Heavy Metal (film)

Infobox Film
name = Heavy Metal


caption = Theatrical release poster.
director = Gerald Potterton
producer = Leonard Mogel Ivan Reitman
writer = Dan Goldberg
Len Blum Corny Cole Richard Corben Juan Gimenez Angus McKie Bernie Wrightson
starring = Harvey Atkin Thor Bishopric Jackie Burroughs John Candy Eugene Levy Marilyn Lightstone Harold Ramis
Richard Romanus
music = Elmer Bernstein, various artists
cinematography =
editing =
distributor = Columbia Pictures
released = August 7, 1981
runtime = 90 min
country = Canada
awards =
language = English
budget =
preceded_by =
followed_by = "Heavy Metal 2000"
amg_id = 1:94665
imdb_id = 0082509

"Heavy Metal" is a 1981 Canadian animated film from executive producer Leonard Mogel, who was also the publisher of "Heavy Metal" magazine. With Ivan Reitman producing and Gerald Potterton directing, the work flow was expedited by having several animation houses working simultaneously on different segments.

The film is an anthology of various science fiction and fantasy stories adapted from "Heavy Metal" magazine and original stories in the same spirit. Like the magazine, the film has an unusual amount of bloody violence, nudity and sexuality for an animated film.

A sequel entitled "Heavy Metal 2000" was released in 2000.

Plot summary

The movie's title sequence story ("Soft Landing") begins with an astronaut named Grimaldi descending through Earth's atmosphere in a futuristic automobile based on a 1960 Corvette.

This leads directly into the film's framing story ("Grimaldi") when he arrives at his home, where he is greeted by his daughter. He shows her something he brought back: a green sphere. Shortly after he reveals it, the orb rises out of its case and painfully melts the astronaut. It introduces itself to the terrified girl as "The sum of all evils." Looking into it, the girl sees how it has influenced society through time and space. The Loc-Nar forces her to watch the following stories (in order):

*"Harry Canyon": Written by Juan Gimenez. In a dystopian New York City, cynical taxi driver Harry Canyon narrates his day in film noir style, grumbling about his fares and the occasional robbery attempt (which he thwarts with a disintegrator installed behind his seat). He stumbles into an incident where a fat gangster and his cyborg henchmen murder an archaeologist. Harry grudgingly allows the murdered man's daughter into his cab, and she tells him about her father's discovery: the Loc-Nar, an artifact over which people are killing each other. Harry cannot afford to pay for a police investigation, so he takes the girl back to his apartment. That night, the girl strips, climbs into his bed, and they have sex. Harry awakens alone the next morning when the cops bust into the apartment looking for the girl, whose existence he denies. One of his fares that day is the fat gangster, who threatens Harry if he doesn't cooperate. Later, the girl contacts Harry and offers to sell the Loc-Nar and split the proceeds with him. He agrees to take her to the exchange. When the gangster gets the Loc-Nar, he takes it out of its isolation case, and he disintegrates. Meanwhile, the girl pulls a gun on Harry, who is forced to use his self-defense ray to evaporate her, after which he keeps the money.

*"Den": Based on the original story by Richard Corben. Dan, a nerdy teenager (voiced by John Candy) finds a "green meteorite" and puts it in his rock collection at home. Weeks later, during a lightning experiment, the orb hurls the boy into the world of "Neverwhere", where he changes into a naked bald muscle man called Den. Landing on a giant idol, he witnesses a strange ritual and rescues a nubile young woman who was about to be sacrificed to "Uhluht'c" ("C'thulhu" spelled backwards). Reaching safety, she tells him that she is from the British colony of Gibraltar, on Earth, and that her name is Katherine Wells. While she demonstrates her gratitude with sexual favours, they are interrupted by the minions of Ard, an immortal man who wants to obtain the Loc-Nar and use it to rule the world. He puts Katherine in suspended animation and orders Den to get the Loc-Nar from the Queen (the woman who performed the ritual). Den agrees after Ard tells him "If you refuse, you die, she dies, everybody dies!", and infiltrates the Queen's palace with some of Ard's warriors. He is promptly caught by the Queen's guard, but she offers leniency if he has sex with her. He complies, while the raiding party steals the Loc-Nar. Den escapes and, with the Queen and her forces in pursuit, races back to the idol, where Ard is attempting to recreate the sacrifice himself. Den rescues Katherine, and the Queen's arrival sparks a bloody battle between her and Ard (backed by their respective armies). Den ends the battle by recreating the incident that drew him to Neverwhere, banishing Ard and the Queen. Refusing the opportunity to rule, Den and Katherine ride into the sunset, content to remain in Neverwhere as heroes with idealized bodies.

