Heavy Metal - A Step Beyond Science Fiction!

Heavy Metal is absolutely a movie of its time. The attitudes about sex and drugs are right out of the 70's. The use of rock and roll songs in the soundtrack is fundamental, but I was struck on this viewing how little those songs really contributed for the most par to the storytelling. 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 magazine was, is an open question, but it sure wasn't for kids. The artwork was lush and published on bright paper really which sizzled off the stands. I won't even pretend I grokked it all at the time. The drug references often were lost on me, and much of the material hailing from Europe just sailed right over my benighted parochial noggin.

But it was different, and it was compelling. The movie gives us material derived from the works of 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 included the "Neverwhere" of Rich Corben's ultra-muscular and over-sexed Den, and the outer space of Bernie Wrightson's morally bankrupt Captain Stern. The voices are to a great degree supplied by Second City comedy actors like the late John Candy who plays Den, and Eugene Levy. John Vernon's voice shows up. 

The behind-scenes commentary which is actually keyed to a preliminary print of the movie 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 it's pretty interesting in its own right. The movie is probably most famous today for the parade of voluptuous women who take off their clothes but there's more complexity to this show than that. The EC story 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 in more hands-on ways. Rotoscoping is used quite a bit in the movie, and to mostly good effect. Also, on the disk 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.

To get a glimpse of the Den section of the movie check out this link.

More on Rich Corben's Den tomorrow. 

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