Customer Reviews

Glen and Randa [VHS]

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I'll keep it short. This film follows two teenagers through their attempts to cope in a world strewn with the debris of a collapsed civilisation (ours). Oddly poignant and wonderfully lacking in any pretentious silliness about "what might happen," i would recommend this film to anyone who likes films that address the ways real human beings try to get by in their lives and also has a penchant for quality science fiction.

Before Jim McBride became a famous producer/director, he made the ultra low budget "Glen and Randa" in 1970. Long considered a mini-sci'fi masterpiece by film cultists everywhere, G&R tells the slight story of two naive teens wandering a doomed landscape like a new Adam and Eve-- looking for the magical city of Metropolis.
The futileness of their quest is brought home in that we (the audience) know from the outset-- there is no such place. This makes the movie's touching conclusion all the more sad.
Shot for about a dollar "Glen and Randa" none-the-less, delivers its message of humanity's last gasp with aplomb and gravity.
This film deserves a comprehensive DVD release.

This is a post-apocalypic film in which a young man, accompained by his pregnant girl friend, search for the city of Metropolis, which he had seen in a comic book he found.

I originally saw it in its theatrical release, when it was X-rated due to sex and nudity (the film begins with the couple making love in a car body stuck in a tree). It's pretty mild by today's standards.

I was impressed at the time with the scenes of people searching through a ruined Howard Johnson's for canned goods. However, the quality of the video makes the characteristic orange roof muddy and unrecognizable. I also like the couple's meeting with an old man, who hadn't spoken to anyone years, and has difficulty remembering how to talk. It's little touches like that that are part of its charm.

But although it's the same film, the quality of the transfer to video (at least the copy I have) is poor. One brief scene also repeats in the video, a little disconcerting. It's too bad, because it's really is a fine film, thoughtful and touching. It was made by the Seattle Film Collective, and shot on location in the Pacific Northwest.

Should you buy it? Sure, if only to see it once. See if you can get copies of Brian DePalma's Greetings! and Hi Mom! too. Then you can have a real 60's retro movie party.

Avoid this DVD at all costs, for surely your money will be wasted. I bought this movie to feed my recent post apocalyptic binge, and though I found the movie to be strangely satisfying (I am not a huge Independent Buff) the quality of this DVD is terrible, and believe me when I tell you, my standards are not high. Aspect Ratio is 1.85:1/16x9 Anamorphic.

First off, the third chapter is unreadable. I don't know if this is a fault in the DVD I got or if all of them here are that way. Every other chapter is fine. Second, the sound is so bad you have to crank up the volume to where you hear a hum from the TV speakers during silent moments in the movie. I thought the picture quality was alright. People will still be unhappy with it though. The DVD comes with a lengthy interview with the director, Jim McBride, who had only confirmed my suspicions about him when he admitted that yes, he was a hippie in 1970 and yes, he was stoned when he directed this movie.

The movie itself received an X rating when it was originally released in 1970 for its shots of frontal nudity. It begins with Glen and Randa completely naked in the forest. Glen often finds himself wondering how humans lived before everybody was reduced to squalors scavenging the ruins of a dead civilization for food, until one day a traveling merchant pays a visit to their little community showing off all these weird mechanics and gizmos that no one there understands (a blender, [...], a record player). What happens next, I don't know since the DVD was too faulty and I had to skip to the next Chapter but Glen gets it in his head to leave the settlement and make a journey to Metropolis, a city where everyone is dressed in white and can soar through the air...

Randa does not want to go, but knowing she cannot survive without him, she reluctantly follows Glen to this mystical place. The journey there is long and challenging, and with a baby on the way, Randa becomes deeply concerned since food is so scarce in the wild, but Glen keeps raving about glittering lights, cars that go, Playboy, Miss January, The Rolling Stones and a bunch of other nonsense that Randa simply has never heard of and does not understand.

If you are looking for leather-clad warriors with shotguns held together by duck tape like in Madmax, you will need to steer clear of this film. Glen and Randa tries to depict a more realistic future of humanity. Instead of fighting gangs and tribes, Glen and Randa battle hunger. Instead of collecting oil, they collect firewood, cloth, and rope as they fight their way to the mythical city.

Unfortunately, VCI Entertainment is not trustworthy. The first DVD they put out for this movie is total crap.

A Boy and His Dog is a better movie. My opinion. I would have given this movie 3 stars if it were not for all the problems I had with the DVD. Threads is the best Post Apocalyptic Movie ever. Americans need to seriously discover that one.

Here's a quietly beautiful artifact from the end of the 1960s, one with a message that's still all too timely. Glen & Randa are two naive, blissfully ignorant young inhabitants of a post-apocalyptic America, wandering on a quest for a wonderful city we already know doesn't exist. The story is told in a series of blackouts, some holding only a single image for a moment. This minimalist approach not only suits the mood of the film, it makes what we're seeing almost documentary-like.

