Favorite electronics movies

That is reminiscent of "Brazil" by Gilliam. Typewriters for data entry, video screens with huge magnifying glasses, big dial phones, and that sort of thing. The ducts were hilarious... and De Niro as the rogue duct repairman was simply classic. The torture scene at the end, with Michael Palin as a kinda likable Mengele was a bit too grim.

--
Regards,
  Bob Monsen

"doing what little one can to increase the general stock of knowledge
is as respectable an object of life, as one can in any likelihood
pursue"
 -- Charles Darwin

They were 5" 12VDC B&W TV sets with fresnel lenses hung in front of them.

Ah, but which version did you see? There are [at least] two endings.

The version released initially in the United States has the torture scene, then commandos rappel in from the ceiling, shoot Jack (Palin), and rescue Sam. He rides off into the sunset with the truck-driving girl and everyone presumably lives happily ever after.

The version released initially outside the United States shows a similar scene, but then it gets progressively more bizarre - Sam gatecrashes the funeral of his mother's friend, who is now just liquefied organic mush in a coffin - and suddenly it cuts back to the torture chamber, where Helpmann and Jack are peering at Sam, who is still in the torture chair. Helpmann says to Jack, "I'm afraid we've lost him, Jack" - and they exit, while Sam stares into space smiling and humming the theme song. He's been tortured out of his mind; the escape was an hallucination.

When I came to the US, I happened across this movie on amazon.com and bought it - and was VERY surprised at the happy ending.

I believe both versions are available in the US now.

My chair at work resembles ending #2.

All agreed, although I thought Gilliam was 'camping up' the technology rather than prophesising. It was *meant* to be ridiculous in retrospect, in my view. I only saw that film recently, courtesy of a friend's DVD - I was enthralled! :-)

Ken

....then they were all arrested by Bob and Doug, who turned out to really be in the film after all.....

Ken

My take on it all was that if someone wanted to make a documentary about late 20th century technological society 100 years from now, they would probably juxtapose stuff from different decades just like you see in Brazil.

That character is my inspiration. Commando-type repair raids, all unapproved by the beauracracy. The story of my life!

Tim.

Similar in spirit (although different in technology) are Sinclair Lewis' novels and Charlie Chaplin's _Modern Times_.

_Blade Runner_ has a lot of really intriguing stuff in it, but what makes it work is that it was written in with no worry about explaining how it was implemented. The meld between biology and technology was particularly innovative.

You can read Philip K Dick's novel (_Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep_) for more details about the world the movie is set in (there's a whole eco-guilt backstory explaining the android animals and off-world immigration programs that is only referred to but never explained in the movie), but while it answers a lot of questions it raises even more without answering them!

Tim.

In Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) they travel back in time to 1986 to transport a Humpback Whale forward in time to the 23'd century. To expedite this effort, Scotty finds it necessary to show a chemical engineer how to make transparent aluminum. Scotty sits down in front of the ordinary, 1986 PC and says, in a commanding voice: "Computer." The chemical engineer looks very uncomfortable and hands Scotty a mouse. "Try using this," he says.

So, getting to the point, how is it that the ability of the computer to, "in effect, hear," is so novel in the original series?

Then again, who cares. Star Trek IV was pretty funny, and it wouldn't have made any sense if they stayed completely true to technological back-story of the original series.

I've heard of the Nth root of unity. I guess Nth power of unity is the flip side of that coin. ;-)

[snip]

--Mac

Buncha hosers. Take off eh?

;-)

--
Rich Webb   Norfolk, VA

Pooh mentioned it: "The Conversation".

I read DADoES. I found it to be very different from _Blade Runner_. Sufficiently so that, in my opinion, it is wrong to say that _Blade Runner_ is based on _DADoES_. More like "inspired by."

The film was much more nuanced, complex, and ambiguous.

I liked the film better than the book.

--Mac

Yes, a good movie.

Tried "Sneakers"?

"The Dish" has some authentic 1969 moon landing vintage gear on display. There was some talk on aus.electronics about it when it came out.

Dave :)

Yep, remember the scene in "1941" where the Japanese submariners in Long Beach harbour were trying to manhandle a tombstone radio down the hatch in the conning tower and one of them comments "We have to find a way to make these things smaller". I liked the lo-budget Brit sci-fi TV series (Blake 7? I forget...) that had an Avo Mk4 valve tester as a centrepiece on the bridge of the spaceship. M

Yup. I have it on DVD.

...Jim Thompson

-- | James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens | | Analog Innovations, Inc. | et | | Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus | | Phoenix, Arizona Voice:(480)460-2350 | | | E-mail Address at Website Fax:(480)460-2142 | Brass Rat | |

| 1962 | It's what you learn, after you know it all, that counts.

Red Dwarf - a british comedy series intent on taking the piss out off every sci-fi movie ever made:

My favorites are the totally unreliable equipment and the robot - Kryten - who always trying to put a blatantly wrong positive spin on things in spite of the situation.

f.ex. (From memory):

Crew has entered a ship infected with deadly virus, Kryten assures everyone that the "biohazard-sensor CTM 2000 is the latest in hazard detection technology and we are perfectly safe", checks display "although this model is know to take some time to warm up ...", then Kryten start beating the unit uttering profanities, scene ends with "ahhh now the result is .... YES we are going to Live"

... and then replaces the batteries.

Kryten: And we're going to....... live! Lister: We're a real Mickey Mouse operation. Cat: Mickey Mouse? We ain't even Betty Boop!

Mac wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@bar.net:

I had that thought while watching that movie.

I don't know if anyone else caught it,but in the movie "Enemy of the State",the pro-surveillance group was the Democrats,and the Repubs were against it.

--
Jim Yanik
jyanik
at
kua.net

The books are a joy to read, too. Better than Douglas Adams IMO.

SioL

I don't know that I'd go that far - they're different, more modern - not necessarily better. But yes I enjoyed them mightily.

Back in the days when I considered myself a Republican, defense of the Consitution and Bill of Rights was one of our tenets.