Notice: Please be advised that there
are photos containing nudity near the end of this blog post.
Please see the recent (October 2020) important addendum message at the very end of this post.
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| A French DVD package. |
Aside
from the obvious pushing-of-the-envelope to have a naked young woman
unconcernedly move the plot forward (which she does over and over again, a
point totally and criminally neglected by virtually all commentary, of
whichever era, that I have so far encountered), I never saw anything
particularly sexual or secretly Freudian about the movie. The movie was pure
entertainment with astonishing production values; but to hear some critics,
especially John Kenneth Muir and his disciples, you'd think the film was all
but a porn film with all their mentions of metaphors and diseases and
homoerotic embraces and phallic symbols and promiscuous, rampant sexuality, and
other nonsense. I can only wonder from what cockamamie realms these
so-called "critics" come from. They surely aren't seeing the same
movie I've seen a few dozen times. Of course, Tobe Hooper lays before us any
number of fabulously awesome and viscerally terrifying images, but always for
the sake of entertainment. The movie is a class-act roller-coaster ride, not
"a tour through human sexual proclivities of all types," as Muir
asserts with a completely straight face.
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| The U.S. and Japanese Laserdiscs. |
Furthermore,
"the naked girl" that causes so much consternation among so many
amateur Freudians and "serious critics" is likely and simply just
another aspect of Hooper's wanting to make a 70-mm Hammer film. During the late
60s and early 70s, as British censorship eased up its Puritan restrictions and
Hammer Films saw the bottom line begin to plummet, the studio's films began to feature naked women as a matter of course, hoping to regain its audience.
Though nearly always cut from the American versions, the UK and European cuts
of numerous films reveled in nudity: for example, Vampire Circus, Twins of Evil, Countess Dracula, The Satanic Rites of Dracula,
Creatures the World Forgot, Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde, The Vampire Lovers,
and To the Devil a Daughter to name a
scant few. The last was literally Hammer's last horror movie before the company
lost its heart and virtually died due to financial troubles. While full-frontal
female nudity was not uncommon during that final decade, To the Devil a Daughter perhaps took the esthetic to a higher level
by featuring in its final moments a totally nude teenage Nastassja Kinski out in
the open, calmly striding without benefit of bedding or foliage to somewhat
moderate such scenes. To my eye,
Kinski "calmly striding" in this film could easily be the original of
Mathilda May's "naked girl" calmly striding in Lifeforce (see photos below).
 |
|
The introductions of Mathilda May's "naked girl"
in Lifeforce.
Special photo juxtaposition by Thomas Kent Miller;
copyright © 2016-2017 by Thomas Kent Miller.
|
 |
Nastassja Kinski in the final scenes of
Hammer's
final horror film, 1976's To the
Devil a Daughter. |
By
the early nineties, I'd upgraded to Laserdisc and the European uncut widescreen
version of Lifeforce was released on
Laserdisc (see figures above), and I felt like I'd died and gone to heaven. The
DVD soon followed, and all was well in Mudville.
2013 Blu-ray Release
A
first impression one gets following the 2013 release of Lifeforce on Blu-ray in the U.S. and the U.K. is that the heretofore
general negative critical view of Lifeforce
seemed to have mollified somewhat. At that time, the film was revisited by
literally dozens of more or less "serious" critics on dozens of blogs
determined to treat the film, out of respect for the fine Blu-ray release,
somewhat more academically than it had been during the previous decades. I say
"perhaps" for good reason; with few exceptions, many of these
critics, both noted and not-so noted, didn't offer their thoughts so much as
they used the opportunity to heavy-handedly analyze the film, many in purely
Freudian terms, (while keeping their tongues firmly in their cheeks and
positively unable to keep their disdain to themselves). Some actually
occasionally said something nice about the film, but so begrudgingly, you could
tell it was as painful as having their teeth pulled. For example:
"As
flawed as it is, and it is far from perfect, there is a bravura and charm to
Lifeforce that still manages to make it insanely entertaining."—Daily
Record
"So
bad it's good."—Blu-ray Reviewer.com
"Cheeseball
classic."—Film Freak Central.com
"Lifeforce
is a glorious, demented bubblegum picture."—The Digital Fix.com
"The
film refuses to acknowledge the hysterical silliness of its hyperactive,
totally nuts narrative, choosing to play itself out instead as a deadly serious
piece of glossy, grim pulp fiction."—Coming Soon.net [Though this sounds
terrible, I prefer to give this remark the benefit of the doubt.]