*"Captain Sternn": Based on the original story by Bernie Wrightson. On a space station, a square jawed space captain named Lincoln F. Sternn (voice by Eugene Levy) is on trial on numerous serious charges (and one moving violation) presented by the prosecutor (voiced by John Vernon). Pleading "not guilty" against the advice of his rat-faced lawyer (voiced by Joe Flaherty), Sternn explains to his astonished lawyer that he expects to be acquitted because he bribed a witness, Hanover Fiste, to praise his character. Fiste takes the stand, but his perjury is subverted when the Loc-Nar, now the size of a marble, forces him to blurt out the truth about Sternn's evil deeds until he angrily denounces Sternn to the point of suggesting gruesome execution methods ("Hanging's too good for him! Burning's too good for him! He should be torn into little-bitsy pieces and buried alive!"). Fiste rants with such fury that he changes into a muscled giant like the Incredible Hulk, and chases Sternn throughout the station, breaking through bulkheads after him. Eventually, Fiste corners Sternn, receives his promised payoff for his part in Sternn's plan to escape, and promptly shrinks back to his gangly original form (this may indicate that, rather than the Loc-Nar's prompting, the whole event, complete with Hanover's ability to grow and go insane, was planned ahead of time, to allow Sternn the chaos necessary to escape or fake his own death). Sternn then adds a bonus: he pulls a lever opening a trapdoor under Fiste, and the Loc-Nar reenters an atmosphere with Fiste's bodyless flaming hand still clinging to it.

*"B-17": A World War II bomber makes a difficult bombing run with heavy damage and casualties. As the bomber limps home, the Loc-Nar rams itself into the plane, and raises the dead crewmembers as rampaging, flesh-hungry zombies. The pilot barely escapes in time, only to land on an island populated by zombified airmen.

*"So Beautiful, So Dangerous": Based on the original story by Angus McKie. A scientist (Dr. Anrack) arrives at the Pentagon for a meeting about mysterious mutations that are plaguing the United States. At the meeting, Dr. Anrack tries to dismiss the occurrences, but when he sees the green stone (Loc-Nar again) in the buxom stenographer's (Gloria's) locket, he starts behaving erratically, goes berserk, and attempts to sexually assault her. In the sky above, a colossal ship with a smiley face design breaks through the roof with a transport tube and sucks up the berserk Dr. Anrack and Gloria. The robot inside the ship is irritated at Anrack, who is actually a malfunctioning android, but his mood changes when Gloria arrives. With the help of the ship's hippie crew, he convinces Gloria to stay on board and become his lover (she even agrees to marry him, provided they have a Jewish wedding). Meanwhile, the hippie crew members ingest a massive amount of plutonian nyborg and fly home completely stoned, crash landing in a huge space station.
*"Taarna": Inspired by Moebius' "Arzach" stories. The Loc-Nar crashes onto a planet, and changes a tribe of humans into mutated murderous barbarians who ravage a peaceful city. The elders desperately try to summon the last of a warrior race, the Taarakians. Taarna, a strong, beautiful warrior maiden, arrives too late to stop the massacre and resolves to avenge the city. Her search leads to the barbarians' stronghold, where she is captured, tortured and left for dead. With the help of her avian mount, she escapes and confronts the barbarian leader. Though wounded, she defeats him and in one last effort, flies into the Loc-Nar, destroying it.

As the final story ends, the Loc-Nar terrorizing the girl is similarly destroyed, blowing the mansion to pieces. Taarna's mount, reborn into a younger form, appears outside and the girl happily flies away on it. It is then revealed that Taarna's soul has been transferred across the universe and through time to her. This is further signified by the change in hair color the girl now exhibits and the appearance of the Taarakian crest on her skin. Thus the girl is revealed to be the next Taarakian herself.

