October 15th, 2015 - Hardware (1990)

I've heard a lot about director Richard Stanley in the last year or so. The 2014 documentary about his ill-fated attempt at making The Island of Dr. Moreau (called Lost Soul) is supposed to be really good, and I'm looking forward to checking it out. And despite a small body of work (two feature films and several shorts), he's the type of filmmaker that often gets the "visionary" label. Before today, I had only seen Dust Devil (I really liked it), but now having seen Hardware (his first feature) as well, I'm on board with the "visionary" thing. While people have (maybe rightfully) criticized Hardware for being a bit boring in the story department, it's clear that the story/characters are not really where Stanley's interests lie. It's the kind of film that really bears the filmmaker's fingerprints... and in this case, those fingerprints are a unique post-apocalyptic/creepy vibe and generally drugged-out feeling. Hardware exists in a well-constructed universe - a grimy, cyberpunkish sort of place; one of the characters makes art from welding scraps of metal and old machinery together - that actually describes the tone of the film better than anything. And as weird as it sounds, that tone is the film's strength.

And, the gory bits. Gore is far from plentiful in Hardware, but when it hits, it counts. It was listed in the horror category on Netflix, but I usually see it classified as an action/thriller. And that sort of misses the point - if you go in expecting action and crazy set-pieces, you'll be disappointed. It doesn't seem like the budget was there to do anything too crazy action-wise, and at any rate it would feel out of place. That just isn't what the film *is* - and they wisely don't try to force anything where it doesn't fit.

Hardware is about Mo (Dylan McDermott), Jill (Stacey Travis), and a robot, amongst other things. Mo comes into possession of some robot parts while he's out looking for scrap - I guess "scavenger" would be his job description. He sells a part or two, but brings the bulk of it back to Jill, figuring it would be great for her to use for her art. Which she does in a late night fit of inspiration, and the results are pretty great. But shortly after it becomes art, it gains sentience and rebuilds itself (I think I understand how, but it's iffy and not worth explaining). And as you might guess, it starts killing people.

But Hardware is a pretty small scale film. There's a lot of exteriors/world-building in the first fifteen minutes, but after that you are pretty much confined to Jill's apartment, which is where the robot does his dirty business. (The robot, incidentally, is named Mark 13 - presumably after a Bible verse that I won't be doing any research on.) The killing starts up while Mo is out of the apartment, so the bulk of the action in the film is Jill vs. Robot, with Mo vs. Time, while he's trying to get back. Wisely, the film focuses on Jill vs. Robot. But this doesn't leave us with a big pool of potential victims. A SKEEZY neighbor stops by, and Mo brings some reinforcements when he eventually shows up. But it's far from the robot-holocaust that you might expect when you hear "mechanical killing machine."

The design of Mark 13 is cool, but not entirely slick. It does look like the result of a bunch of random elements smashed together, and meshes well with the cyberpunk tone of the rest of the film. There are some pretty unique elements to the robot though; you get *lots* of needles and syringes for injecting people with poison - that and ripping people in half seem to be his main methods of dispatching people. But he's not entirely convincing in motion, which is actually an apt description of the film as a whole.

And I don't mean that in a bad way. I still think Hardware is a very good film. But it's not particularly convincing in presenting characters and situations, or even conveying realistic emotions. To me, it was all about the world-building, creating a unique and off-putting vibe, and giving Stanley the chance to put some of his cyberpunk inspirations onscreen. And when the aesthetic works as well as it does here, it's hard to argue against it. Plus, you get some really good late 80s industrial music on the soundtrack and some appearances by (relatively) famous musicians.

To be fair, there's a lot more going on here than "looking cool." Hardware is the kind of film that you could think about if you want to. I don't want to get into it here (because I'm bad at it), but the film addresses a number of social issues - government intrusion into people's lives, the media's role in modern society, environmental decay, addiction... honestly, Hardware feels a little too arthousey for popular consumption. At least, as far as killer robot movies go.

I've heard some describe Hardware as "boring" and "pretentious," and I could see that point of view *if* you weren't on board with the setting and the vibe. Story-wise, it's rather slow - and honestly, you could sum up everything that happens in the film in a few sentences. There's just not that much going on plot-wise. And it never really tries to be fun. So I can see where "kind of slow" and "not fun" would not be high on the list of qualities people want in their killer robot movies. But I was way into the world it created, and dug its mix of post-apocalyptic nihilism, brief spurts of over the top gore, and cyberpunk aesthetic.

I would   recommend   this film.