion, eh? "In time, you will come to regard me not only with respect, but with Love," Colossus tells his creator. "Never," answers Forbin. Too bad whoever's in charge of this company didn't take those lessons to heart...

This is a rather tired working-out of the old computers-are-taking-over- the-world theme. The premise is simple, and it is developed in a very linear way, with no twists or surprises (except, perhaps, at the very end), no shading, no subtlety, no characterization to speak of. Despite the theme of how crucial it is to be human, the characters are developed only as cogs in the plot. This makes the dialogue go clunky several times. Even the attempt at romance, which really only amounts to a single sex scene, goes no further than the plot requires. In fact, nothing appears on the screen that is not driven by the plot: how do we stop this computer?The film may be a step up from the usual monsters from outer space movie, but it is not a very big step.Eric Braeden as Forbin has a puzzling accent, just a trace now and again of his first language, German. It's quite distracting. If the director had let him use more of his accent, we wouldn't be jarred by the odd pronunciation here and there, and the accent would have seemed quite suitable for a German-American scientist. But what really bothered me about Braeden was his inability to portray emotion, no matter how exciting or stressful the situation. Always his main concern seems to be to turn fetchingly for the camera and, without any furrowing of the brow or moving of facial muscles, with nothing in particular in his eyes, he seems only to show the faint, self-satisfied smile of a vain male model.By the way, that missile Colossus sends on its way toward the Soviet Union is shown as originating in Saskatchewan. Sorry, but Canada under Prime Minister John Diefenbaker refused to allow nuclear missiles on its soil. It's trivial point, but it does show a certain sloppiness.Lastly, perhaps a bit of pettiness, I found the constant, loud clattering of Colossus as it typed its communications quite annoying.

When Eric Braeden playing Dr. Charles Forbin built Colossus he built far better than he could conceive and soon regretted it. This thought provoking science fiction film challenges a whole lot of casual assumptions about man's superiority and dominance of his world. Not too mention the possibilities of the computer age.Back then in 1970 the idea of personal computers and folks carrying around lap tops was not conceived either. If they had them then, the various members of the cast would just plug them in to get directions from Colossus and Braeden just might be considered expendable.Braden's Dr. Forbin is the computer genius THE man in the cyber industry. He's built a huge underground computer deep in the Rocky Mountains that has completely taken over the defense of the USA. It's beyond the scope of anything ever developed. The Russians have also developed such a system called Guardian as Colossus learns. They contact each other and forge a partnership to maintain world peace at any price.Of course man does not like putting himself at the mercy of machines for any reasons. Our Luddite tendencies are not so far beneath the surface. Both machines are capable of exercising the self defense mechanism that the US and USSR have built in and being super smart, they've got some tricks of their own.Gordon Pinsent plays the president of the USA, the most popularly elected leader on the planet. Yet by dint of the knowledge he has about the super computers taking over, Braeden supplants him as the most important man in the world, a dubious distinction in the world that Colossus and Guardian are going to create.Except for fans of The Young And The Restless and The Rat Patrol, Eric Braeden got his career role in Colossus: The Forbin Project. This is one imaginative film and the particulars might be wrong as developed, but the general idea about super computers running us eventually is rich food for thought.