Illustrated Man, The (1969)
Illustrated Man, The (1969), directed by Jack Smight.
Three tales extracted from Ray Bradbury's book of the same name. The stories were written before he put them under the umbrella of a man tattooed over his whole body. If you look at the illustrations long enough they come alive and tell their stories.
He has a blank area on his back. Stare at that and you will see your own death.
The angry, dangerous hobo is looking for the woman who covered him with these illustrations. She vanished and took her house with her. He says she went back to the future.
Starring Rod Steiger and Claire Bloom, who were something of a power couple at the time. They made Three Into Two Won't Go (1969) the same year.
This is not a very exciting effort and the direction is dull. Naked Rod Steiger: he may be illustrated but he ain't no oil painting.
The stories, all set in the future:
The Veldt: Parents are concerned about the holodeck they've installed for the children. It seems too real, particularly the lions in the Africa setting.
The Long Rain: Soldiers on Venus suffer rain so torrential they struggle to breathe. It is maddening. They need to get to the Sun-Dome, where it will be warm and dry, with a hostess to accommodate them.
The Last Night of the World: Only a few thousand people remain on Earth. The adults have all had the same dream, that the world will end this night. They decide to poison the children so they won't suffer.
It's been so long since I read the book that I don't know how well the stories are adapted. The film came to mind because Tarantino used an ad for it in Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood (2019).
Score by Jerry Goldsmith.
Photographed by Philip H. Lathrop:
That's a lot of talent for a modest SF film.
Available on Blu-ray from Warner Archive. Some scenes are shot through a filter which harms the hidef image.
