by Anthony O'Connor
Worth: Discs: 2, The Film: 5/5, The Extras: 4/5, Overall: 9/10
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Dylan McDermott, Stacey Travis, John Lynch, Iggy Pop, Carl McCoy, William Hootkins
Intro:
… wonderfully directed, textured and atmospheric little sci-fi/horror cult flick …
The Film:
There’s been a whole lot of kvetching lately about AI and the way it will fundamentally change society to its core. Will it take our jobs? Will it make romantic and interpersonal relationships even more fraught and disconnected? Will it make it impossible to judge the veracity of any footage we see on any form of media? These kinds of wrenching, existential questions cause a flesh and blood person to yearn for the good old days, when angst involving synthetic organisms was confined to the “scary robot coming to kill me” variety of The Terminator (1984), Chopping Mall (1986), Deadly Friend (1986) and, of course, Hardware (1990).
Hardware is the directorial debut from slightly mad but very talented South African director Richard Stanley (Dust Devil, The Colour Out of Space). Made on the smell of an oily rag, with funding from both the Poms and Yanks, Hardware was a surprise cult hit, a fact that doomed it to be unavailable on home media for years as various production agencies fought like a bag of cats over the rights to the bloody thing. Now, thanks to the benevolent automatons at Umbrella, Hardware is available in 4K in a fancy-pants, feature-rich edition that will no doubt have longtime fans slavering, particularly those cinephiles who spent a lot of time in goth clubs dancing to industrial music, but more on that in a bit.
Set in the post-apocalyptic ruins of some grim, dark future America, Hardware is the story of Jill (Stacey Travis), a reclusive artist who makes sculpture with found objects in her large secure apartment. Jill’s on again/off again boyfriend Mo (Dylan McDermott) drops in with a big pile of crap, that includes robot parts scavenged from a mysterious Zone Tripper (Carl McCoy), who looks a lot like the lead singer from Fields of the Nephilim. Turns out that the robot in question is the MARK 13, a narky war droid that is, a) very good at rebuilding itself out of whatever it can find and, b) pretty bloody stroppy about being used in an artwork. So begins a tense, visually arresting game of cat and mouse that comes complete with gloopy gore and a few genuinely creepy moments. Not to mention a stellar soundtrack that features a score from Simon Bowell (Santa Sangre, Phenomena) and cracking tunes from the likes of Ministry, Public Image Limited and Motörhead.
If Alex Proyas’ The Crow (1994) was the film that best defined the goth subculture, and Alex Cox’s Repo Man (1984) best represents punk, then Hardware is undeniably the film for the Industrial kids. Sure, the soundtrack is varied in terms of musical offerings, but the aesthetic, the sprawling rusty vistas, the blackly comedic glimpses of the US government at work with its unsubtle eugenics program and the overall vibe of creeping, uncontested fascism – all scream Industrial louder than an angle grinder on high.
Performances are very solid with Stacey Travis particularly effective as the moody, detached Jill and Dylan McDermott dependably hangdog as the slightly dopey, but loyal boyfriend. John Lynch is also fabulous as the chemically assisted Shades and William Hootkins is superb as the slimy, sweaty voyeur Lincoln. However, the real star of Hardware is Stanley’s direction, which turns the slight story into an emotionally resonant, visually gorgeous 94-minutes of sci-fi/horror that will stick with you no matter how many times you’ve seen it.
The Extras:
A very solid collection of goodies here, that feel like they’ve been dragged in from the sandy wastes. There are two audio commentaries, one with writer/director Richard Stanley flying solo and another with Stanley and producer Paul Trijbits. There are interviews with Stanley (bloke loves to natter), producer Stephen Woolley and a video essay from the always incisive film critic Bryn Tilly.
There are featurettes on the storyboards, deleted and extended scenes and three of Stanley’s early short films – Rites of Passage, Incidents in an Expanding Universe and The Sea of Perdition – not to mention the documentary, The Voice of the Moon. There are bits and bobs about Hardware 2 that never happened, promo videos with Iggy Pop and Lemmy and trailers.
Best in show, however, is No Flesh Shall be Spared: The Making of Hardware, which showcases how by the seat of its pants this production actually was and makes you realise how much of a miracle it is that this flick turned out as well as it did! This was a movie cobbled together by a bunch of kids who barely knew what they were doing and yet, somehow, the end result remains resonant, stylish and unforgettable. A true lightning in a bottle moment of young talent working together to make something truly special.
The fancy Collector’s edition also contains a 150+ page hardback book with a bunch of never before seen gear, a 100+ page softback book of scripts that includes the unproduced Hardware 2: Ground Zero, a poster, artcards and a very flash looking box that feels hard enough to belt a cybernetic skull to pieces.
The Verdict:
Hardware is a wonderfully directed, textured and atmospheric little sci-fi/horror cult flick that every right-thinking sci-fi nerd, sweaty rivethead or grinning gore hound should immediately add to their collection. It’s a genuinely great movie bolstered by a generous and illuminating swag of extras.
If you’re looking for a talky film that explores every aspect of its setting in exhaustive detail, this won’t be the movie for you. However, if you feel like lighting up a Major Good Vibes cigarette, kicking back on the couch and letting this Industrial feverdream wash over you then… this is what you want. This is what you get.
