You ever notice how in TV and such, I’m looking at you Quantum Leap, that whenever you’re dealing with historical figures they really hit you over the head with the whole ‘this is what they’re famous for’ thing? Like if they do something with Albert Einstein, they always have a moment where he figures out the Theory of Relativity or atomic energy and what not. Or it’s Arthur Conan Doyle, they have him solving mysteries or playing Watson to somebody. As though it’s not enough for our protagonists (if they aren’t the figures themselves) to interact with these people, we always have to be on the stepping stones of history, to see the moment of inspiration that sets these people off on their life’s journey. I mean, is there anyone the Doctor doesn’t know at this point? Because I’m pretty sure he’s saved every major novelist and the Queen of England at least 5 times.
It makes sense then that eventually the bottle would land on H.G. Wells. He was the grandfather of science fiction after all, even if he didn’t establish the literary genre he certainly brought such concepts into the public eye, while embodying the progressive spirit that the genre would be based on. Plus the wealth of material you get to work with; alien invasions, time travel, grotesque animal men (manimals, if you’re from the 80s), future wars, invisible killers, the possibilities are endless. Not to mention that, as an avid pacifist, women’s right advocate and all around nice guy, you can use him as a benchmark for how great we are as a society for having progressed. Wanna remind people how awesome women’s liberation or children not working in sweatshops is? Throw some dude from the Victorian era into the future and have him be all like ‘woah man, women can vote and Little Jimmy didn’t have his fingers ripped off in a textile factory? I am flabbergasted, to say the least’. Really makes us modern folks feel like we accomplished something, when in reality we just take this stuff for granted and actively work against other people trying to share those same freedoms.
Anyway, that mindset, and the whole ‘novelists live out their books’ thing is what fueled the creation of 1979’s Time After Time, starring Malcolm McDowell (whom you might remember from A Clockwork Orange), David Warner (whom you might remember from Brazil, The Omen, Tron or Batman: The Animated Series) and Mary Steenburgen (whom you might remember from Back to the Future Part III, Elf, or the award winning film Melvin and Howard). Directed by Nicholas Meyer, who was also the director/writer for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country and the writer for Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home and The Prince of Egypt. A solid wellspring of talent to work from, seems like.
The story goes as follows: In a Victorian era London not entirely unlike our own, a not-yet-famous writer known as H.G. Wells has stepped beyond the realm of theories and into the world of super-science when he constructs an honest to goodness time machine. The greatest scientific discovery since that guy figured that if you dumped your shit away from your drinking water you wouldn’t get typhoid some might say, but before Wells is able to test his extraordinary invention, it is stolen by his former friend John Leslie Stephenson, who just so happens to be the infamous serial killer Jack the Ripper. Jack ends up in San Francisco in the far flung year and Wells, feeling a bit responsible for allowing a sociopathic murderer free reign over the entirety of human history, decides to go after him. Wells was an idealist however, a utopist who genuinely believed that humanity was one step away from reaching a Golden Age of peace & prosperity. How does a man who believes in the universal goodness of man deal with a world that’s already been through two world wars? A world where books are gone in favor of televisions, where horse-drawn carriages have been replaced with fantastical motorized vehicles, and women do things other than push out kids and die of tuberculosis? Well, presumably you’d watch the movie if you really wanted to find that out, because I’m not telling you.
Now you’re probably thinking to yourself, ‘a movie where H.G. Wells tracks Jack the Ripper across time & space? That sounds fucking awesome!!’, and you’d be right in the sense that that is basically what the movie is about and that the idea sounds cool as hell, but Time After Time falls a little bit short of expectations. Here’s a handy bulleted list to address the major points:
- Despite being a movie that prominently features a time machine, and the actual Wells’ novel The Time Machine taking place at several points in the future, Time After Time deals almost entirely in one place (San Fran) and one time (1979). Might seem like a bit of a ripoff, but I guess the fact that Frisco is technically a the future to Wells they get away with it.
- Despite being a movie about H.G. Wells tracking down Jack the Ripper, it doesn’t really feel too much like anything resembling a suspenseful thriller. In fact, most of the movie is spent dealing with the romance between Wells and modern day woman Amy (Steenburgen), and the ultimate confrontation with Jack, the clashing of ideologies, is treated more as an afterthought when compared to the ‘relationship’. Take that as you will.
- Despite being the major driving force of the film (you know, aside from that whole ‘time traveling serial killer’ thing), Amy just rubs me the wrong way as a character. Like they make it a major point of the film that women’s liberation is great and that women are independent and can do things for themselves, but then she doesn’t do anything on her own terms aside from screwing H.G. Wells. She’s the damsel in distress, she does everything Wells asks her to do, and at a time when her life is in danger and she needs to stay alert she gulps down booze and valium like she’s Lucille Bluth. While still pushing this ‘I am woman hear me roar’ line. I dunno, seems a bit hypocritical.
- Plenty of ‘stranger in a strange land’ humor, which can be good or bad depending on your preferences. ‘Look, he doesn’t understand telephones!’ or ‘Tee hee, look at him try to work an electric toothbrush!’ type stuff. If you’ve seen Encino Man, My Favorite Martian or about hundreds of other movies over the years, then you get the jist of it. I never really found Time After Time all that funny though, despite the scenes of Malcolm McDowell being mystified at the sight of Mickey Mouse. Whimsical maybe, but never really funny.
- The runtime. Time After Time clocks in at about 2 hours long, which isn’t an uncommon thing in modern movies, but it just doesn’t utilize it well. You really start to feel the drag at the start of the second half, and considering that this isn’t a movie with a lot of action in the first place, expect your mind to wander while the Victorian bonefest plays itself out. Would it have been better if Meyer had lopped a few minutes from the final cut
Time After Time is a charming film though, in spite of those issues. Wells’ wide-eyed wonder at this strange world that we call the present can be a bit infectious too, even if he ends up becoming a little jaded by the end. Maybe not jaded, maybe it’s more that he becomes a bit more grounded in his beliefs. And in so doing, maybe we modern cynical types can learn to be a bit more hopeful. If you’re looking for something light this Halloween season, then this might be the film for you. Recommended.
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