Critical reaction and cult status

Critical response to the film was generally dismissive with some reviewers making positive comments. Janet Maslin of "The New York Times" noted that the film "was scored very well, with music much less ear-splitting than the title would suggest."Fact|date=June 2008 Film historian and critic Leonard Maltin gave the film 3 stars out of four in his "Movie Guide", stating "the film is fun at an adolescent level."Fact|date=June 2008

The film enjoyed only limited appeal in its initial run, but became a popular cult attraction for midnight theatrical showings, much like the "Rocky Horror Picture Show". Legal problems with the film's music rights kept it off the commercial home video market for 15 years, although it did make rotation on cable movie channels like HBO and Cinemax allowing for fans to record it. In 1996, the legal issues were resolved and the film is now generally available. "Heavy Metal" may be the canonical example of a popular film or album that was unavailable to consumers for a long time for obscure reasons, despite popular acclaim or success.

The cult popularity of the film continues decades later, with "South Park"'s 2008 episode "Major Boobage" serving as a homage to the film. [cite web | title = How to Understand Tonight's Epic ‘South Park’: Watch ‘Heavy Metal’ | author = Ben Mathis-Lilley | url = http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2008/03/how_to_understand.html | publisher = New York | date = 2008-03-26 | accessdate = 2008-05-01]

oundtrack

The soundtrack was released on LP in 1981, but for legal reasons, was not released on CD until 1995. The album peaked at number 12 on the Billboard chart in 1981. Blue Öyster Cult wrote and recorded a song called "Vengeance (The Pact)" for the movie. However, the producers declined to use the song because the song's lyrics provided a capsulized summary of the "Taarna" vignette. "Veteran of the Psychic Wars" was used instead. Both songs can be found on Blue Oyster Cult's "Fire of Unknown Origin" album. Though used in the film, the songs "Through Being Cool" by Devo & "E5150" by Black Sabbath were not included in the released soundtrack album. These songs are on "New Traditionalists" and "Mob Rules", respectively.

The legal difficulties surrounding the movie maker's use of some of the songs in the movie delayed its release to video. Apparently, the production company's use of the songs was limited to the theatrical release and soundtracks alone, and didn't extend to the video release of the film. Rights negotiations took over 15 years to resolve, and the official home video release didn't debut until 1996.

Tracks

# "Heavy Metal" (Sammy Hagar) (3:50)
# "Heartbeat" (Riggs) (4:20)
# "Working in the Coal Mine" (Devo) (2:48)
# "Veteran of the Psychic Wars" (Blue Öyster Cult) (4:48)
# "Reach Out" (Cheap Trick) (3:35)
# "Heavy Metal (Takin' a Ride)" (Don Felder) (5:00)
# "True Companion" (Donald Fagen) (5:02)
# "Crazy (A Suitable Case for Treatment)" (Nazareth) (3:24)
# "Radar Rider" (Riggs) (2:40)
# "Open Arms" (Journey) (3:20)
# "Queen Bee" (Grand Funk Railroad) (3:11)
# "I Must Be Dreamin'" (Cheap Trick) (5:37)
# "The Mob Rules" (Black Sabbath) (2:43)
# "All of You" (Don Felder) (4:18)
# "Prefabricated" (Trust) (2:59)
# "Blue Lamp" (Stevie Nicks) (3:48)

core

Unusual for the time, an LP recording of Elmer Bernstein's score was released alongside the soundtrack in 1981, and it featured the composer's first use of the ondes martenot, an instrument which became a trademark of Bernstein's later career. On 13 March 2008, Film Score Monthly released an official, expanded CD release of Bernstein's score, which he conducted. [ [http://www.screenarchives.com/title_detail.cfm?ID=8949 "Heavy Metal: The Score"] from ScreenArchives.com] The score was performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra with the London Voices and Jeanne Loriod on the ondes Martenot.

Tracks

The original LP's track listing is as follows:
# "Den and The Green Ball" (03:17)
# "Den Makes It" (02:49)
# "Den and the Queen" (02:56)
# "Den's Heroics" (02:52)
# "Bomber and The Green Ball" (04:41)
# "Space Love" (01:32)
# "Harry and the Girl" (03:45)
# "Tarna Summoned" (02:50)
# "Flight" (02:20)
# "Tarna Prepares" (03:35)
# "Barbarians" (03:37)
# "Tarna Forever" (03:37)

