HARDWARE

U.K. - U.S.A. | 1990 Directed by Richard Stanley Starring Dylan McDermott Stacey Travis William Hootkins Color | 93 Minutes | Not Rated Format: DVD (R0 - NTSC) Severin Films

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		Review by Rod Barnett Film:4 DVD:10

Richard Stanley's career as a filmmaker had a strange trajectory. Early in his twenties he grabbed the brass ring and was able to make feature films for Hollywood, but after a couple of financially underperforming efforts and a public firing from a third project he fell off the map. 'Flame-out' would be the best term, I suppose. Of his two science fiction/horror movies from the 1990s I had liked Dust Devil but felt that this film, Hardware, was a sloppy, budget-deprived, poorly scripted jumble of ideas that needed a sharper focus and a surer hand. But memories are a strange thing. After about 15 years I had begun to wonder if my first viewing might have been too harsh. It was possible that a return visit might find a rough gem in need of some polishing instead of the head-scratching mess I remembered. Well, its 2009 and I've seen the film again... but sadly, it wasn't a great idea.

The film takes place in a post-apocalyptic future that by 1990 was pretty much a cinema standard, with a desert landscape creating the tone and a scrapheap of an urban wasteland providing the setting. We see a wandering loner find a half-buried pile of machinery in the desert and cart it back to a ruined, underpopulated city. There he sells most of it to Mo (Dylan McDermott) who thinks it will be the perfect Christmas gift for his artist girlfriend Jill (Phantasm 2's Stacey Travis). Mo has just returned from his latest off-world job and looks forward to some romantic leave time. Jill is indeed pleased by the gift but instead of using it to craft her usual decorative pieces for the rich "uptowners" she decides to make something for herself. As Mo and Jill reacquaint themselves with some sweaty coupling in her cramped apartment, a peeping tom neighbor also watches through a telephoto lens. This photo-taking pervert has been playing voyeur with Jill for some time and the new sexual floorshow pushes his buttons effectively.

Meanwhile, the junk dealer that ended up with one chunk of the machinery Mo bought has been researching it and discovers that it is part of a discontinued military hunter/killer robot, the MARK-13. The government had this particular model scrapped because it's built-in self preservation capability made it more dangerous to the soldiers it was supposed to protect than the enemy. The dealer contacts Mo, informs him of the junk's value and tries to convince him to set up a transaction and sell the robot for some big money. But as Mo leaves the apartment to start negotiations the newly artistic pile of machinery finishes its stealth theft of power from the apartment building's grid and makes its murderous move.

Hardware is nothing more or less than a consciously admitted attempt to rip-off The Terminator with a smaller budget. No doubt visions of a career launch in the vein of James Cameron danced through writer/director Richard Stanley's head as he marshaled his resources and planned his movie. It's easy to see why he might have thought this story could succeed — a post apocalyptic setting can help hide budgetary constraints; setting 90% of the film in a single location helped as well and meant tension could be easily built; a small cast enabled a level of control that might make production less complicated. It didn't work out all that well, unfortunately, and it's pretty easy to see why. Among a number of failings, the film wallows in bad taste and sordid characters without any real reason. The sleazy voyeur character (William Hootkins, "Porkins" in the original 1977 Star Wars) is a fat, drooling scumbag who is made to look and act like the biggest jerk possible so that when he becomes the MARK-13's first victim it's almost as if the film wants you to cheer. But at least that character gets a chance to make an impression, unlike Mo's best friend Shades (John Lynch), who stumbles through the movie in a kind of pathetic drugged-out haze, or the comedy relief apartment building security guards who come off as sad ethnic jokes with silly accents. One of the biggest mistakes of the film is that none of the characters make any strong impression at all. This is a crippling mistake, as we need to care about Jill's predicament for the final act to work at all. Actress Stacey Travis works very hard doing what she can as the damsel in danger forced to fight back, but the lingering impression I retained from the whole movie was of Dylan McDermott's apparently impervious hairdo. Seriously — his hair is never out of place or less than stylish, even with some dirt or robot debris sprinkled in it.

As a director Stanley is woefully under-talented in almost every area the story needs to succeed. While he does manage to create some atmosphere with red and blue lighting at times, he clearly doesn't understand dialog well enough to sell anything other than the most basic information to move the plot forward. The film has no real sense of location, with the claustrophobic feel of the Jill's apartment being undercut in the final 20 minutes; it seems to grow in size to accommodate the battle with the robot. There is zero emotional investment in the paper thin characters or overly simple story. Stanley's attempts to be artistic or avant-garde throughout the film are generally dull and uninspired, making the viewer focus on the thinness of the story or its painfully slow crawl. There is never any real sense of this future world or how people relating to each other post disaster being any different from the present day. Outside of the occasional tossed-off mention of day to day ephemera, the movie could be taking place in a modern setting among down and out people existing on the fringes of society. There are cameo appearances by Lemmy of the great metal band Motorhead (as a water-cab driver) and Iggy Pop's voice (as a radio DJ) but neither adds to the film any more than a passing notice that a celebrity was paid for a day's work. Overall Hardware isn't the worst science fiction film of the '90s but it's far from being worth much attention, either.

Clearly Severin doesn't share my lack of enthusiasm for the film. They have issued Hardware in a new two DVD special edition that easily paints the film in as good a light as possible. First the film has been lovingly digitized and looks fantastic. The clarity of the image is stunning showing every bit of detail that was put onscreen very well and making the attempts to be visually clever pop off the screen instead of recede into murky darkness. The film is presented widescreen and enhanced for 16X9 TVs with both 5.1 Dolby and 2.0 audio track choices. I doubt the movie could look any better except on the simultaneously released Blu-ray disc (also from Severin). If you're a fan your wait for a great copy is over.

As you might expect from a double-disc set the extras are plentiful. Director/writer Stanley contributes a commentary track in which the South African native talks at length about every aspect of the film that you might imagine. This is a pretty good listen and I have to admit that I found a trip through Hardware with him talking about it much more interesting than just watching the movie. I was fascinated a great deal of the time especially by his descriptions of unfilmed sections of story.

Disc 2 contains the bulk of the goodies and they are impressive. The 55- minute documentary No Flesh Shall Be Spared looks at the movie's production and has on-camera interviews with Stanley, Stacey Travis, Lemmy, producer Stephen Wooley, cinematographer Steven Chivers and conceptual designer Graham Humphreys among others. This is a very good short that gives some insight into what it was like to put this film together with some of the participant's attitudes being amusing, to say the least. Of even more interest to fans will be the prequel of sorts, Incidents in an Expanding Universe. This is the 40-minute Super 8mm movie that Stanley shot in the late '80s that lays out how Mo lost his right hand and how he and his buddy Shades met. It's actually a pretty interesting piece considering its extreme low budget and I think I enjoyed it more than the feature! It doesn't look or sound perfect, but it's a twenty-plus year old, poorly preserved short never commercially released so I'm just happy it exists to see. Much like the feature it wears it influences on its sleeve (Blade Runner, The Road Warrior) but, possibly because of its relative brevity, is less irritating. Another early 8mm short called Rites of Passage is included as well as a ten minute-long 2006 film called The Sea of Perdition. Neither of these is particularly fantastic but they aren't bad. In a separate interview segment Stanley talks about the plans he had for expanding the world of Hardware with a sequel that delved into the MARK-13's reason for existence. I can't say I'm unhappy it never got green-lighted but the director makes a good case for his ideas. Rounding things out are a collection of deleted and expanded scenes showing what had to be cut to secure a more commercially viable R rating.

An impressive DVD set to say the least. 12/09/09

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