The Illustrated Man (1969)

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

I recently saw this on TCM April 19th, 2012. I haven't seen it in at least 20 years and wanted to see if I saw anything redeeming in it that I didn't notice before. There was absolutely nothing here to change my mind and it still is a ponderous film. Rod Steiger just wasn't right for the part and just because one uses futuristic backgrounds doesn't make a film science fiction. Science fiction can be in the past, present and obviously the future, but it's the idea that counts, the feeling. None of the stories offered any wonder, only depressing clichéd vignettes and endings. Even the "reality" portions of the film were torture to watch. So now I'm good until 2032!

Revered in some circles, displeased by others, this movie based on Ray Bradbury, will probably divide the audience. I have to admit I found the whole thing rather a chore because the character of Carl is immediately an asshole, a miser with "skin illustrations", from neck to toes, and if they are called tattoos he gets very angry. I envisioned Steiger was often on the verge of turning into the Incredible Hulk at any moment, the guy's Carl is so bursting at the seams with rage and seething with anger. He has a goal and that is to kill Claire Bloom's skin illustrator. Why you might ask Carl would wish to harm her? While looking to get laid, she desires of him to sit for her and receive the illustrations. What Carl doesn't realize before it is too late is that each illustration becomes alive to those who stare at them long enough. Three tales are brought to life, future events concerning characters played by the three principles, Rod Steiger, Claire Bloom, and Robert Drivas (who, for the most part, looks like a decent, well-tempered, effeminate young man undeserved of Carl's volcanic outbursts). Drivas plays Willie, a man traveling from New York City to California for a possible job in what looks like Depression Era America, in a midwestern type backwoods area with a lake. Drivas is "greeted" (if that is what you call it, more like rudely interrupted) by Carl who seems to be looking for coffee or food…maybe, just companionship, although he has a funny way of treating a fellow hitcher.While talking, Willie begins to envision future tales, one where a married couple, in a muted white home with all the comforts technology could provide, in an equally bland marriage, trying to cope with a rebellious son and daughter who may be planning their demise (their nursery has a holographic mechanism that allows the children to go to fictional places like Africa or the Middle Ages, with an authenticity all too real), the second about a small space crew whose ship has crashed in a place where it always rains and dead tree limbs sprout in all directions as they try to find a functioning "sun dome" that can offer shelter, comfort, and warmth (but Steiger's Colonel is such a brute, commanding them to move forward despite the difficulties harassing their every step, that it leads to perilous, dire consequences), and the third concerns a vision by the Earth's remaining 2000 people, that nothingness would occur after one more day, that they have decided to "put to sleep" their children in order to keep them from experiencing the horror that might result from this (trusting a dream about his nothingness, Steiger agrees with the consensus while Bloom questions such a horrible decision to kill the children despite a dream envisioned by all in attendance).The movie goes back and forth to Carl and Willie with the two addressing the power of Bloom's flesh artistry and what transpires as a result of one blank area of the tortured, tattooed illustrated man's back which can allow those who look a peek into the future proposing a possible fate. I found this movie experience wholly unpleasant, frustrating (the stories and characters just left me cold), and rather ultimately unsatisfying, because Carl (and the characters he portrays) is such a blistering cipher, with a mood and attitude so foul he's impossible to sympathize with, even though his reason for being so angry comes from Bloom's art on his body. That said, the film is photographed well and has bright spots from a technical standpoint. Certain to be a fan favorite for tattooists and those with an interest in body artistry.

Typically, I don't write reviews but thought I would give it a shot. The prologue and epilogue are telling . . when the woman narrates at the beginning of the film "Each person who tries to see beyond his own time, must face questions to which there cannot yet be proved answers . . " and then changes it at the end of the film to "Each person who tries to see beyond his own time, must face questions to which there cannot yet be absolute answers . ." look closely there is a difference. My sense is Bradbury, at the time his book was written (early 1950's), was wrestling with his own answers to the basic question of "What is the meaning of life?" The subtle change between the beginning and ending means something . . .proven vs absolute . . . to me this was an author clearly struggling with this central question . . since he's 91, let's hope he has it figured out now . . . :)

OK, too wild..I was about 7 when I saw this movie in the UK. I have thought over the years it was just an odd dream I had but there it was, on t.v. late one night. Totally freaked me out. Steiger is a major under rated actor to this generation. (umm it was 30 years ago I first saw the movie. You do the math) No wonder I thought it was a dream...a veratiable kalidascope of images. the kids with the lion. That house. It is well worth watching if only to see why you shouldn't do drugs. The 60's LSD influence is very strong here i think. All these years I was fascinated by tattoos and now I know why. Its the sort of film you never forget but cant clearly recall. There's no telling what it did to my subconscious.