I'm writing from home tonight, off work as mentioned in last night's blog. We had a freak thunderstorm a few hours ago, which cut short my usual walk, but earlier in the evening I did go over to my photographic perch on the roof of the CSUN parking garage to snap a few pix of the sunset. We hadn't had a good one all Summer because there was never a cloud in the sky (and no chemtrails, either), but this afternoon when I got home from Pearl's I saw the clouds approaching and thought there might be a chance for some photos, one of which I posted on FB, and another on my Flickr account. I love taking photos, and I need a new cam because my Linux has a dust smudge on the sensor, and I have to work every photograph around it. I try to hide the smudge in a dark area in any given photo, but it isn't always possible and anyway I am tired of doing it. So, a new cam is in my future in the new year.
And hopefully some new road trips to take pics at places I haven't been to.
Tonight on the Movie Parade, I watched a science fiction "classic" (well, not really) called "Beyond The Time Barrier" (1960). The imposing sci-fi title helps to save the film from C or D-grade movie status, and so does some awesome Air Force stock footage of the takeoff and flight of an F-102 fighter jet, posing as a rocket craft called the "X-80". Me being an X-15 fan, I was loving the first 10 minutes of the film, which makes use of a miniature F-102 to take the rocket plane scenario into space. The craft is supposed to fly to 500,000 feet, and the special FX are pretty good for a low budget movie. The pilot has flown to the desired altitude and is now approaching the speed of Mach 17 or some such, and what happens is that he makes a wrong turn, and at that speed it takes him Beyond The Time Barrier, fulfilling the promise of the title, which is very important.
I think that - besides fulfilling the promise of your movie title - that if you are going to fly an X-80, that you'd better keep both hands on the steering wheel so you don't make a wrong turn, because if you do you will have gone Beyond The Time Barrier, and if that happens - good luck to you. :)
At any rate, for the first 10 or fifteen minutes, I thought I may have stumbled upon a heretofore unknown sci-fi classic. It had Air Force footage, it was shot in black and white (a must for early science fiction), and it had a serious plot, ala the mission of the test pilot, who ultimately breaks through the Time Barrier. I have been reading this book for several months now called "Free Energy From The Vaccum" by Col. Thom Bearden, all about electrodynamics and how electrical systems interact with what Bearden calls the "time domain". We know that time is a dimension, as part of spacetime (Einstein's fourth dimension). Col. Bearden says that electromagnetic energy comes from the time domain, which is a physical thing. Time is physical, and it contains highly compacted energy.
Don't listen to me, just read the book because it's a life changer. It's 900 pages long, and quite a slog if you don't have a degree in electromagnetic engineering, but holy smokes is it ever a mindblower. It has taken me nearly four months to read because I only tackled about 7 or 8 pages per day. I wanted to comprehend everything I was reading, which is very technically oriented, and I am now near the finish line and will call it one of the greatest books I have ever read.
And because of it, I had a head start on the theory of going Beyond The Time Barrier. But then, when the pilot makes his wrong turn, instead of more awesome Air Force weird stuff, the movie turns into a set piece, and a level of "Plan 9 From Outer Space" is aspired to.
Well, perhaps things don't get that bad (or good), but it looks like someone on the production team fell in love with a location called the Dallas Fairgrounds. You might not expect that Dallas, Texas would be the place where 1960s "futuristic" architecture could be encountered, but I guess that some sophistication slipped through the cracks because the fairground set looks like something out of "Star Trek". The set is used as an underground "Citadel" where the pilot is taken, when he lands the X-80 sixty four years in the future, in 2024.
This means that he hasn't landed yet in our time, but in the movie, he's there.
The people who have captured him after he lands are victims of a worldwide plague, caused by cosmic rays that broke though the ozone layer because of too much atomic testing. These people live in the underground Citadel, besieged by Mutants with bald heads. They are on the verge of being depopulated, and so they want the pilot, who is healthy and not afflicted with plague, to be the sire of a new human race. In this regard, the Citadel leaders introduce him to a beautiful young deaf mute played by Darlene Tompkins (who was in "Blue Hawaii" with Elvis).
While it would be hard to turn down this offer, the pilot remains stoic in his insistence that he be released so that he can attempt a return flight to his own year of 1960 (a good year if I do say so myself). He gives a solemn promise that, if successful in his return to the past, he will make every attempt to prevent the future plague from happening.
"Beyond The Time Barrier" starts off in classic B&W/Air Force sci-fi fashion, then detours into socio/theatrical weirdness for the middle 45 minutes. The midsection of the movie has the feel of experimental theater, when everyone was exploring themes of the human psyche via the sci-fi format, in shows like "Outer Limits". The acting ranges from okay to pretty bad, though director Edgar G. Ulmer does keep things moving.
But the story does rally at the end, in the final 15 minutes, when the test pilot does make his return flight. I am revealing a lot of plot and giving spoilers, but in this case I have to, or you will never be compelled to see this movie, which I feel you need to do.
I can't give it Two Thumbs Up, and yet One Thumb is not enough. It is cheesy to be sure, but there's also that jet footage at the beginning and the end, and that romance in the middle.
Plus, there's that title.
At the end of the day, you know you have to see any movie called "Beyond The Time Barrier". Sci-Fi fits the Halloween paradigm, so you're good on that score, and anyway.....there's Mutants.
You can't go wrong with Mutants, right?
You of course agree, and so all is well. :)
I will see you in the morning after a sleep-in. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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