Yesterday I watched the dvd of the vintage movie Heavy Metal. I've been on an animation tear of late, and when I found this classic at my local Wal-Mart for a mere $7, I jumped on it. I have the VHS that came out a decade ago as well as the lame sequel. But to get a dvd with commentary and the extras on this disk is well worth it.
The movie is of its time for sure. The attitudes about sex and drugs are right out of the 70's. The use of rock & roll songs in the soundtrack is fundamental, but I was struck on this viewing how little those songs really contributed for the most part. The soundtrack was very quiet, and often disappeared as I focused on the stories.
Heavy Metal of course purported to offer more "adult" themes and images to a comic audience looking for some fresh material. How "adult" the book was is an open question, but the artwork was lush and published on bright paper really sizzled off the stands. I won't even pretend I got it all. The drug references often were lost on me, and much of the material hailing from Europe just sailed right over my benighted noggin.
But it was different and compelling. The movie gives us work derived from Rich Corben, Berni Wrightson, Angus McKie, and the late Dan O'Bannon. The Loc-Nar, a green globe/gem is pure evil and its incarnate voice tells of times and places when man fell victim to its evil. Those times include the Neverwhere of the ultra-muscular Den and the outer space of the morally bankrupt Captain Stern.
The behind-scenes commentary which is actually keyed to a preliminary print of the movie which is made up of early animation attempts, storyboards, and whatnot gives a lot of great info about the movie and its development. For instance the contributions of Mike Ploog, Howie Chaykin and Neal Adams are identified. I didn't know Adams had anything to do with this movie.
There's also some stuff that got cut out of the original, and its pretty interesting in its own right. The movie is probably most famous today for the parade of voluputous women who take off their clothes but there's more complexity to this show than that. The EC story about about a WWII bomber that is overcome by zombies is a great little tale, as is the adventure of Tarna, a silent woman evocative of Clint Eastwood's Man-With-No-Name who seeks revenge and justice for a fallen society.
The old-style animation is fun, and in our modern world of computers it's always refreshing to hear how they solved these problems. Rotoscoping is used quite a bit in the movie, and to mostly good effect.
Also on the dvd is a gallery of Heavy Metal covers and lots of production art as well as a behind-the-scenes documentary.
All in all a good movie, and a very excellent dvd, especially for less than the price of a modern movie ticket.
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