FANTASIA OBSCURA: The Rich, the Powerful and Alan Arkin the Alien?
There are some fantasy, science fiction, and horror films that not every fan has caught. Not every film ever made has been seen by the audience that lives for such fare. Some of these deserve another look, because sometimes not every film should remain obscure.
Sometimes, when you need to find yourself, you may need to take on a different perspective, at the risk of alienation…
Simon (1980)
Distributed by: Orion Pictures
Directed by: Marshall Brickman
Usually, when we watch an evil scientist at work, we get someone who’s strutting like a peacock for attention, nihilistic and probably quite mad as the genius puts on a flashy show to let everyone know their name as they destroy the world with all sorts of lights and sound.
Which makes the evil scientists at the opening of this film, reclusive and very quiet, and in all likelihood saner than us, all the more disturbing…
The film opens at the Institute for Advanced Concepts, which a narrator (James Dukas) describes as a major think tank funded covertly by the government. The narrator becomes an interviewer when he asks the head of the think tank, Dr. Becker (Austin Pendleton), about his institution’s purpose. Quite nonchalantly, he admits that they were brought together to solve the world’s problems, but got bored with that and dedicated themselves to messin’ with everyone’s stuff.
We then meet the rest of the geniuses, men of great intellect but few morals. There’s Dr. Hundertwasser (Max Wright), whose main project is the ability to goose Nielsen numbers, taking credit for radically inflating the ratings for Donnie & Marie from just 1,200 to 60 million viewers. We meet Dr. Barundi (Jayant in his only listed role), who lets us know that the Nixon who went to China in 1972 was not the one that came back; Dr. Fichandler (William Finney), a chemist/biologist who takes credit for developing penicillin-resistant gonorrhea; and Dr. Von Dongen (Wallace Shaw), who is trying to crossbreed humans with cockroaches to produce a true super species.
We soon lose the narrator (a possible victim to an experiment?) as we watch this brain trust get together to discuss their next prank project: With so many Americans actually believing in extraterrestrials according to a Gallup poll, they decide to see what happens if one did show up. With the aid of their AI powered searchable database (a beta version of Google), Doris (voiced by an uncredited Louise Lasser), they find their “alien”.
He’s Simon Mendelssohn (Alan Arkin), an assistant professor with the psychology department at Columbia University. A frustrated underappreciated teacher who’s experimenting with a sensory deprivation tank to delve deeper into the human mind (ironically, a good 10 months before Altered States came to theaters to explore that plot point more seriously), he has ideas and theories that no one takes seriously, although his girlfriend Lisa (Judy Graubart) tries to be supportive.
He’s also an orphan whose parents could not be traced, which among other things qualifies him to be the Institute for Advanced Concepts’ test subject. They convince him that he is brilliant and seduce him with an advanced lab and an almost too perfect assistant, Dr. Cynthia Mallory (Madeline Kahn), all the while getting bodily fluids from him that will be altered to prove that he’s not one of us.
At the right time, they make their move: They lock Simon in a sensory deprivation tank for 197 hours, which is supposed to make him more easily programmable. But first, they have to deal with the side effects affecting Simon:
Their project set up, they premiere Simon to an unsuspecting world. The scientists, however, were not expecting Simon to take to his role as extraterrestrial spokesman quite so forcefully:
Soon, Lisa shows up at the Institute, just as the Fearsome Five decide to pull the plug on their stunt. Luckily, Simon and Lisa escape, finding refuge at a commune that worships all things on television, run by a leader who used to be a programmer at ABC (Adolph Green). With the military looking for their “alien,” commanded by Major General Kory (Fred Gwynne), Simon has to try and understand himself as he tries to save us from ourselves…
In many ways, Simon’s search to define his identity mirrored that of Brickman’s. After co-writing the screenplays for Sleeper, Annie Hall, and Manhattan, the motivation was certainly there to see if he could do it all by himself. And test himself he surely did: Not only was this his first solo theatrical screenplay, but Brickman’s directorial debut as well.
As a director, you can see in how he frames his shots that he didn’t want to get too flashy the first time out, so visually the set ups feel pedestrian. To counter this, though, he had a fantastic cast of actors who could bring enough wattage in their performances to fill the screen. He gets such potent performances, especially from Arkin, that Brickman could have just left the camera sitting on a table the whole time without touching it and still had something to watch. (As well as plenty to hear, too, thanks to Stanley Silverman’s wonderful score.)
As for Brickman’s script, its main strengths are also its biggest weakness. Plied atop an interesting rumination as to questions of identity and where the truth lies are jokes that were very au currant at the time, tied to his main stomping grounds. The further one gets from New York City and/or the 1970s, the less of a hold they have on the viewer. There’s some great material there, though, if you can relate to it.
As noted, there are deeper questions concerning identity in the story. Who we are, what we stand for, what makes us better, all of these are looked at. Simon in the end asks us whether we are able to look at ourselves, and more importantly, can we really self-examine ourselves properly.
The only clue it gives us as to where it stands on the issue is, try and do this without some evil scientists around…
NEXT TIME: Next week is supposed to be good for fireworks, though we’re doing less “Star Spangled Banner” than Starland Vocal Band, ifyouknowwhatImean…
