Did Children of Men rip off American Cyborg? And more
Children of Men courtesy Universal, Amercan Cyborg courtesy Warner
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Question: Someone told me that
Children of Men was a total rip-off of a movie called
American Cyborg. I find this hard to believe, but my local Blockbuster doesn't even
have
American Cyborg, so I can't check it out for myself. Have you heard
about this? Jake F
FlickChick: I had heard this rumor, but until your email I never got around to investigating. You piqued my curiosity, especially since
Children of Men (2006) is based on a 1992 book by acclaimed novelist
P.D. James and
American Cyborg: Steel Warrior was released in 1994.
Here are the similarities:
Both take place in a post-nuclear future in which society has largely broken down and women have become infertile. In
Children, it's been 18 years since the last child was born, in
Cyborg, it's been 17.
In
Children, a young, African-born woman named Kee (as in the
key to the future) has become inexplicably pregnant and must be escorted to the coast of England, where representatives of a shadowy scientific organization called Human Project will pick her up in a boat and take her to safety. In
Cyborg, a fertile woman named Mary (as in the mother of God) must be escorted to the west coast of the US, where French scientists will pick her up in a boat and take her to Europe; she's carrying her unborn baby in a sealed jar, the better for her to look super-foxy in leggings and a short tunic while still being a mother-to-be.
In both movies, the mother of the future has only a short time to reach the rendezvous or be left behind. In Children it's a couple of days, in
Cyborg it's 37 hours.
In
Children, Kee is threatened by both a racist government and a revolutionary group, and she's escorted by a world-weary former social activist. In
Cyborg, Mary is threatened by a humanoid cyborg dressed like Rob Halford of Judas Priest and acting on behalf of "The System" a Skynet-like artificial intelligence -- and various gangs, including a mob of cross-dressers in corsets and heels, and a community of radioactive cannibal mutants; her escort is an asocial, world-weary street fighter.
Even allowing for the fact that filmmaker Alfonso Cuaron and his screenwriting team (David Arata, Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby and Timothy J. Sexton) took considerable liberting in adapting James' novel, as far as I'm concerned if there were any question of cross-influence influence, it probably went to other way. Director
Boaz Davidson, who's credited alongside Christopher Pearce for the idea that writers Brent V. Friedman, Bill Crounse and Don Peqingnot fleshed out into a script, may well have read James' novel when it first came out and appropriated certain ideas. But American Cyborg also, shall we say,
borrows liberally from
The Terminator,
Terminator 2: Judgment Day and
Blade Runner, so we're hardly talking flat-out one-source plagiarism. More like some base form of filmmaking as collage.
And to top it all off, I recently ran across this quote online:
"[the character Vivia] was life and hope, as she is the only one carrying a child. This is a society without procreation, so that's why they make such a fuss about finding a girl being pregnant. I got that whole idea by reading about elks in Lapland: suddenly these herds would stop reproducing, and no one could figure out why."
That's the late
Robert Altman talking about his own
Quintet, which was released in 1979. Ideas, ideas that are worth anything, get around.
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FlickChick.
Question: This is somewhat of a strange question, but you're my favorite film critic... Slaving away at a paper on North Korea, I stumbled on a movie called
Pulgasari by director Shin Sang Ok. Given the fantastical story behind this Godzilla-as-capitalism (or so I'm told from various articles) movie (director and actress ex-wife kidnapped to North Korea to make movies) of it, I was wondering if you (or anyone else) have watched it, and particularly your thoughts on it. Perhaps I'm too young, but was this director really well known in the past and stupid me just happened to finally come across such a sensational story about the (in)famous director? Also, since you are an established author with your awesome
Movie Lust, I also would love to know if you (or anyone else) have any thoughts on Kim Jong Il's book
On the Art of Cinema. And finally, just want to say how strange it was to be researching for my paper one minute and to think of a question for FlickChick the next. Belly
Life is strange. Thanks for calling
Movie Lust awesome, but I have to confess that I've read only excerpts from Kim Jong Il's
On the Art of Cinema and came away thinking he is, in fact, more interested in the
uses of cinema. Which is more or less what you'd expect from a dictator. Joseph Goebbels was pretty sharp in that respect as well, though he never professed to be a dyed-in-the-wool movie fan, as Kim does. Both realized, movies are a powerful propaganda tool because many, perhaps even most, people regard movies as mindless entertainment and can't be bothered to examine the way in which they shape and reinforce cultural and political perceptions.
