Colossus - The Forbin Project

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Starring: Eric Braeden
Rated: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Type: DVD
Directed By: Joseph Sargent
Studio: Universal Studios
Release Date: 2004-11-23
Running Time: 101 minutes
Dr. Forbins pentagon supercomputer links with its soviet counterpart to hold the world hostage for peace. Studio: Uni Dist Corp. (mca) Release Date: 11/23/2004 Starring: Eric Braeden Martin Brooks Run time: 100 minutes Rating: Pg Director: Joseph Sargent

One of my favorites
I had watched Colossus - the Forbin Project a number of years ago on cable and was immediately hooked. It became then and remains today one of my all time favorites.

I was impressed with how well thought out and executed this film was. One could certainly guess that the Terminator films, among others, were heavily inspired by this movie. Even if the goals of Colossus are far more altruistic for mankind than Skynet's.

It was truly interesting to see Eric Braeden so young. He's still immediately recognizable though, if you ever watch daytime soaps; all though one must admit Forbin is the complete opposite of today's Victor Nueman.

Then you have Susan Clark (wife of for NFL star Alex Karras), who would many years later be known as Webster's [adoptive] mom. And Marion Ross of Happy Days fame and Dolph Sweet of Gimme a Break!

You won't go wrong with the film. Personally, I think it's one of the best techno-thriller films out there - easily on par with the Terminator, Wargames, and the Net films.

Very good film and the wide screen anamophic is available!
Stay away from this ugly pan and scan and instead consider MGM's European PAL region 2 version (if your DVD player can handle it) - The PAL 2 is a near perfect, beautiful, anamorphic wide screen. You can find the PAL copy at Amazon UK or I bought mine from xploitedcinema.com. Colossus's plausible plot combines three elements - the cold war, computers running amuck, and a doomsday scenario. Many similar elements can be found in War Games, Star Trek (VGER), Andromeda Strain, Doctor Strangelove, The Day The Earth Stood Still and Fail Safe. The basic ideas and premise, acting, directing, and set design work well together and make for an exciting and thoughtful film. I particularly liked when the computer's first start to chat with each other and their tantrum-like demand for communication. Colossus never earned classic status - my guess that was due to a trite sounding title, a mostly unknown cast, a subjective ending, and a sometimes visable thin layer of Hollywood-cheese spread. Otherwise there is little to complain about the film - for the most part Colossus is a cool film and deserves high standing on all Sci-Fi lists.

Underrated gem
There was a time, in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when science fiction films seemed to be emerging from their cult status, and into the mainstream as films that could express the deepest and highest aspirations of mankind in ways that mere literary sci fi could not. There were a plethora of intelligent films in that era. Yes, there had been intelligent sci fi in the decades before. In the 1930s, there was William Cameron Menzies' Things To Come, based upon the H.G. Wells tale. The 1950s saw such sci fi films as The Day The Earth Stood Still, On The Beach, Forbidden Planet, The Incredible Shrinking Man, and Invasion Of The Body Snatchers. But it really was the late 1960s that saw sci fi reach a greatness besides mere `genre greatness.' Genre greatness is where one can say that a film was a great film noir, sci fi, romance, etc. But truly great films transcend their genres and become great art regardless of what art genre they originate from.
In this era there were folks who specialized in quality A science fiction films, unlike the B quality sci fi films of the past. These included heavyweight directors like Stanley Kubrick (Dr. Strangelove, or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb, 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange) and superstar actors like Charlton Heston (Planet Of The Apes, The Omega Man, Soylent Green). But there were also many other quality and literate sci fi films like Slaughterhouse 5, The Andromeda Strain, Westworld, THX 1138, Silent Running, and Logan's Run, just to name the best known. Then came the puerile Star Wars series (from George Lucas, who inexplicably also made the wonderful THX 1138), and sci fi has never again reached the heights of that Golden Age which the Star Wars franchise killed off. Yes, there have been a few exceptions- the first two films in both the Alien and The Terminator series, and the 2001 sequel 2010: The Year We Make Contact, but that's about it. Star Trek does not count, since its franchise films were merely a leveraged television phenomenon.
However, one of the truly terrific sci fi films that has been criminally neglected critically, is director Joseph Sargent's hour and forty minute long Colossus: The Forbin Project, based upon D.F. Jones' 1966 novel Colossus, and adapted for the screen by James Bridges. The film was shorn of any real star power, but the very fact that it lacked A List Hollywood names lends it an authenticity and believability that still carries through today. Despite this and the also well made The Taking Of Pelham 1-2-3, in 1974, Sargent never made it to A List director status. Yet, Colossus: The Forbin Project is one of the rare genre films that mixes subgenres and succeeds. It is a Doomsday film, which is a vast range including films like On The Beach, Planet Of the Apes, Soylent Green, and The Omega Man, but it also a Frankenstein/Amok Computer film, as well.
Although Colossus, as a character, is never as memorable as HAL 9000 in 2001, it still is a chilling villain that harkens back to the more innocent-minded 1950s foray into similar territory, The Invisible Boy.... Colossus: The Forbin Project stands out not only as a great sci fi film, but as a great testament to the power of ego and hubris- Mankind's, Forbin's, and the computer's. After all, had only one side in the arms race concocted a supercomputer, neither Colossus nor Guardian could have grown out of control so quickly. This focus on egotism links this film to the eerily similarly titled Forbidden Planet. Yet, unlike the earlier film, the human race does not seem able to escape destruction from the product of its own ingenuity. Were such ingenuity on display these days, in Hollywood, the film industry would be in far better shape than it is today. Perhaps old Colossus knew a few things, after all?

"This is the voice of world control..."
"Colossus: The Forbin Project" is a sci-fi feature based upon the 1969 novel by Dennis Feltham Jones. The basic premise is that the supercomputer,Colossus, a creation of Dr Charles Forbin [Eric Braeden] and his team of scientists, develops independent thinking and assumes control of the world, trapping Forbin in an invisible prison, and basically destroying anything that crosses its' path.

The movie's premise reminded me of "Demon Seed", another movie where a supercomputer tries to assume control over humans [in particular one attractive woman] and their free will. This is also the precursor to movies like Terminator where we see how far computers can go if they achieve independent thought.

The DVD transfer here is a letdown being in full frame [pan n scan] rather than widescreen. A sci-fi classic like this deserves better treatment. But all in all, this is a must-watch for sci-fi fans despite being decades old.

Service review + brief abt film
No problems whatsoever. Arrived promptly and in perfect condition.As for the actual film, it's part of what inspired Terminator and the Matrix series, being one of the first to examine the theme of an A.I we create taking over.The other film of note in this regard, again pre-terminator, is Demonseed.