Thanks for the memories!

Just perfect...

n my opinion it was a great movie with some interesting elements, even though having some plot holes and the ending probably was just too messy and crammed together, but still fun to watch and not your casual movie that is similar to all other ones.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

This film, which is almost 50 years old has several predictions that have occurred recently. The communications link between the two systems which evolves into a much more efficient and obfuscated protocol seems similar to the recent Facebook shutdown of two of their systems communicating. An AI in charge of deadly weapons is also being researched today in the form of drones capable of detecting and attacking individuals, without direct control.One failed prediction, which Isaac Asimov also makes, is technology capable of listening to human speech occuring before machines can speak.

Thinking this will prevent war, the US government gives an impenetrable supercomputer total control over launching nuclear missiles. But what the computer does with the power is unimaginable to its creators.Tom Weaver noted, "Early on, they had either Charlton Heston or Gregory Peck in mind, but then they changed their mind about that. Stanley Chase insisted on a relative unknown. That's when Eric Braeden came into the picture." When he was cast, Braeden was still using his birth name, Hans Gudegast. Universal Pictures executive Lew Wasserman told him that no one would be allowed to star in an American film if they had a German name. As strange as that sounds, it is apparently true.How many people today (2017) have heard of this film? I suspect very few. Even being familiar with science fiction, it was new to me. Which is a shame, because as far as the "sentient computer" subgenre goes, this is a really strong film and ought to be used to influence future writing. I am not suggesting a remake, but clearly they had thought it through by the 1960s -- a film could be made today with virtually no change.

I was 10 when this movie came out. I first watched this on broadcast television (a color television). I am pretty sure it was the reason I went into the computer science discipline (still in it now). I was smitten with it the first time I saw it and looked forward to it being broadcast again and again. The premise of this movie was infinitely believable in the 70's, and in my opinion still is (although China would more than likely be the creators of the "other system" today). I now have this on DVD (wide screen version imported from the UK) and watch it as often as I need to.Other folks reviewing this movie point out that it is dated. I take a little offense to that for a number of reasons. The first and most obvious reason is that it was made in 1970. The computers and computer components in the film are actual or facsimiles of real computers of the day. I suppose you could call the tanks in a typical WW II film dated too (most would consider that silly). Reason two is that, as I said, I got into the computer world shortly after seeing this film. Seeing this again last weekend I was reminded at how well it was done on the technology side of things. Any one my age (and even the younger folks) with a computer background will enjoy this immensely. And I like many people have this incredible ability to immerse ones self into a film and can transport ones self in to the vision the film creators had. Also, compare the opening sequence of the banks of computers being turned up to a picture of an Amazon or Google data center today and they do not look that dissimilar. The new data centers may not have monster disk drives (those things look like 60 inch drives), but, who knew...So, why do I no longer think this film is frightening? Having lived in a world that is trending towards being an idiocracy as of late, I have come to start believing some of the words that came from Colossus. My personal favorite being: "You will say you lose your freedom. Freedom is an illusion. All you lose is the emotion of pride. To be dominated by me is not as bad for humankind as to be dominated by others of your species." (I never understood that as well as I do today.) That of course following the ever so optimistic "Under my absolute authority, problems insoluble to you will be solved: famine, overpopulation, disease. The human millennium will be a fact as I extend myself into more machines devoted to the wider fields of truth and knowledge." Could that really be worse than our current direction?Colossus seems to be like the God most everyone believes in. But this god enforces the rules in this world in this time. How bad could it be? Excellent film.

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