As to
Pulgasari and South Korean filmmaker Shin Sang-Ok, bizarre though the tale of Shin and his ex-wife, actress Choi Eun-hee, being kidnapped and forced to make propaganda pictures may be, it's apparently all true despite persistent official denials by the North Korean government. Choi Eun-hee, newly divorced from Shin, was kidnapped in 1978 and Shin who produced and directed dozens of South Korean films in the 1950s, '60s and '70s -- was abducted when he went to Hong Kong to look into her disappearance. The two of them made a series of films before escaping together during a 1986 business trip to Austria. They were granted asylum by the US and moved here. Shin worked a little in Hollywood under the pseudonyms Simon Sheen and Sang-Ok Sheep grim stuff like the
3 Ninjas movies -- and moved back to South Korea in the mid 1990s. He died in 2006.
Pulgasari, Legendary Monster (1985) is absolutely awful in the way the later Godzilla movies the ones in which he becomes a friend to small children are, though the circumstances of its production add some interest. Set in the 14th Century, it begins with the emperor's soldiers confiscating all metal goods from a village of poor farmers. The local blacksmith is told to forge weapons from the plows and bowls, but he secretly returns them to his neighbors. When the soldiers find out, he's beaten and locked in a small cage. Realizing that he's dying, the blacksmith fashions a little figurine of an upright, stump-tailed lizard out of mud and rice grains, imbuing it with the "last of [his] true heart". His grief-stricken grown daughter, Ami, and her younger brother rescue the little thing from their father's grasp as his body is taken a way for burial. While mending her brother's shirt, Ami accidentally pricks her finger and a few drops of blood fall on the e little statue, which comes to life. The creature, Pulgasari, eats metal and soon grows to child size. It rescues Ami's boyfriend from the emperor's executioners, eating their swords and growing still larger. Pulgasari eventually achieves Godzilla-like stature, and protects the villager from the emperor's army, who come at Pulgasari with everything they've got, including a pair of new-fangled cannons called "Lion Gun" and "General Gun." They
just don't get that the more metal they throw at Pulgasari, the bigger and stronger he becomes. Of course, the villagers eventually realize that they have, quite literally, created a monster. To keep from starving, Pulgasari eats up all their farm tools, water jars and cooking pots. Ami realizes that sooner or later, the only way she and the other villagers will be able to survive is by using Pulgasari as a weapon to conquer neighboring villages and countries for their crops. "Then the whole world would be at war," she thinks, "and humanity will fall. That's not good." So brave Ami sacrifices herself to destroy Pulgasari. I guess that's an allegory of rampaging capitalism unchecked, though it could equally well be read as a parable about apparently populist leaders who get too big for their britches and start thinking some pigs are more equal than others.
The good news is that you don't have to take my word for it:
Pulgasari, Legendary Monster is available in its entirety
here. Be amazed. Be very amazed.
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FlickChick.
Question: I remember watching part of this really bizarre movie a few years ago in high school that has stuck with me ever since, I just can't remember the title of the movie. It's a German movie, but it's set in New York City and I remember this one scene where a man is about to put on a condom when the condom comes to life and bites off his, well, you know. Did I dream this all up, or is it an actual movie? Sarah
FlickChick: I think you'll be relieve to know you did not dream up the idea of condoms
dentata. There is a German movie called
Kondom des Grauens (1998) which I believe translates "condom of screams," and was retitled
The Killer Condom when it was released in the US by Troma, your one-stop shop for crappy movies. You can get it on DVD under the typically Troma new-and-improved title
Killer Condom: The Rubber That Rubs You Out.
