Product Description

A visually sweeping sci-fi classic full of futuristic vistas and modern cityscapes based on the story by H.G. Wells and written for the screen by Wells. Beginning before World War II and travelling to 2036 AD this journey predicts a host of modernities before following a rocketship to the moon. Massey is a future leader determined to restore law and order.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: SCI-FI/FANTASY Rating: UNRATED UPC: 796019796545 Manufacturer No: 79654

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #20620 in DVD
• Brand: WELLSPRING/GENIUS
• Released on: 2006-11-28
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .20 pounds
• Running time: 92 minutes

Amazon.com essential video
Based on H.G. Wells's speculative meditation on the price of progress, this 1936 English science-fiction epic shows the painterly touch of director William Cameron Menzies, an American whose career in art direction and production design, as well as uncredited directorial work, attached him to such visual triumphs as Gone with the Wind, Alexander Korda's sumptuous 1940 Thief of Baghdad, and Menzies's better-known SF achievement as director, the original Invaders from Mars. Things to Come traces a generational saga that begins, presciently, with a global war that outlives its own political purpose, unraveling society to a Balkanized world of isolated communities. In the wake of a subsequent, devastating plague, a new technocracy arises, evolving toward Menzies's striking vision of vast, subterranean cities, rendered in matte paintings building on then-contemporaneous art-deco "streamlined" aesthetics. Driven more by theme than plot, Things to Come lacks the sheer momentum of other Wells classics brought to film (The Invisible Man, War of the Worlds, and The Time Machine, among them); but Menzies's bold look and a strong cast including Raymond Massey, Ralph Richardson, Cedric Hardwicke and a young Ann Todd explain the film's enduring appeal. --Sam Sutherland

Customer Reviews

SCI-FI
AN WELL MADE FILM WITH HOPES FOR THE FUTURE. DON'T BE FOOLED BY THE COVER...IT IS NOT A COLORIZED COPY OF THE FILM.

One of sci-fi's most underrated movies.
It's a great movie and like the best sci-fi it has a solid story to complement the special effects, it's a prophetic story even anticipating WWII, and giving a social critique about man's relationship with technology and where ourfuture might lead us, solid acting, good story, but bear in mind that it's from an era before CGI and in the infancy of big budgets and special effects.

THINGS TO COME (Colorized) - Definitely worth the price
First of all, I just wish to clear the air for those fans who may be sitting on the edge wondering if they should buy another poor copy of THINGS TO COME, a wonderful but extremely dated film. This DVD transfer is about the best I have watched since I started collecting copies of this old movie.

All my prior VHS and DVD copies were made from terribly degraded originals and could barely be watched without feeling like you weren't forcing the situation. This DVD is far from perfect, but may possibly represent the best they can now do, and is worth the price in any case. I really don't know the business of digital enhancement, however, I suspect a more meticulous job of making the transfer might improve the DVD only slightly, after all these years of wear and tear on the film.

Viewers interested in the preservation of the original B&W film will be happy to read that an enhanced B&W copy has been included on the DVD. As a test, you might wish to turn down the color setting to "zero" and screen the color version in B&W and see if you can tell the difference between the two.

For the record, when I first saw this movie as a child I was mesmerized by the story and its message and would have given the film five stars. Now, with more mature taste for sci-fi and after the jading of senior citizenship, I would only rate it at three stars. By today's standards the script (which sounds very idealistic and elitist) could use some major rewriting. Also, this film's special effects would benefit immensely from today's precision modeling and CGI effects. Then again, it would no longer be the THINGS TO COME we all love.

I must confess, I have never read the HG Well's book to compare the script to, and it may also contain narratives I consider "elitist". This is especially true when an alliance of engineers, technicians and aviators believe their skills and common sense can be used to govern the world. I only believed in technocracy when I was a small child.

If I may just comment on the special effects used to represent the march of technology and creation of a new age; this series of images was very impressive in the early 50's when I first watched them. It is interesting to see how a socialistic-technocracy could lead to the same Earth raping that we now credit only capitalism with. It was, however, nice to watch the unbridled march of technology without a green peace movement. Oh yes, they did have that anti-technology movement at the end of the film when their spokesman said attempting to stop the first lunar flight, "We shall hate you more if you succeed than if you fail". I bet NASA can relate to that statement which predicted that no good accomplishment will go unpunished.

It is also amazing to me how the imagined technologies of the future shown by this film were outstripped by actual inventions and innovations in (at least) the following fields: aviation, space, medicine, manufacturing, mining, tunneling, electronics, computers, the world wide web, communications, TV, radio, and robotics (not to mention nano-technology). We now watch more impressive real world machines on nightly news and TV episodes of Modern Marvels.

I no longer understand what Raymond Massey was raving about during the last two minutes of the film. Somehow his words drove me to tears when I was a boy of about eight, back when I thought I understood what he was gibbering about.