- TCM schedule today – Sept. 12 (primetime): Turner Classic Movies will be airing five titles illustrating its creepy topic of the evening, “Effects of Modern Technology.” They are: Jean-Luc Godard’s Alphaville, Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, Michael Anderson’s Logan’s Run, Donald Cammell’s Demon Seed, and Douglas Trumbull’s Brainstorm.
- This “Effects of Modern Technology” article includes a brief overview of three TCM titles: Alphaville, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Logan’s Run.
TCM schedule today – Sept. 12 (primetime): 5 titles illustrate the grim, hideous, ghastly ‘Effects of Modern Technology’
In accordance with its theme, “Effects of Modern Technology,” on the evening of Sept. 12 Turner Classic Movies will be airing five titles that illustrate one particular – potential – result brought about by technological innovations. (See TCM’s “Effects of Modern Technology” movie schedule further below. Most titles will remain available for a while on the Watch TCM app.)
Like, convenience, comfort, safety? Maybe, if you look at the downside, pollution?
No, nothing that mundane.
Jean Luc-Godard’s Alphaville, Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, Michael Anderson’s Logan’s Run, and Donald Cammell’s Demon Seed show what happens when artificial intelligence develops a sense of self. As in, “I think, therefore I am your ruler.”
Douglas Trumbull’s Brainstorm, for its part, shows how humans – in this case, the U.S. military and its contractors – can use “mind-empathetic” supercomputers to torture and control others.
Now, before anyone decides to go all QAnon (seriously, this does not stand for Queers Anonymous) on TCM, remember that nefarious machines and nefarious machine manipulators are a good topic. Especially since the (purportedly) imminent threat posed by A.I. has been amped up in just about every nook and cranny of the global media, corporate or otherwise.
So, take a breather. And start stacking up on canned food and bottled water.
Below is a brief glimpse at three of TCM’s “Effects of Modern Technology” movies (listed in chronological order) airing on Sept. 12: Alphaville, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Logan’s Run.
Alphaville (1965)
Directed and written by Jean-Luc Godard, the French New Wave sci-fier Alphaville stars American immigrant Eddie Constantine as secret agent Lemmy Caution*, Danish immigrant Anna Karina as a supercomputer programmer whose father created the titular technocratic dystopia, and Armenian-Russian immigrant and two-time Academy Award nominee Akim Tamiroff (The General Died at Dawn, 1936; For Whom the Bell Tolls, 1943) as a rogue agent (“Thanks, Madame Pompadour. Ah, Madame Bovary!”).
Whether or not you can understand French, the actors’ speech patterns matter far less than the film’s noirish setting: 1960s Paris, which is supposed to pass for the futuristic Alphaville, ruled by the autocratic supercomputer Alpha 60 – which, it seems, is just a metal-and-wires version of Vladimir Putin, Viktor Orbán, Kim Jong Un, Nicolás Maduro, Donald Trump (on a at least semi-coherent day), and facsimile.
Alphaville was the Golden Bear winner at the 1965 Berlin Film Festival.
* Eddie Constantine had played Lemmy Caution in several other features, beginning with a couple of 1953 releases: Bernard Borderie’s Poison Ivy and Jean Sacha’s This Man Is Dangerous.
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Directed by Stanley Kubrick, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Arthur C. Clarke, 2001: A Space Odyssey is unquestionably one the greatest movies ever made. Indeed, the film is such a phenomenal artistic achievement that it failed to receive a Best Picture Oscar nomination.*
Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood star as two Jupiter-bound American scientists who find themselves at odds with a supercomputer, HAL, whose self-preservation instincts, power lust, and unwillingness to admit mistakes make him appear … human.
Now, this isn’t a story about the Triumph of the Computer Spirit. That’s why the last thing you see on screen before the end credits is not a central processing unit but a human face. One that will give you nightmares for the rest of your natural life.
Note: 2001: A Space Odyssey special effects supervisor Douglas Trumbull directed TCM’s “Effects of Modern Technology” offering Brainstorm, whose production was hindered by the unexpected death of costar Natalie Wood in 1981.