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FlickChick.
Question: I saw a zombie movie on TV back in the fifties, when I was a young girl. I remember an old voodoo woman who summoned the zombies to the table to eat. One was named Jeff; I don't remember the name of the actor , but he was short and chunky. When he started to use salt, the woman said "no" -- zombies can't have salt because they'll dry up. Can you please tell me if this scene is in
White Zombie or whether I'm looking for another movie. Curious
FlickChick: You're not looking for
White Zombie (1932), an uneven, Hatian-set picture with a couple of very creepy and stylish sequences. The scene you describe is in
King of the Zombies (1941), a low-budget picture that combines zombies, Nazis and some pretty offensive if typical of its time -- race-based humor. Ironically, the role of the Austrian scientist Dr. Sangre, played by
Henry Victor, was intended for
White Zombie star
Bela Lugosi. Given all the junk he made, it's a wonder he got out of this one, but he did. King of the Zombies appears to be in the public domain and is therefore available on DVD from several small companies, alone or on double/triple bills. If you want to revisit your childhood memories, go for the least expensive.
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FlickChick.
Question: Is there a secret trick or combination of buttons that will let me go straight to the start of a DVD and skip all the ads and government warnings? -- Dewey
FlickChick: This is not usually the kind of question I answer, but also hate the hell out of having to sit through ten minutes of coming attractions for movies in which I have zero interest. Nothing I know of will save you having to watch the FBI warning, but once that's over, hitting the "disc menu" button on your remote should bypass all the coming attractions and anti-piracy skits.
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FlickChick.
Question: Everyone thinks I'm nuts, but I know I saw this movie and I may very well be the only one. It was about a town that paints all the buildings pink in order to attract tourists. It may have had something to do with getting an exit off the interstate? No one knows what I'm talking about, but I swear someone made this movie! -- Jess
FlickChick: And you're right.
John Schlesinger made it, it being the ensemble comedy
Honky Tonk Freeway (1981), in which the residents of tiny Ticlaw, Florida, try a variety of nutty ways to get tourists to visit after the new freeway entirely bypasses the town. They include a water-skiing elephant and painting the whole town pink. The film was shot in Mount Dora, Florida, and the whole downtown really was painted pink for the film, much to the dismay of some locals.
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FlickChick.
Question: I just watched
Eragon with my kids and they loved it. They're already asking if they can see the next part, which I assume will be named Eldest. I've tried to find information about the sequel, but the only things I can find are about the book. Can you help us? Kirsten
FlickChick: Not much. Although
Eragon (which just came out on DVD) opened to scathing reviews in the US and didn't do much theatrical box office, it was reviewed just as badly abroad and did fine. So it makes sense that 20th-Century Fox would go ahead and greenlight
Eldest, based on the second book in Christopher Paolini's fantasy trilogy. But it's not on the company's current schedule, and after putting in calls to various Fox employees in New York and Los Angeles, I came away with nothing except a strong sense that nobody wants to talk about
Eldest. I got bounced from one office to another until I dead-ended on some senior VP of disinformation's voicemail. I don't expect a callback, but if I uncover anything I'll post it later.
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FlickChick.
Question:
Loved the first edition of
Movie Talk (at least, this was the first time I saw it). My question: will this become a permanent deal...you guys talking about movies and everything that comes along with this territory? I must say, I don't usually pay close attention to movie reviews on TV or something like that, but I certainly very much enjoyed your entertaining yet informative show. Svetislav
FlickChick: Thank you, and yes: Movie Talk is a weekly feature.
New segments go live every Friday in the movies section. Cynics, stop it right now. This is a 100% real letter. If I were making it up, I wouldn't sign it Svetislav.
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FlickChick.