If you're looking for Mad Max-style violence & action, you won't find it here. Rather than offer adolescent power fantasies, the film offers a more convincing & chilling view of the post-apocalyptic world -- almost an emotional landscape, one that's been flattened & where all sense of meaning has been burned away in a searing instant. The survivors are all clearly traumatized, barely able to function; those born afterwards inherit only scraps of knowledge that tell them nothing.

And this is the message that comes through: just how fragile & thin the web of civilization really is, and how much we take it for granted. Glen & Randa are so terribly bewildered as they try & fail to understand things that seem glaringly obvious to us. Glen in particular has just enough dim awareness to realize that the knowledge he seeks is out of his grasp, that he can never really piece together a meaningful world. Yet he keeps on trying ... because what else can he do, after all?

I know this film has often been dismissed as self-indulgent hippie meandering. Certainly it's not the sort of thing that will immediately appeal to an audience raised on fast edits, quick cuts, and CGI. But give it a chance, fall into its slower & more contemplative rhythms, and you may find yourself strangely moved, much to your own surprise. More than that, it might make you think about the technology & culture you take for granted, assuming it'll always be there for you ...

Note: yes, the DVD has a problem with its third chapter locking up, so be warned. My five stars are for the film itself. Here's hoping VCI will correct this flaw in a newer DVD.

VCI Entertainment presents "GLEN AND RANDA" (1970) (94 mins/Color) (Fully Restored/Dolby Digitally Remastered) --- First time on DVD --- This story and film is a sadly forgotten sci-fi indie provides one of the cinema's less cynical visions of post apocalyptic Earth --- Glen (Steve Curry) and Randa (Shelley Plimpton) are young lovers, born years after worldwide nuclear decimation of civilization --- The survivors have become tribal, searching for food and water in a daily fight for life --- Glen has seen a Wonder Woman comic book, and believes that the fictional city of Metropolis does, indeed, exist. With his curiosity piqued, he and pregnant Randa embark on a journey to find it --- This film moves at a slow pace but is very captivating --- Keep you guessing what is going to happen next --- One of the most powerful aspects of this film is the fact that there are no characters who provide a sense of sanity and strength --- all of the older characters seem to have been driven into a sort of semi-schizophrenic absent-mindedness by whatever it was that took away their old civilization --- As our two main characters seem unaware of the inherent dangers of their travels that you seriously worry about their safety as they tramp barefooted through the mountains and across deserts --- this is a quiet, thoughtful film if you're looking for something unusual, you've came to the right place.

Under the production staff of:
Jim McBride (Director)
Lorenzo Mans (Screenwriter)
Jim McBride (Screenwriter)
Rudy Wurlitzer (Screenwriter)
Sidney Glazier (Producer)
Watson James (Associate Producer)
Alan Raymond (Cinematographer)
Jack Baran (Film Editor)
Mike Levine (Film Editor)

SPECIAL FEATURES:
1. Video Interview with director Jim McBride
2. Original Theatrical Trailer
3. Scenes from the Cutting Room Floor

the cast includes:
Steve Curry ... Glen
Shelley Plimpton ... Randa
Woody Chambliss ... Sidney Miller
Garry Goodrow ... Magician

Hats off and thanks to Robert Blair and his staff at VCI Entertainment --- VCI was named in Variety and Hollywood Reporter as the first company to produce and release motion pictures directly to the home marketplace --- order your copy now from Amazon or VCI Entertainment where there are plenty of copies available on DVD, stay tuned once again for top notch releases --- VCI are experts in releasing long forgotten films and treasures to the collector -- looking forward to more Nostalgic Collections.

Total Time: 94 mins on DVD ~ VCI Entertainment 8557 ~ (04/29/2009)

this is a hard to find film for the genre...worth watching for sure and earns you cool points if its in your collection

Glen and Randa is a 1970 film that was initially rated X for (gasp!) full frontal male nudity! Don't want people to see that male genitalia do we? Gosh no.

The film has a slight amateurish feel to it at times. Sometimes the scenes end abruptly in a choppy fashion. Some scenes linger on way too long.

Glen and Randa are a part of a group of holocaust survivors and decide to leave their group and wander on their own in search of one of the major cities in the US. What they find isn't what they expected.

The acting isn't bad but leaves something to be desired. It isn't polished. At times I was completely absorbed in the story and at other times it almost felt like a bad sketch from Love American Style. It's very uneven!

Watch it but be warned this is not top knotch film making here.

Great low-budget vision of an apocolyptic world. Haven't seen the special bonus "X" rated version DVD extra, but the two leads Steve Curry and Shelley Plimpton(mother to actress Martha and ex spouse of Keith Carradine) are no strangers to either nudity or sex: they were both original Broadway cast members of the classic rock musical HAIR(which is now enjoying a smash Broadway revival).

Glen and Randa doesn't "end on a hopeless note" at all! But I won't spoil the ending for you. This is a movie about discovery and learning, with all of 1970's current society removed and only people left - except for one crazy cat with a motorcycle and tech toys. Sort of a hippie paradise, except for the radioactivity. If you have any interest in great High Concept sci-fi no matter what the budget, this is a must see.