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The Monitors (1969)

 
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 03, 2015 10:13 pm    Post subject: The Monitors (1969) Reply with quote



Unfunny sci-fi comedy with a ka-razy premise. Benevolent aliens take over the Earth to rule mankind for its own good, outlawing war, riots, etc.

The film begins after they've taken control, so we never learn how this peaceful takeover was accomplished, and we never get to see a single space ship. These so-called invaders look exactly like nondescript young men, all wearing black derbies and black overcoats.

When an anti-alien riot breaks out, the nonviolent aliens use small spray cans of sleep gas to subdue the rioters. Loudspeakers constantly drone dead-voiced, monotone messages such as "The Monitors are your friends, the Monitors bring peace."

Despite the fact that the aliens just want to maintain a panet-wide peace, mankind's resistance increases until the Monitors realize the only way they can maintain control is to use violence -- something to which they are morally opposed.

Guy Stockwell is the hero who opposes the aliens, and Susan Oliver is the attractive heroine. The all-star cast includes Avery Schreiber, Stubby Kaye, Alan Arkin, and Larry Storch, with cameo appearance by Xavier Cugat and Senator Everett Dirksen.

"The Monitors" is difficult to enjoy because it tries to be oh-so-hip and oh-so-1960s. The result is little more than a light-hearted presentation of several hundred unsuccessful jokes, accompanied by the worst music any decade ever produced.

Directed by Jack Shea.

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


Last edited by Bud Brewster on Sat Dec 16, 2017 11:21 pm; edited 3 times in total
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scotpens
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Joined: 19 Sep 2014
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 03, 2015 11:17 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I've seen this one and yeah, it's mostly boring and unfunny. It doesn't help that most of the dialogue seems improvised (it was the first film production of Chicago's Second City comedy troupe). Even the gorgeous and talented Susan Oliver seems lost in this pointless movie.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29gI8uW_JgE
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Bogmeister
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 08, 2019 3:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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_________________________ The Monitors


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This was one of several satiric stabs at cinematic sci-fi in the late sixties through 1970 (such as Wild in the Streets and Gas-s-s), offering a warped gaze at our often absurd society through the prism of some alternate reality.

In such stories, our society has been replaced or altered, but it's just a chance to take a gander at ourselves via a funhouse mirror.

In this case, Earth has been taken over in benign fashion by aliens known as The Monitors, who are usually seen as nondescript men dressed in dark clothes and bowler hats. How this takeover happened is not shown or even explained. The aliens use small spray cans of knockout gas when they really need to, but it all seems like some sort of non-violent takeover occurred.

Of course, the point is that most of humanity is malleable through such measures as propaganda, subliminal messaging and other non-violent methods. The Monitors' aim is to handle all our problems and relieve us of the burden of war, crime, and other assorted negative stuff.



The main character (played by Guy Stockwell) is a freelance pilot who is one of the few who resists this alien control and dislikes the Monitors. He ends up teaming with a flighty actress (Susan Oliver), his own brother (Avery Schreiber), and a trainee (Sherry Jackson) of the aliens in joining a para-military rebellion outfit (led by Keenan Wynn and Larry Storch).

But the rebellion is a bit too rightwing & violent for their tastes.

It's all a bit nonsensical and hysterical, and much of the humor falls flat, but it offers a few ideas which are absent from most films of the later century. Its main drawback is that it doesn't take full advantage of the relationship between humans and Monitors, who regard the human race as violent children, to be 'taken care of' in that fashion.

Ed Begley appears late in the film as the President, waiting for something in his cobwebbed office. It all ends on an anti-climactic if expected note.

BoG's Score: 6 out of 10


____________________ The Monitors (1969)


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Monitored Trivia: cameos in the film by Alan Arkin and other notable. Also, an early role in one scene for Peter Boyle, who became a star a year later in the film Joe (1970). Boyle was a member of The Second City comedy troupe in the sixties. The Second City produced this film.

Star Trek TOS actor alert: Both female leads were in Star Trek episodes. Oliver in the first pilot The Cage (and her footage was repeated in The Menagerie parts one & two), and Jackson in What Are Little Girls Made Of?


BoG
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