Harrison Bergeron (1994) (Made for cable TV Showtime )

Vonnegut purists will quibble about this adaptation of the novelists short story. It is, after all, a 7 page short story turned into a 100+ minute feature length program. There has to be much more than just the plot of the short story to fill up the time. They may also take issue with the tone of the ending to the piece, which is turned from Vonnegut's cynical, pointed end to a more hopeful and upbeat resolution to the piece.

As I said, the purists may have problems with this piece. I don't. The film is a treat and highly watchable. It is one of the best adaptations of Vonnegut's work turned screenplay, possible second only to George Roy Hill's film of "Slaughterhouse 5."

The screenplay by Arthur Crimm sure takes almost everything it can from Vonnegut's source material. The only thing left out really, is the massive physical handicaps that the characters wear on the page. In the film, this is pretty much done away with. Still, Crimm works it into a scene where a dancer is on TV and is wearing a sandbag. When the cumbersome weight accidentally falls off, the dancer goes wild and does a beautiful dance.

Vonnegut's mental handicaps are here with all having to wear them in hopes of being "equal." Equal, of course, being "average." This is turned into Harrison Bergeron's true problem; He's just too dang smart. The film really delves deep to show us the idea of Vonnegut's future society.

In this film, Harrison gets on TV as well, but here he does it because he is recruited into the higher system of society, those who control the economy and keep the all Americans "equal." Harrison gets on the "inside" and sees the system for what it is. Of course, he can only take this confined infrastructure for a short time, finally exposed to good comedy, good music, good films, good drama and culture in general. After he sees what the world has lost, in hopes of keeping all average, he cannot help but want to share this culture with society.

Christopher Plummer plays his usual subdued character with his evil masked by a true belief in the system. He is in charge of the infrastructure. He tries to keep Harrison in check. When the youngster questions the system, Plummer shows him a rather gruesome and revolting newsreel of man's inhumanity to man, with particular emphasis on the holocaust. Although the footage has been seen before, it seems to take on a particularly unwatchable characteristic here. It really seems to hit home. One can almost agree with Plummer. Man must be stopped. It is worth the confines of the system to keep this sort of atrocity from happening again. And Harrison struggles with it a bit.

But in the end, Harrison revolts. He works within the lame, government controlled television industry and helps to keep TV standards down. In a act of treason, Harrison takes over all American TV stations and plays all sorts of wonderful things for his audience. He plays jazz records, and reads poetry. He shows "It's a Wonderful Life." He shows clips of Buster Keaton's slapstick. He reminds us of all the great things man's freedom have helped to achieved. It's wondrous. But, of course, he is soon stopped.

I could go on to tell you how the film ends but I don't want to. The ending is just too darn good. It's subtle and sweet and poignant and hopeful. The discussion of two young teenage boys at the end of the piece is a wonderful punctuation mark. It offers us that glimmer. It says that maybe what Harrison has done will effect an eventual and gradual change. It's beautiful.

The film is not a cinematic masterpiece. Director Bruce Pittman, who helmed the "Prom Night" movies, doesn't have a huge budget or an all star cast to work with, but he still manages to make magic happen. Firstly, he chooses a perfect actor for leading man by getting Sean Astin. While the youthful thespian may not be an A-List star, maybe he should be. He makes Harrison come to life. He has that perfect balance of intelligence, boy next door charisma and "gee whiz" exuberance. He is a marvel to watch here. We do not doubt him for one minute. He even looks like the physical powerhouse that Vonnegut describes in the story, even though that is not a particular part of the screenplay here.

Another great thing about the film is that it utilizes some great comedians in secondary roles, many of them from "SCTV" fame. Eugene Levy plays a wonderful and foul-mouthed blue collar worker turned President. Vonnegut has always proclaimed that he uses foul language because it is the language of truck drivers and laborers and scripter Crimm exploits that to humorous effect here. There are also small bits filled by Andrea Martin, Howie Mandel, and Sean's dad, John Astin. But the truly humorous moments come when the younger Astin plays off of Buck Henry. The veteran comedian and scripter plays a TV executive with just the right amount of straight faced pedantic self-righteousness. It's great fun. And it all helps the exposition of Vonnegut's ideals.

The script also has some nice ideas and nice moments. American society, though the subtitles tell us it is 2053, looks just like the 1950's. A character later tells us that it is this way on purpose because those were the "happiest" times in history. But, like the time when original short story was written (1961), the times were soon to begin changing. America stood on the cusp. It is also explained, in a school room setting, again delving into Vonnegut's society, how America got to this system. The history discussed seems to have fallen almost exactly out of Vonnegut's "Player Piano." As in many of his books, including that first novel, computers run everything, even picking mates for citizens so that truly average offspring will result. Of course, it isn't a perfect system, since intelligence, it is claimed, is the hardest gene to destroy. To help it along, Harrison is paired with a sweet and likable but ultimately lame-brained teenage girl at his 18th birthday.

As you can imagine, the script doesn't have to be serious. There are many moments of irony and humor, sometimes mixed. Crimm finds times to put in moments of this humor often enough with a joke about Macauly Culkin one of my particular favorites. He also finds a way to explore the way this system works on a global scheme. There are really very few holes here. Crimm explores Vonnegut's vision of equality gone awry to all four corners and leaves little room for questions.

And Pittman understand how to use music perfectly in this artificial environment. In a moment of inspired giddiness, he uses one of the dumbest, silliest "pop" songs ever recorded to introduce the film, "Lollipop by the Chordettes." Later, with just as much skill, he juxtaposes an image of lovers against sweet and sorrowful jazz. It fits the film, and Vonnegut's vision, quite nicely.

The film version of "Harrison Bergeron" is an absurdist's masterpiece with one part "1984" thrown in to three parts Vonnegut's source novel. It has moments of humor, moments of romance, moments of sadness, moments of exuberance, moments of despair and moments of hope. And while those who think the source story is the perfect fable might grumble about this piece, they aren't looking deep enough. Vonnegut is in there. Mellowed a bit, but still shining through the piece.

The film reminds us that intelligence and personal freedoms and cultural differences are unstoppable forces of nature. They cannot be bridled. Many have tried. In the long run, the vision of "Harrison Bergeron's" future is just as dismal as the vision the Nazi's had. At the end of the film, there is hope. And I think Father Kurt would agree that hope is a pretty good feeling.

Notes:

Also with Roger Dunn as Harrison's father, Linda Goranson as his mother, and Matthew Ferguson as his average brother Garth.

Music by Lou Natale.

(Review written in 1997)

Report Card

Script: A

Acting: A

Cinematography\Lighting: C

Special Effects\Make Up: A-

Music: A+

Final Grade: A