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Colossus: The Forbin Project (1970)
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alltare
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PostPosted: Tue Nov 22, 2016 9:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The state-of-the-art computer equipment seen during the opening scenes and throughout the movie is interesting in that EVERYTHING is now obsolete, even to the point that most of it is now considered to be collectable. For example:

Punched tape,
NIXIE tubes,
Magnetic tape storage,
Control panels with lots of switches and blinky lights,
X-Y plotters,
CRT terminals- some even using round(!) CRTs, and
Teletypes printers and their clickety-clackety sound.

Also, the first commercially available PC wasn't available until 5 years after this movie was made, so "Giant Brains" that filled whole rooms or buildings were still perceived to be normal by the general public.
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orzel-w
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PostPosted: Wed Nov 23, 2016 1:46 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

orzel-w on Aug 24, 2015 wrote:
With today's technology it would all fit in a shoebox.


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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Wed Nov 23, 2016 11:32 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

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Of course, if you'd told the folks back in the 1970s that Colossus would fit in a shoe box, THIS is about as close as they could have come to picturing it.




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Custer
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PostPosted: Wed Nov 23, 2016 12:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Surely we've all watched enough sf in movies and on television to know that proper supercomputers should always involve whirling spools of punched tape on the front of large cabinets...?
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sat Sep 01, 2018 3:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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Check out some of the threads I found for this movie on other boards. This is a sample of what's included on All Sci-Fi's Multi-Board Alphabetical Index.
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* Colossus: The Forbin Project (1970)

Colossus: The Forbin Project @ SFMB

Colossus: the Forbin Project (1970) @ All Sci-Fi

Colossus - The Forbin Project @ Nautilus Submarine

Colossus: The Forbin Project (1970) @ Alien Soup

Colossus:The Forbin Project @ CHFB

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
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orzel-w
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PostPosted: Sun Sep 09, 2018 8:46 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Today I watched my new Blu-ray edition of CTFP from The Shout Factory/Scream Factory (bought through Amazon https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0776221Y2/ref=od_aui_detailpages00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 ).

The image is clean, clear and sharp and there doesn't appear to have been any "fiddling" with color, other than possible restoration. The format is 2.35:1 widescreen and 1080p resolution. "Approximate" running time is listed as "+/-100 minutes".

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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sat Jan 26, 2019 1:00 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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Here's the regular trailer for this movie and a video with John Landis discussing it.
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__ Colossus: The Forbin Project (1970) - Official Trailer


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_ John Landis on COLOSSUS THE FORBIN PROJECT


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Krel
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PostPosted: Sat Jan 26, 2019 5:49 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

orzel-w wrote:
With today's technology it would all fit in a shoebox.



"I am COLOSSUS. Obey me."

Not quite. Mainframe computers are still made, and used. COLOSSUS would be a network of mainframe computers to receive information from various sources, intelligence feeds, satellite feeds, TV, radio, the internet and ones I can't think of. It would gather, collate, categorize, sift through, and analyze data looking for threats. Plus we don't know how much of COLOSSUS was backup computers and systems, maybe most of it. COLOSSUS was designed to operate as a sealed system for a long time.

David.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sat Jan 26, 2019 9:26 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

Good points, one and all! Very Happy

Your description illustrates the fact that such a system would not only need vast computation abilities but also extensive connections to other systems which fed it massive amounts of data at an amazing rate!

The key would be the comprehensive input of said data from all over the world, along with the lightning fast processing and collation of this data.

It's what the human brain does on a smaller scale, and it's what makes the brain such an amazing computer all by itself. Very Happy

Especially mine! Cool (And yours too, of course . . . )

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Pow
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 15, 2019 6:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

You hit the nail on the head Bud.

We are in an age where visually anything the writer can imagine is capable of being put on the big screen or little screen. Which is wonderful.

Couldn't realize the world of superheroes in film or television without the state-of-the-art special/visual effects.

However, some writers and producers now rely on giving us all sizzle & no steak with their productions.

Why create a clever,profound, original script with rich characterization? You can give the audience a 3 ring circus visually. All sound and fury signifying nothing.


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Bogmeister
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 16, 2019 10:22 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

____________
________________

"You will regard me with awe - I am Colossus."

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This is a film which is even better than I remembered and I've always thought it was quite good. It almost seems like I've grown into the mindset of fully appreciating the concepts & presentation as I became older.

I have the Laserdisc release, acquired over a dozen years ago; it's a double feature set, the other film being Silent Running (1972). The laserdisc jacket interior has some interesting facts on the Colossus film: it's based on DF Jones' futuristic novel 'Colossus'-1966 and planned initially as a 3-hour TV movie, then steered towards the big screen.

