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22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
On the Twelfth Day of Christmas m True-Love brought to me..., December 1, 2004
This review is from: Hardware (DVD)
...A Nasty Mark-XIII military Warbot head---in a pear tree!
Well, not exactly---but that's the plot of Richard Stanley's surreal, cyberpunk, brutal, bloodthirsty dreamscape of a sci-fi flick "Hardware", which you should do whatever you need to do to beg, borrow, or steal a DVD copy. It's sick, bloody, good stuff.
First off, know that "Hardware" director Richard Stanley is a Hollywood wild-man: notorious for all sorts of brooding, decadent fits, he was sacked on the 2nd day of filming for the ill-fated (doomed!) "Island of Doctor Moreau". He snuck back on set clad in nothing but a dog-mask. Takes guts, Richard---takes guts.
Anyway, he was 24 when he helmed this sick, sacrilegious, probably evil little flick about the ultimate Christmas present gone wrong. Wayfaring soldier Moses Baxter (the grounded Dylan McDermott, who brings a lush breeze of reality to all the hynpotically surreal surroundings) finds a severed robot head in the hopelessly irradiated desert and hauls it back to his sexy, crazy artist-lover Jill (played wantonly by the yummy Stacey Travis...yeah). Turns out it's the head of the notoriously unreliable military warbot Mark XIII, and it has a nasty fetish for a little Yuletide bloodletting. Deck the Halls with Boughs of Holly, indeed.
I was relatively young and naive when I first saw "Hardware", and my young self thought the thing was positively immoral. I was shocked. The Mark XIII warbot is an angry young man: it kills viciously, indiscrimately, and then cloaks itself in the raw nuclear apocalypse reds and oranges and shadows of Baxter and Jill's little love shack. And mind you, this thing kills *brutally*. People are sliced in half and boy oh boy, the blood spills out like Franco-American carbonara sauce.
But the real treat here is the grim, brutal, low-oxygen nihilistic setting. We have reshaped the future, says director Stanley. We have modified it. We have tweaked it. We have custom-designed it. Death is now art, art is now Death. Isn't it only fair that Death gets to tweak us?
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17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
There is a god., February 18, 2003
This review is from: Hardware (DVD)
I cannot express my joy at the news that this film is coming to DVD. This is my favourite movie, and I believe one of the best ever made. I will admit that it can be a bit off putting to the untrained eye, but if you take the time, you will see that this is one of the most impressive, symbolism laden films ever made. Keep some very basic themes in mind, and you'll start to see beyond the great acting and stellar cinematography. The eyes are the windows to the soul. Water purifies and cleanses. On the surface, this film is about a robot that goes crazy in an apartment in the future and kills some people. Underneath, it's about the violation and destruction of one of the last bastions of hope and beauty in a messed up world. If you an answer some of these questions, you'll start to see the grander picture: Who covers their eyes when they fight the MARK 13. Compare this to who lives, and who dies. Who is the drifter (hint: he used to be an angel)? What two events happen in the shower, under a deluge of water, and why? Where is the drill on the MARK 13 located, and why is the last shot of Jill attacking it a removal of this drill? The first 4 letters of the MARK 13's serial number are BAAL. Why? Who or what is BAAL? Did you notice that the MARK 13 runs around killing people with an American flag on it's head, with a drug that smells like apple pie? Who is Jill quoting when she refers to the MARK 13 as being "our final solution." As you can see, there is far more to this film than meets the eye. If you'll give it a chance, and watch more than 20 minutes of it (see below), you'll see what an incredible work of art this movie is. And now, we'll have it in beautiful DVD format!
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20 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
*spoilers* to the person who gave it one star, October 18, 2005
1) Sterilization was being pushed by the government, not enforced. You could get sterilized for free was the whole thing, but not enough people were doing it.
2) Yes, hostile environment, which is exactly why overpopulation is a problem. Hostile environment = less room and less resources
3) Moses clearly states, about halfway though the movie that he is no longer employed by the military, to Jill's great chagrin. That is why he doesn't report for duty. DUH
4) Of course people are still going into space; the world they currently inhabit is not very friendly. Did you just not "get" Blade Runner either?
5) The "calamity" was a war that was still going on. That's why Moses WAS in the military. Talk of "the war" happens all through the movie. No one said anything about the war sterilizing people, it was something the government was encouraging people to do.
6) Jill didn't kill the MRK13 with a baseball bat (although that kinda helped) she "killed" it by putting it in the shower and turning on the water. It was said MANY times that it had a flaw that made it vulnerable to moisture/humidity. Where the heck were you? That was the only thing that was repeated ad nauseum.
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