© 2006 William Ahearn

Coming after the bizarre poetics of Jean-Luc Godard’s “Alphaville” and the visionary ambiguity of Stanley Kubrick’s “2001,” “Colossus: The Forbin Project” seems to be lost in the time warp . . . again. The basic gist is derivative from many of the films that preceded “Colossus” but it doesn’t add any new concepts except for the possible idea that if computers are allowed to network, then they can take over the world that much faster.

The story is that Colossus, built by Dr. Charles Forbin (and supplied to the filmmakers by General Dynamics), is a supercomputer that will control the entire US military industrial complex and crunch all the intelligence that the US espionage agencies collect. Colossus discovers that the Soviets also have a supercomputer controlling their military and intelligence operations and the two computers link up – by telephone line – and take over the world. Colossus, like Alpha 60, has no problem executing people for the “greater good” and the two networked computers in “Colossus” each launch a missile against the other’s country to make the point that they’re in control. And, yes, Colossus also speaks. In fact, it designs its own voice synthesizer in what may be the first display of a computer-generated design being printed out.

Unfortunately, “Colossus” is a pedestrian film with B-level actors in a plodding script devoid of suspense or drama. Even the love story is contrived. The film ends where it should begin and “Colossus” could be seen as a precursor to “The Matrix” or the sequel to “Alphaville” if it had any creative juice to make it compelling but it doesn’t ever get there.

For a look at the real "Colossus" computer, go here.

For moviemakers, Hal from “2001” was a tough act to follow and there wouldn’t be a major computer film for another seven years. In the real world of hardware and software, theory and design, the 1970s were an incredibly fertile decade for the evolution of computers. It was the birth of the first real supercomputers. From the ill-fated ILLIAC-IV to Seymour Cray’s machines that utilized vector and parallel processors to produce computers that could out-crunch anything else. Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Center (whose motto was “the way to predict the future is to invent it”) would develop laser printing, the graphical users interface (that would be used for the Macintosh and then the Windows operating systems in the next decade), ethernet, icons, and numerous other developments that would eventually make desktop or personal computers truly viable in a commercial marketplace. What really made the personal computers possible were microprocessors and in 1971 Intel released the 4004, one of a long line of new processors from many companies. The decade would also see the creation of Microsoft and Apple Computer and numerous other companies producing home computers or software packages.

“Colossus” is the last gasp of the third generation of computers. The age of the monster computer bent on world domination seemed to be over. (Actually, it was just resting.) Replacing the cold, distant and huge machines working in basements and air-conditioned cages, would be small, personal boxes that would fit on a desktop. For an excellent -- and accessible -- vision of the state of computers at this time go here.

 

Many thanks to Matt Wright for the film.