However,
such a positive impression is really an illusion. Just see the samplings of
comments (about half 2013) in Part 1 of this article to see that really nothing had
changed.
Nonetheless, from the 2013 reviews there did emerge—miracle of miracles—the occasional sincere nice remark like:
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| Assorted packaging of the 2013 Blu-ray release. |
 |
| 2018 packaging. |
Nonetheless, from the 2013 reviews there did emerge—miracle of miracles—the occasional sincere nice remark like:
"Lifeforce is the grandest of
exploitation films, and it is a pity that distributor Tri-Star did its utmost
to distance itself from the director's intention and spirit."—Cathode Ray
Tube.com
"Lifeforce survives and, as far as I'm
concerned, it plays much better today than most genre films of its
time."—Roger Ebert.com
"This
is actually pretty nice sci-fi flick with some very decent special effects for
the day." —My Horrible Idea.com
“Seen
today, it's actually an astoundingly brave, weird movie that tries more and
accomplishes more than many of today's bland roller coaster rides.”—Jeffrey M.
Anderson, Combustible Celluloid.com
...and finally, to end on an authentic,
much-appreciated high note
“Lifeforce
is an incredible film, and may by be the most intelligent vampire movie ever
made ... [The ideas presented in Lifeforce]
are beyond [others vampire movies] beyond all of them, light-years beyond ...
the story is what makes this movie hum.... Lifeforce
is a true, thinking sci-fi fan’s film.”— long-time horror and science fiction
writer C. J. Henderson In The
Encyclopedia of Science Fiction Movies
"Lifeforce, for me, is great because it
is simply visually stunning. From the alien craft to the space vampires
themselves to their victims, every element within the film is crafted with
dedication and love." —Lauren Taylor on Bloody Disgusting.com. Read the
entire uniquely positive Blu-ray review at
http://bloody-disgusting.com/reviews/3238735/bd-review-lifeforce-is-still-visually-stunning/
But, let us not come to a screeching stop quite yet. In
October 2019, I started a Facebook group titled "Lifeforce (Tobe Hooper's
grandly perfect motion picture)". It was quite successful and in a matter
of days built a membership of 250. But, by July 2020 personal stuff caused me
to rethink my FB presence, with one result being that I asked a fine Tobe
Hooper expert named Jon Wilton to take over my admin role—which he did and is
doing with awesome creativity. He has even doubled the membership! Though he excels at many layers of FB group management,
he has a unique ability to hunt down and find NUMEROUS positive, even glowing,
Lifeforce reviews from all over the web, reviews that had eluded me. As far as I'm concerned, Jon IS the MAN. To read
many wonderful reviews, please check out the Facebook group at
https://www.facebook.com/groups/420057558703856 . In any case, Jon has miraculously found and posted perhaps dozens of glowing positive reviews of LIFEFORCE, Yay Jon!
Lifeforce (1985)
US/UK.
The Cannon Group, TriStar Pictures. Golan-Globus Productions. C. 2.35:1. 120m.
CREW:
Director Tobe Hooper. Script Dan O'Bannon & Don Jakoby. Based on The Space Vampires by Colin Wilson. Producers Yoram Globus, Menahem Golan. Score Henry Mancini. Director
of Cinematography Alan Hume. Editor
John Grover. Casting Maude Spector,
Ann Stanborough. Production Designer
John Graysmark. Costume Designer
Carin Hooper. Special Visual Effects
John Dykstra. Prosthetics and Special
Makeup Design Nick Maley.
CAST:
Col. Tom Carlsen Steve Railsback. Col. Colin Caine Peter Firth. Dr. Hans Fallada Frank Finlay. Space Girl Mathilda May. Dr. Armstrong Patrick Stewart.
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