Excerpt:
Our must-see film picks

Some of our all-time favorites in various genres

By Erin Washington

The Time Machine (1960), based on the novel by H.G. Wells, had remarkable special effects for its time. Rod Taylor plays Wells, an English scientist in the 19th century who builds a time machine. His colleagues think he is a joke, but he soon jumps in his machine and pulls the lever, watching the world change in fast-forward before his eyes. Fashions come and go as he observes a storefront mannequin across the street from his house. This stop-action animation created a new kind of visual effect for film.

Soon he ends up 800,000 years in the future, and, after seeing the Earth go through tremendous geological changes, he stops in a time that seems suitable for life. He finds a group of people, all blonde, blue-eyed and under 30 years old. The rest of the film is devoted to figuring out the mystery of their way of life: They seem happy and in touch with nature, with plenty of provisions, but their lives are short.

What is interesting about this is the way it was interpreted in the 2002 film version of the novel, starring Guy Pearce, Samantha Mumba and directed by the great-grandson of H.G. Wells, Simon Wells. In this version, the people are all tan-skinned, suggesting a mixture of races over time that leads to a melting-pot race of people in the future. Other parts of the story are represented differently in the new version, which makes for a very different message. In particular is a hologram, played by Orlando Jones, who is a tour guide in a museum.

Pearce’s character gets out of the time machine several times in the 21st century and meets the hologram, who helps in answering many of his questions about the history of the planet since he left his time period.

While the new film has striking visuals, with the aid of computer graphics, it is the old film that is remarkable, for its social and environmental commentary, and its “old-school” special effects. Adding to that the notion that Wells’ book is credited with popularizing the idea of time travel, this is definitely a must-see for fans of the genre.