The movie "The Time Machine", which is based on the book by Wells, takes a common Hollywood approach: it removes most of the social and political content in favor of the love story and the special effects
Lewis Bill
From "The Time Machine". Parable of the class war
When Wells was in his late 70s, an English lecturer from Cambridge asked the famous writer and visionary how he would like to be remembered. Wells replied that the inscription should be on his grave: "To hell with you all, I told you so!"
Things may sound grumpy, but there was sorrow in them. For about 50 years, Wells predicted the future, and unfortunately some of his predictions turned out to be extremely accurate. Atomic warfare, air battles, the dangers of genetic engineering and scientific arrogance, the negative impact of technology on humanity - Welles wrote about all of them in novels that gained great popularity, such as "The Seer and the Unseen", "The Island of Doctor Moreau" and "The War of the Worlds".
However, none of these books reached the level of success of Welles' 1895 masterpiece The Time Machine, considered by many to be the first modern science fiction novel. The book was a brilliant combination of scientific speculation, a sociological essay and a suspenseful plot. Not only did she contribute to popular culture the concept of time as a physical dimension; He also created a parable about class war: two futuristic races, the "Eloi" living above the ground and the "Morlock" living underground, symbolize the class of the rich and the working class of Wells' time.
More than 100 years after the first edition was printed, "The Time Machine" is still an exciting and impressive book. However, the colorful new film, based on Welles' novel, takes a standard Hollywood approach: it removes most of the social and political content of the book in favor of the love story and special effects.
This is nothing new, as evidenced by previous adaptations of Welles's books. John Logan, the contemporary "Time Machine" screenwriter, says: "Filmmakers are mainly interested in the Jules-Verney side, in futurism and in the amazing idea that serves as a starting point for the plot: 'What would happen if I could travel in time?' When you make an entertaining film, the political ideas are left on the sidelines, and rightly so, because in cinema this combination would not have been successful."
The latest version of "The Time Machine", which will be released in Israel on the 28th of the month, was directed by Welles' great-grandson, Simon Welles, an animator who co-directed "The Prince of Egypt". It stars Guy Pearce ("Memento", "Al-A Secrets"), in the role of Alexander Hartdegen, the time-traveling inventor. Despite the family connection, Welles chose to almost completely delete the class question from the film. "100 years have passed since the book came out," he says, "and I'm not sure the class struggle is still relevant."
Welles also added romance to the plot. "I wanted to find in the story some kind of personal connection to the audience, as Wells did in later books, such as 'Kips,'" he says. This is not exactly what my grandfather had in mind when he wrote "The Time Machine". The book offers a pessimistic view of the future and a mournful statement about human development. A form of thought and a visual and cinematic imagination already in his early books," says Robert Crosley, a lecturer in English literature at the University of Massachusetts in Boston.
The romance between Welles and cinema began in 1919, when a silent adaptation of his book "The First Men on the Moon" was filmed. Welles himself was a film buff; He played in the series "Idol of the Jungle", from 1922 and wrote scripts for the films "Things to Come" and 1936 (Miracles) "The Man who Could Work). Welles saw cinema as a perfect tool for bringing his ideas to a mass audience, and stated that cinema is "the greatest of the arts, with the ability to become the greatest art form of all time".
As happens with all excellent materials, there were those who savagely destroyed his books and there were those who treated them with respect. A good example is "The War of the Worlds" from 1953, produced by George Fall and directed by Byron Haskin. This is an intelligent movie, where Martians attack California. Despite the obvious anti-communist subtext, the film excels in Oscar-winning special effects, beautiful color photography, and plot momentum befitting Welles' own quasi-documentary storytelling style. Among the many film adaptations of his books, the films "Island of Lost Souls" from 1933 and "The First Men on the Moon" from 1964 stand out.
Actually two films, the screenplay for which was written by Welles himself, today seem outdated and didactic. The first is "Work Miracles" "The Man who Could" from 1936 with Roland Young in the role of Zeban who was given the ability by the gods to perform extraordinary deeds, to allow the higher forces to "see what lies in the human heart". In the end, not surprisingly, he takes advantage
abuses his powers and almost brings about the destruction of the earth. The film, which is supposed to be funny-bitter, is received as a dry moralizing.
A more interesting film is "Things to Come", also released in 1936. The film is based on a book and screenplay by Welles, which describe the destruction of civilization due to a world war, and its redemption by an elite group of scientists, who establish a futuristic society based on technology and reason. It is a film with amazing sets and images, presenting a vision of a race of super beings saving humanity from itself, with a distinctly totalitarian tone.
But filmmakers don't really care what Welles meant. They just want to put the cool parts on the screen. In the digital age, the desire to give the hot pieces an even hotter look can be stronger than anything. "With the explosion of digital technology, it's no surprise that filmmakers are drawn to the visual possibilities," says Walter P. Perks, producer of "The Time Machine." "In recent years we have seen many successes in the field of classic genres that have been renewed with digital techniques".
