I remember first watching Colossus: The Forbin Project during the formative phase of my early geek years. Back then, I looked for every and all sci-fi TV show and movie to watch. Space: 1999, Silent Running, Planet of the Apes… if it was anywhere close to the sci-fi genre, I watched it. I took particular interest in Colossus because it featured a super-computer, and computers were another keen interest of mine… and interest that grew into a fairly decent living.
I was twelve years old and watching it on VHS tape when my grandmother (God rest her soul) came into the room, Pall Mall cigarette in hand, and exclaimed “It’s Victor Newman!”
Yes, indeed… Eric Braeden, who later became a staple of daytime television on Young and the Restless, stars as Doctor Charles Forbin… the “Frankenstein” who creates the computerized monster known as Colossus.
As Forbin, Braeden is as dry as a chicken bone that is left in the Gobi Desert… an unflappable force who barely looks upset as his creation evolves to take over the world. He is Super Cool, even when Colossus holds the world hostage, and he always looks good. Imagine Don Draper as a computer genius, and that’s what you get with Braeden’s in this film.
The concept in the film (based on a novel by Dennis Feltham Jones) is that the US and USSR government has decided to take humanity out of the equation when it comes to national defense, and put computers in charge. Decades before James Cameron used the idea, the film has Skynet… err, I mean, Colossus taking over the country through its control of the defense network. The film deals with how Forbin and the government attempt to wrest control back from Colossus, and how fruitless these efforts are.
Braeden as the lead is surrounded by many great character actors, including Susan Oliver, Georg Stanford Brown, Martin Brooks, James Hong, William Schallert and (a pre-Happy Days) Marion Ross. They – along with some great costume work by Edith Head and some top-notch production design – makes the film a slick, good-looking production.
A year after making this film, Braeden went on the play the villain in Escape from the Planet of the Apes. He’s more flappable there, but equally as engaging and good… and I can’t help but wonder what would have happened if he had gotten some more meaty roles by Hollywood. He’s had a good run in soap operas, but he could have had an even better run as a movie star. Alas, the 70s brought a more “earthy” naturalistic style of acting and actors to the forefront and Braeden is just not that type of actor.
Colossus is an entertaining, amusing snapshot about how we thought computers would work, and how afraid we were of this burgeoning technology. We have not seen giant mountain-sized computers take over the world, as the filmmaker feared, but instead have seen computers becomes smaller and ubiquitous. And, of course, the Cold War fears that fueled the plot has become moot.
What our culture fears is an interesting reflection of ourselves, and the loss of control that Colossus: The Forbin Project represents is an interesting mirror on what was going on in a tumultuous 1970 America. It’s a time capsule in many unintended ways, and recommended viewing to SF fans and all lovers of film.