Heavy Metal (film)

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Heavy Metal
Theatrical release poster.
Directed by	Gerald Potterton Jimmy T. Murakami
Produced by	Leonard Mogel Ivan Reitman
Written by	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 by	Elmer Bernstein, various artists
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release date(s)	June 1981
Running time	90 min
Country	Canada
Language	English
Followed by	Heavy Metal 2000
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Heavy Metal is a 1981 Canadian animated film from executive producer Leonard Mogel, who also was 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 a Canadian animated film for the time, thus predating the present day popularity of Japanese anime in the United States.^{[citation needed]}

Mogel planned another film to be promoted under his "Heavy Metal Presents" banner, and Scott Roberts did extensive work scripting an adaptation of William Gibson's short story "Burning Chrome", writing a total of six screenplay revisions. However, this project, planned as a live-action film, was eventually sold by Mogel to Carolco, and the film was never made. Mogel had a meeting with director Luc Besson, since he wanted Besson to direct Burning Chrome.

In 2000 a sequel entitled Heavy Metal 2000 (aka Heavy Metal: F.A.K.K.²) was released.

[edit] Plot summary

The movie's framing story (Soft Landing) begins with an astronaut (possibly the "Grimaldi" mentioned in the credits) descending through Earth's atmosphere in a futuristic automobile based on a 1960 Corvette. He arrives at a hilltop mansion, where a young girl greets him. He shows her something he brought back: a green sphere. Shortly after he reveals it, the orb glows and painfully melts the astronaut. It introduces itself to the terrified girl as "the Loc-Nar, the sum of all evils." Before it kills her, it says, it will show her how it has influenced society through time and space. The Loc-Nar then forces her to watch the following stories (in order):

• Harry Canyon: Written by Juan Gimenez (illustrator of the recent The Caste of the Metabarons series). In a dystopian future 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 gun installed behind his seat). He stumbles into an incident where a fat gangster and his cyborg henchmen murder an archeologist. Harry begrudgingly lets 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 finds 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 it melts him away. Meanwhile, the girl pulls a gun on Harry, who is forced to use his self-defense ray to evaporate her and he keeps the money. One "Harry Canyon" scene is illustrated Juan Gimenez's web site [1].

As several critics have noted,^{[citation needed]} Luc Besson's The Fifth Element (1997) has certain plot parallels with "Harry Canyon".^{[citation needed]} The similarities include the cynical, detached character of the taxi driver, who looks not unlike Korben Dallas, the way Harry can very easily deal with being held at gunpoint, the scene where the daughter is asking for help, i.e. to be let into the taxi. The daughter is also wearing a revealing white costume and is a love interest for Harry. Harry's flat looks like Korbens (though is much larger), a ball of ultimate evil is the driving force of the plot (though here it is smaller than a head, while in The Fifth Element it is closer to a moon in size).

• Den: Based on the original story by Richard Corben. Dan, a nerdy teenager voiced by John Candy, finds "a weird green meteorite" and puts it in his rock collection at home. Weeks later, during a lightning experiment, the orb hurls the boy into the fantasy world of Neverwhere, where he changes into a naked bald muscleman named Den (who doesn't want to walk around with his "dork" hanging out, and so wraps himself in a makeshift loincloth). Landing on a giant idol, he witnesses a strange ritual and rescues a nubile young woman who was about to be sacrificed to "Ullatec" (this may be the name of "Cthulhu" spoken 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 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, which was obviously influenced by Wally Wood's cartoon art for Mad. ^{[original research?]} On a space station, a square jawed space captain—Lincoln F. Sternn—, voice by Eugene Levy, is on trial for numerous serious charges (and one moving violation). Pleading "not guilty" against his rat-faced lawyer's advice, 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 (which is in his possession and currently the size of a marble. It can be argued that the people on the station are giants since the Loc-Nar stays the same size all the way through except for this segment.) 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 Flying Fortress: 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.

This segment was based on a Dan O'Bannon script which also evolved, in quite different form, into the screenplay for Alien.

A wild spaceship appears in scene from Heavy Metal, 1981.

• So Beautiful, So Dangerous: Based on the original story by Angus McKie. A science consultant arrives at the Pentagon for a meeting about mysterious mutations that are plaguing the USA. At the meeting, the consultant tries to dismiss the occurrences, but when he sees the green stone (Loc-Nar again) in the buxom secretary'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 consultant and the secretary. The robot inside the ship is irritated at the consultant, who is actually a malfunctioning android, but his mood changes when the secretary arrives. With the help of the ship's hippie crew, he convinces the secretary to stay on board and become his lover (she even agrees to marry him). Meanwhile, the hippie crewmembers ingest a massive amount of plutonium nyborg and fly home completely stoned, crash landing in a huge space station.

All about the Loc-Nar: Heavy Metal, 1981.

• Taarna: Inspired by Moebius' Arzach stories. The Loc-Nar crashes onto a remote planet and changes a crowd 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.

[edit] Critical reaction and cult status

The critics were generally dismissive, complaining that the film was wildly uneven and appealed only to adolescent tastes.

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 on VHS. 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.

[edit] Soundtrack

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.

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. To resolve this problem for the video releases, the movie makers replaced some of the theatrical version's songs with generic hard rock instrumentals. The most notable replacement was that of Sammy Hagar's song "Heavy Metal", the movie's apropos theme song. However, this deal took over 15 years to resolve; the video release didn't debut until 1996. Because of the musical replacements, the versions available on videotape and DVD are not identical to the original version shown in theaters.

[edit] Tracks

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

Though used in the film, the song "Through Being Cool" by (Devo) was not included in the released soundtrack album.

[edit] Score

Unusually 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. However, it has never been released on CD except as a bootleg, though several cues have appeared in compilations and re-recordings. Some of the score found on the LP was replaced by rock music in the final film.

[edit] Tracks

1. "Den and The Green Ball" (03:17)
2. "Den Makes It" (02:49)
3. "Den and the Queen" (02:56)
4. "Den's Heroics" (02:52)
5. "Bomber and The Green Ball" (04:41)
6. "Space Love" (01:32)
7. "Harry and the Girl" (03:45)
8. "Tarna Summoned" (02:50)
9. "Flight" (02:20)
10. "Tarna Prepares" (03:35)
11. "Barbarians" (03:37)
12. "Tarna Forever" (03:37)

[edit] Trivia

• 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 pilots used. Some believe the reason for this change is because of parallels to the 1943 Bugs Bunny short Falling Hare, although Heavy Metal's gremlins were green rather than yellow.
• 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 (as portrayed by the voice of 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 (despite the film's copious female nudity, extensive full-frontal exposure of a male, even animated, was, and to a degree still is, considered unacceptable for American audiences).

[edit] See also

• List of animated feature films
• Rock & Rule (a similar Canadian film released two years later)
• Midnight movies
• Heavy Metal Magazine

[edit] External links

• Sony Picture official site for the movie
• Heavy Metal at the Internet Movie Database
• Heavy Metal 2000 at the Internet Movie Database