Rerelease track listing:
# "Beginning" 1:16
# "Intro to Green Ball" 1:18
# "Discovery/Transformation (Den and the Green Ball)" 3:15
# "Den Makes Out (Den Makes It)" 2:42
# "Castrate Him/Searching for Loc Nar" 2:04
# "Queen for a Day (Den and the Queen)" 2:54
# "Pursuit (Den’s Heroics)" 2:51
# "Fiste" 1:27
# "Getting Bombed" 3:06
# "Green Ball" 2:15
# "Dem Bones" 2:44
# "No Alarm" 0:58
# "Robot Love (Space Love)" 1:32
# "Harry" 1:35
# "The Next Morning" 1:56
# "End of Baby" 2:43
# "Council (Taarna Summoned)" 2:49
# "The Flight to Temple (Flight)" 2:16
# "The Sword (Taarna Prepares)" 3:32
# "Flight to Holiday Town" 2:20
# "Fighting" 2:43
# "My Whips!/Taarna Escapes Pit" 4:57
# "Finish (Taarna Forever)" 3:34

Bonus tracks
# "Den Makes Out" (film version) 2:49
# "Bomber and the Green Ball" (album edit) 4:35
# "Harry and the Girl" (album edit) 3:41
# "Barbarians" (album edit) 3:34

Discarded concepts and story background

*Because of time constraints, a segment of the film called "Neverwhere Land" was cut out; in the movie it would have connected "Captain Sternn" to "B-17". The original rough animatics are set to a loop of the beginning of Pink Floyd's "Time".
*The original idea for the episode "B-17" was going to see Gremlins attacking the plane and trying to dismantle it in the air, instead of the undead crewmembers used.
*The Loc-Nar itself comes from the Den graphic novels, although it was not round but rather oblong, and did not speak.
*Contrary to Den's statement in the movie (voiced by John Candy), in the graphic novels, Den did not, in fact, have a problem "running around with his dork hanging out." The change was likely made to keep an 'R' rating for the film.
*This film would mark the second time that Richard Corben's Den character was depicted in animation. The first time was in 1968 with his self-produced animated short "Neverwhere".

A new film

In March 2008, "Variety" reported that Paramount Pictures was set to make another animated film with David Fincher "spearheading the project." "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" co-creator Kevin Eastman, who is now owner and publisher of "Heavy Metal", will direct a segment, as will Tim Miller, "whose Blur Studios will handle the animation for what is being conceived as an R-rated, adult-themed feature." [cite web | title = Par, Fincher put pedal to 'Metal' Eastman, Miller to direct animated segments | author = Michael Fleming | url = http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117982413.html?categoryid=1050&cs=1 | publisher = Variety | date = 2008-03-13 | accessdate = 2008-09-21]

On 14 July 2008, entertainment website IGN announced "David Fincher's edgy new project has suffered a serious setback after it was dropped by Paramount, according to Entertainment Weekly." [cite web | title = Fincher's Heavy Metal on Hold Paramount drops sci-fi/fantasy project. | author = Orlando Parfitt | url = http://movies.ign.com/articles/888/888803p1.html | publisher = IGN | date = 2008-07-14 | accessdate = 2008-09-21] However, Entertainment Weekly quoted Tim Miller as saying "David really believes in the project. It's just a matter of time." [cite web | title = David Fincher's 'Heavy Metal' remake a no-go at Paramount | author = Nicole Sperling | url = http://hollywoodinsider.ew.com/2008/07/david-fincher.html | publisher = Entertainment Weekly | date = 2008-07-09 | accessdate = 2008-09-21]

On 4 September 2008, Kevin Eastman was quoted as saying "Fincher is directing one, Guillermo del Toro wants to direct one, Zack Snyder wants to direct one, Gore Verbinski wants to direct one." It was also reported that the film had been moved to Sony division Columbia Pictures and had a budget of $50 million. [cite web | title = Zack Snyder, Gore Verbinski, Guillermo del Toro Directing Heavy Metal Segments? | author = Alex Billington | url = http://www.firstshowing.net/2008/09/04/zack-snyder-gore-verbinski-guillermo-del-toro-directing-heavy-metal-segments/ | publisher = firstshowing.net | date = 2008-09-04 | accessdate = 2008-09-21]

ee also

*List of animated feature films
*"Rock & Rule" (a similar Canadian film released two years later)
*"Fire And Ice" (a 1983 Ralph Bakshi-directed fantasy film also utilizing rotoscoping)
*Midnight movie

References

External links

* [http://www.sonypictures.com/homevideo/catalog/catalogDetail_DVD043396039292.html Sony Picture official site for the movie]
*imdb title|id=0082509|title=Heavy Metal
* [http://www.soundtrackinfo.com/title/heavymetal-score.asp Heavy Metal score soundtrack] questions, answers and more @ the SoundtrackINFO project