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The Laserdisc version is in widescreen and a pretty good picture; it may well be the best available currently, as I hear that a recent cheap DVD release is full screen and not very good. Eric Braeden does very well as Dr. Forbin, the charismatic, confident computer scientist who finds himself under siege by his own creation, a mechanized Frankenstein's Monster seeking world control.

The actor, as Hans Gudegast, flew in for a screen test while working on another film. His agent told him he won the role, but only if he changed his name. His gut reaction was to refuse, but he thought about it and accepted the condition (mirroring some plot points in the film), painful as it was.

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Susan Clark's character begins as one of Forbin's assistants and evolves into his fake mistress, then his real lover. All these scenes strayed from the intense tone of the overall film a bit. They were kind of goofy, with Colossus placed in the position of a mechanical peeping tom (Demon Seed-1977 carried on that theme).

I also liked Gordon Pinsent as the JFK-like President. He brought some genuine intelligence to the role, not the usual political caricature in movies.

I forgot that old stand-by William Schallert was in this one, as a CIA chief, a rather big role. Also, Marion Ross, the mom in Happy Days, as another of Forbin's assistants and George Stanford Brown (The Rookies).

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The film was shot as "Colossus" but the studio feared it would get mixed up as one of those Steve Reeves mythical action pics and released it as "The Forbin Project." The later title change to Colossus:The Forbin Project was an attempt to boost the box office.



Colossus itself was mostly played by a $4.8 million electronics system donated by Control Data Corporation(CDC). Colossus is the real star of the film. Even before it begins to speak with its newly manufactured artificial voice, it takes charge of the movie.

Later, when it does speak in that robotic voice and detonates those two nuclear payloads near the end, a ruthless reprisal against humanity's attempts to de-power it, it's a chilling depiction of absolute dictatorship, rarely so clearly interpreted on film.

I now believe this to be the best of that small group of sci-fi pictures, the sub-genre of machines ruling over humans. Skynet of The Terminator films merely copied the premise here; I know Jim Cameron is a fan. When he was filming Titanic, in which Braeden had a small role, Cameron repeated Braeden's last word in this film to him at one point, smiling knowingly. He knew a good, memorable ending when he heard it.



A reviewer on IMDb wrote that this is "A thought provoking film that stubbornly refuses to be dated." It's true. This snagged the idea of that omnipotent godlike machine, created by the inferior human, and went with it all the way. It's still the best in that regard and could happen.

In fact, at one point, before Colossus announces itself to the world-at-large, it's even suggested that such rule-by-machine may continue without the knowledge of the general populace. How do we know, in our real world, that it hasn't happened already? When Forbin says "Never" in the end, it's a defiance of logic — the logic which says mankind can live without fear of nuclear war. But, at that same moment, it speaks to the quixotic spirit of mankind, that of free will & choice. With that choice taken away from us, even such absolute safety becomes meaningless. We may as well be drifting atoms in such a scenario, free floating and empty of thought.



I'm again struck by how superior many films from around 40 years ago are in comparison to the product released in the past decade. The films of the long ago past dealt with ideas, with provocative 'what if' scenarios and actual extrapolation to present the story.

These days, it all has to do with computer visuals — ironic, no? Computers do indeed dominate, in a most mundane fashion. I recently heard about a remake of this film, directed by Ron Howard. If true, I don't hold out much hope. Howard's films are regarded better than most these days but they still tailor everything towards a mass appeal and consumerism. Such a remake will probably gear everything around some simplistic messages (The Day the Earth Stood Still, anyone?

BoG's Score: 8 out of 10



BoG
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Gord Green
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 17, 2019 1:27 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

In many ways it was just a remake of THE INVISIBLE BOY without the sense of humor! (And Robby!)
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 15, 2019 12:11 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Pow wrote:
Ya know, the way things are going in the world these days I'm wondering if ol' Colossus would do any worse if we let 'em run things?

I've had that same thought recently as I've watched the news and seen ample evidence that all our politicians seem to be crooked, stupid, and self-serving. Rolling Eyes

Washington is a complete miss, and a war is raging between Turkey and Syria because some bad decisions have been made and nobody has the brains to undo the damage.

Yes indeed, a computer that prevents wars between nations and puts us to work doing more positive and intelligent things would certainly seem like a better way to run the world.
Sad
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
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Krel
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 15, 2019 2:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Given that Colossus had no compunctions against ordering the murder of anyone it felt was a threat, or distraction. Plus the fact that it didn't mind setting off nuclear weapons, it reminds me of what I always say:

Put me in charge, and there will be peace and plenty for all...There will be A WHOLE lot less people. But there will be peace and plenty for all.

Or the line from "Judge Roy Bean": And there will be peace. Most of all peace. And I don't care how many people I have to kill to get it.

Colossus has no sympathy, no empathy. That is a recipe for a planetary graveyard.

David.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 15, 2019 2:44 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
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