THE PHILADELPHIA EXPERIMENT
US, 1984, 102 minutes, Colour.
Michael Pare, Nancy Allen, Eric Christmas, Bobby di Cicco, Louise Latham.
Directed by Stewart Raffill.
The Philadelphia Experiment is one of the most entertaining of the time warp films, popular in the 70s and 80s Time After Time, Somewhere in Time, The Final Countdown, The Terminator.
John Carpenter was executive producer of this film, directed by Stewart Raffill, director of family films as The Wilderness Family and of such oddity actioners as High Risk and The Ice Pirates.
The film is modest in scope with enjoyment as its aim. It succeeds well. Michael Pare is sympathetic as the hero as is Nancy Allen as the heroine. The film had some special effects. It also relies on the momentum of the plot and the 1943 sailor suddenly finding himself in 1984. The film is interesting in highlighting how much American society has changed in 40 years - although, the sailor sees the President at a press conference and wonders whether that was also a movie on TV!
Very good of its kind.
1. An entertaining action thriller? its use of the time warp and time tunnel theme? Atmosphere of war? Science fiction?
2. The atmosphere of the '40s, World War Two, a sense of period, the experience of the 1940s? The contrast with the '80s and modern style, change? Scientific developments? Technology, space technology? Perennial errors in scientific planning and experiments?
3. The re-creation of the '40s, the feel for the times - costumes, decor? The film and special effects - for the radar, for the time-hole, for the storm, space -Journey, for the radioactivity and illness? The chase sequences, aerial photography? Score and atmosphere?
4. The prologue and the avowed authenticity of the story? A fable of science fiction - credible? The value of such experiments, the men involved, World War Two and the necessity of this kind of development, scientists and their own world, experimenting with people's lives, their reactions? The role of authority? Repeating mistakes in the 1980s - ecology, the arrogance of scientists? The need for remedies? The individual and heroism versus scientists and their attempts to 'play God'.
5. David and his companion - amiable, the dance, Pam, the last dance, the truck ride to the ship, the sailors and the atmosphere of the experiment? Their experience of the radar, the torment, their falling overboard and into the '80s? Audience interest in them, sympathy? The effect of their arrival, escaping from the compound, the desert and the mirage, the water, the burns and radioactivity, wondering about the war, the German name on the beer can, the trucks? Going to the shop, watching the TV - with its greater frankness and permissiveness? The reaction to the punks and their hair and clothes? The cars? The phone calls and their not being able to find their superiors at the base? Lost in time?
6. Alison and the phone call, her car, being kidnapped, the chase, the accident? The hospital and her puzzle, being interrogated? The disappearance of the sailor? Her decision not to press charges? Talking to David, the motel, trying to believe his story? The military police chasing and her rescuing him with her car? The decision to ring California, to go there?
7. David as an ordinary sailor, the transition of 40 years, psychological effect? The cars and trucks, the store in the '80s, phone calls? His friend suffering? Taking Alison's car, the hospital sequence and the disappearance? The prison sequence and the transvestite? The escape to the motel, adapting to takeaway food, television programmes, the news? Music? moral differences? His being chased, rescued by Alison, plans?
8. The journey to California, going to his father's garage - the emotional impact of learning about his success as a racing driver, grief at his death? His presence on the photos? Alison believing him? Going to see Pam and her husband, Pam receiving then, her husband as an old man and refusing to talk to David? What he experienced when he returned from time, institutions, not wanting to go through it again? The officials chasing David, the car escape, crashes?
9. The base disappearing, the tempest all over Nevada, things being sucked up into the hole? The rain and the storm? The scientists and their inability to cope? The pursuit of David, the officials, the interrogation of the doctor and his identifying the two in the photo? The basic situation repeated from the 1940s? The photo from space, the ship in the time-hole? The tracking down of David? The scientists and their responsibility - memories? The memory of what actually happened to the ship, its reappearance, David's never having returned - but the witness that he closed down the engines?
10. David going to the base, crashing in, the clash with the scientists, the proposal of the mission of going into space, Alison's warning against it, his decisions? His going into space, going back to the ship and the '40s, his friend, the closing down of the engines? His return - as hero, to Alison? (A variation on the Superman theme, so popular in the '80s?)
11. The time-warp and such possibilities, the time capsule effect, science and experiments - dangers, abuse? Science fiction and the what if .. hypotheses? Integrity and heroes; romance?