* Stanley Kubrick won the Best Visual Effects Oscar. 2001: A Space Odyssey was shortlisted in three additional categories: Best Director, Best Original Screenplay,† and Best Art Direction (Anthony Masters, Harry Lange, Ernest Archer.)
† 2001: A Space Odyssey was partly inspired by Arthur C. Clarke’s 1951 short story “The Sentinel.”
Logan’s Run (1976)
Even though he directed one of the most successful movies ever made, the 1956 Best Picture winner Around the World in 80 Days, Michael Anderson never gained much of a following.
Today, his name is rarely mentioned in discussions about filmmakers of the 1950s and 1960s, when, besides Around the World in 80 Days, his output also included the World War II drama The Dam Busters (1958), the solid thriller Chase a Crooked Shadow (1958), and the decent action/trial drama The Wreck of the Mary Deare.
Blame it on Orca (1977). Or maybe Murder by Phone (1982).
And yet Anderson’s dystopian Logan’s Run does have its fans. Perhaps it’s the influence from H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine. Or the Oscar-winning special effects.†† (Not a competitive category that year.) Or it could be the presence of a pre-stardom Farrah Fawcett in a supporting role.
Anyhow, the plot is a simple – albeit not exactly inspirational – one: A computer-ruled 23rd-century society maintains its socioeconomic stability – available resources vs. consumption, no fracking – by eliminating everyone who reaches a certain age. What to do if you’re a society member who, like 2001’s HAL, wants to go on living?
Michael York and Jenny Agutter star, while the director’s talented son, Michael Anderson Jr. (who deserved a far more rewarding big-screen career), and two-time Oscar winner Peter Ustinov (Spartacus, 1960; Topkapi, 1964) have supporting roles. David Zelag Goodman was credited for the Logan’s Run screenplay, based on William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson’s 1967 novel.
†† Logan’s Run was shortlisted for two other Oscars: Best Art Direction (Dale Hennesy and Robert De Vestel) and Best Cinematography (Ernest Laszlo).
Immediately below is TCM’s “Effects of Modern Technology” movie schedule.
‘Effects of Modern Technology’: TCM schedule (EDT) – Sept. 12
8:00 PM 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Director: Stanley Kubrick.
Cast: Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, William Sylvester, Daniel Richter, Leonard Rossiter, Margaret Tyzack, Robert Beatty, Ann Gillis.
149 min. Science-Fiction.10:45 PM Alphaville (1965)
Director: Jean-Luc Godard.
Cast: Eddie Constantine, Anna Karina, Akim Tamiroff, Jean-Pierre Léaud, László Szabó, Howard Vernon.
100 min. Science-Fiction.12:45 AM Logan’s Run (1975)
Director: Michael Anderson.
Cast: Michael York, Richard Jordan, Jenny Agutter, Michael Anderson Jr., Farrah Fawcett, Roscoe Lee Browne, Peter Ustinov, Randolph Roberts, Gary Morgan, Michelle Stacy, David Westberg.
118 min. Science-Fiction.3:00 AM Demon Seed (1977)
Director: Donald Cammell.
Cast: Julie Christie, Fritz Weaver, Gerritt Graham, Berry Kroeger, Lisa Lu, Larry J. Blake, Alfred Dennis, Davis Roberts, Patricia Wilson.
94 min. Horror | Science-Fiction.4:45 AM Brainstorm (1983)
Director: Douglas Trumbull.
Cast: Christopher Walken, Natalie Wood, Louise Fletcher, Cliff Robertson, Jordan Christopher, Donald Hotton, Alan Fudge, Joe Dorsey, Bill Morey, Jason Lively, Darrell Larson, Lou Walker.
106 min. Science-Fiction.
notes
“Effects of Modern Technology” movie schedule via the TCM website.
“Effects of Modern Technology on TCM: Dire Warnings” last modified in September 2024.