The Brain Machine (1972)

I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

Overrated

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

After watching The Brain Machine in stages because I was fighting fatigue to complete this movie I'm still not sure of what I saw. Four people James Best, Ann Latham, Gerad McRaney, and Marcus Grapes all of whom have no close family volunteer to be paid lab rats for an experimental mind control machine. Two firm prerequisites for these people, no close family and they have to tell the absolute truth in that closed environment that they live in now.Somebody should have told them to watch The Forbidden Planet and how those far superior Krells couldn't deal with monsters from the ID. My guess is that this top secret experiment was to develop some kind of ultimate interrogation machine. That's why so many sinister forces seem bent on achieving success with the experiment, however success is to be measured. The Brain Machine isn't really clear on what's going on.The whole thing will leave you bored and confused.

You know you're in trouble when the film your watching has numerous alternate titles. Generally it means that they tried and retried to hide the turkey in various markets. Such a turkey is The Brain Machine which has seven different titles.Its about some super secret government project that is suppose to be able to use a computer to read people but instead it drives people to kill each other or themselves, or something like that. Its filled with B level TV actors sitting in paneled room with lawn chairs trying to act a script that makes almost no sense.Its a turkey of the untastey kind. Avoid it.

I hereby give this film a 5. It's not as bad as the other commenters would have you believe, but it's no masterpiece either.The problem here really is that the filmmakers bit off far more than they could chew. I believe they had ambitions to make a high class sci-fi thriller with a bit of social commentary thrown in. Some great ideas under the surface here. But the people behind this film fell far short of their ambitions, with occasional awkward dialog, (yes) somewhat imprecise editing, and acting that's either too hammy or too underplayed. I am grading on a curve here: this was obviously a low budget production with great ambitions which did a decent job with limited resources.The word "boring" used by other commentors, I feel represents a failed attempt by the filmmakers to build tension. The film as presented is confusing, but it is meant to be a somewhat complicated thriller, deciphered only after a bit of thought and perhaps more than one viewing.I'll give you a brief synopsis of the plot as I have come to understand it. I think I have a handle on it, in spite of its confusing presentation. At a government research facility, some sinister things are happening. On the surface, they are performing benign research experiments. And the scientists that work there are in fact, benign.But some shadowy figures are trying to hijack these experiments for their own means, without the scientists or their subjects knowing about it. These include "The General", possibly a CIA chief or similar, and his enabler, an unnamed Senator. A furtive guard at the facility (supported by various stooges) is their point man.One of the scientists, Dr. Krisner, finds out about this infiltration. He takes off with documents that will prove the illegal infiltration, but he is killed in short order.Therefore, the project is "tainted" and The General and his underlings cannot use this Doctor's work to test their own device: The Brain Machine, a mind control device designed to pacify enemy populations, or, more chillingly, our own citizenry here in the USA.So, they move on to infiltrate "The E-Box" experiment, headed by Dr. Roth. Again, they will use this experiment for their own nefarious purposes without the scientists in charge knowing what is really going on. In this experiment, supposedly used as a simulation of the effects of overpopulation, four test subjects (selected by the fact they have no immediate family and each one has a horrible secret) are placed into a small room which will get smaller and smaller as the experiment goes on, and the subjects are grilled about their shameful secrets of their past, until they breakdown and confess. The importance of telling the truth, "the real truth" is mentioned over and over.While this is going on, the sinister forces of The General, are installing and testing this "Brain Machine" on the subjects, to the confusion of the scientists and pain of the subjects. I should mention that this machine seems to work by remote control, so they are never in contact with the experiment, and are viewing the results by remote cameras. There's lots of yelling, screaming, fighting and accusations from the four subjects, and electrocutions. Each one of the subjects is also a classic stereotype: the questioning clergyman, the intellectual, the working man, and the blue-collar woman.Though the IMDb lists a date of 1977, the film bears a copyright date of 1972. This puts the film clearly in a post-Altamont, pre-Watergate period of utter cynicism about the intentions of our government.** SPOILER !! ** This bears itself out in the film's ending: every single one of the "heroes" are killed, their painful deaths easily swept under the rug by the unseen puppet masters. The "Brain Machine" is proved to work and is last seen on a truck headed for Anytown USA...maybe yours! Only during this short time period in American history (post Easy Rider, also, I might add) could such a "downer ending" be conceived and accepted. Then again, maybe today is the perfect time for a remake, with stories of domestic spying and political retribution in the air. Maybe The Brain Machine is not some stupid little B-movie, but a prophetic document with more to tell us about today than we even realize...

Unlike other commentaries, I found this film fascinating, even with all its faults and the zombie acting of some of the actors.Being a technologist, I found that the experiments interesting and the hardware realistic. Although the reading of people minds via computer sounds fantastic, experiments are being conducted now to do just this. I will note that this experiments are in a very early stage, with results so far not favorable.The characters in the movie are well cast. The girl, although overacting a bit, looks suitable dumb. The truck driver is a a ringer for real truck drivers. The minister conveys doubt at first, (The principal investigator tells the minister that him (the minister), is not sure whether he believes that God created man or that man created God. But the minute when the chips are down, he falls back on his faith. Only the PhD plays the zombie. The secrets that they harbor are suitably appropriate for their characters. In the face of death they react as real human beings would.The movie is a warning against the dangers of unlimited surveillance by government. As strictly a thriller, the movie does not have enough thrills. As a scientific exercise with philosophical underpinnings it is fascinating.