I realize that this article here of mine pertains to a genre of interest that differs from what I normally publish on this same writing platform. Nevertheless, I'm a science-fiction buff, so I couldn't resist posting a movie review about this one science-fiction film that I really liked. It's titled The Illustrated Man, and it stars the late Rod Steiger, Claire Bloom, and the late Robert Drivas. This movie was initially released in 1969, but it's well ahead of its time.
It is unusual to see the late Rod Steiger in a science-fiction movie, but he acted his role so well in this same movie. No, he's not someone you would ever think of as taking his acting career in the same direction as the late Leonard Nimoy, William Shatner, the late Vincent Price, and the late Peter Cushing did. However, he was convincing as a psychologically troubled character in The Illustrated Man.
Claire Bloom has seldom shied away from science fiction and horror in her acting career. You may have also seen her in The Haunting that was released in 1963 as well as Charly that came out in 1968.
The late Robert Drivas' life was cut short at an early age. He didn't have the chance to pump out a number of acting roles in different movies because of it. Nonetheless, his part in The Illustrated Man was awesome.
I was getting ready to write up this same movie review about The Illustrated Man when I saw that YouTube had a free copy of it. Therefore, I went ahead and watched this film once again so that I would have a really good feel of its plot before I wrote my review about it here in this article. This Ray-Bradbury plot in this same movie was definitely a breakaway from mainstream science fiction. I won't give you any spoilers, but I will make you interested in watching this same film.
Science-fiction films in the 1950s and the 1960s more often than not were clichés of one another. Any one of us who, as kids, watched television programs on the weekends that featured horror and science-fiction movies ought to know.
The Illustrated Man broke away from that overly trite mainstream of science-fiction movies that Gene Roddenberry shoved down the throats of many sci-fi buffs in the 1960's and the 1970's. You were always being taken off guard by the next scene in that movie. You were not tortured with any egg-headed aliens or men with leprechaun ears or ray guns like on Star Trek.
Not that Star Trek was a bad show. It's that it has been over-plagiarized by movie producers of other science-fiction yarns.
The late Mr. Steiger gave The Illustrated Man his all in his role as Carl, because although he was obnoxious as the illustrated man himself, he was like this either very charming, very intelligent, very family-oriented, or very caring individual in the stories that came alive whenever the young man drifter named Willie (played by the late Mr. Drivas) gazed into Carl's body illustrations.
Seeing so many different personalities played by one actor shows real talent in my opinion. I first saw The Illustrated Man on some local channel on a small black-and-white television set that my sister gave me as a Christmas present, when I was living out in Los Angeles so many years ago. Actually, it was on a cloudy night, and I saw it on a television station I was picking up from San Diego.
I need mention nothing about Clair Bloom. She has always been a natural in her roles in these kinds of movies. She jumped right into the role of Felicia in this film. She was like the superficially friendly woman who had an ulterior agenda that would cost Carl his future and his sanity.
The late Mr. Steiger and Ms. Bloom had such great chemistry together in this movie. They were husband and wife in two of this movie's subplots, and they were also married to each other in real life. It is sad that they starred together in this film the exact same year that they divorced each other in real life.
I saw this same movie once again on a big-screen color television set on the Sci-Fi Channel after I moved back to the East Coast, and I liked it both times I saw it. Of course, I watched it again very recently.
Nowadays and even in recent years the science-fiction movie and television entertainment scene has either become inundated with virtual reality in the form of Spiderman and the Lost series or with systematically sterile scripts in the form of The X-Files and Millennium. The Illustrated Man has unique qualities that set it apart from all the others. That to me is true science-fiction. That is, not imitating what the next movie director is doing.
This same movie was based upon a literary work that the late Ray Bradbury published in 1951. This gentleman has made a name for himself in the world of science fiction throughout the years. He is one of a handful of science-fiction writers that have served as an inspiration to me in my journey as a science-fiction writer myself.
Don't wait for The Illustrated Man to be shown on television. You can watch it for free on YouTube. In fact, I've embedded it herein below so that you can go directly to it.
The 1969 Science-Fiction Film Titled The Illustrated Man
The interesting characteristic about this same movie is that even though all the subplots take place in the distant future, the main plot of this movie takes place in the 1930s. It makes you think of watching both the 1960 version and the 2002 version of movie titled The Time Machine. It mixes the distant past with the distant future, but, hey, that's the beauty of cinema. I give The Illustrated Man ten out of ten possible stars, which is the best rating it can receive and that it should receive.
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