@@@@@ @ @ @@@@@ @ @ @@@@@@@ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society 02/06/26 -- Vol. 44, No. 32, Whole Number 2418
Table of Contents
Obscure Science Fiction Film on WNET (EXECUTIVE ORDER):
On February 14 at 11:10PM, WNET (Channel 13 in New York) will be running EXECUTIVE ORDER a 2022 science fiction movie, described in the IMDb as "In a dystopian near future in Brazil, an authoritarian government orders all citizens of African descent to move to Africa--creating chaos, protests, and an underground resistance movement that inspires the nation."
I haven't seen it, so I don't know how good it is, but I'm definitely going to catch it. It has gotten somewhat favorable reviews, with some criticisms (e.g., a shift from satire to survivalist movie). It is Brazilian, so probably in Portuguese with English subtitles. [-ecl]
Mini Reviews, Part 05 (film reviews by Evelyn C. Leeper):
Here are comments on another three of Mark's "neglected gems of science fiction":
PHASE IV (1974): PHASE IV seems more a way to showcase advances in macro photography than a fully developed film. The concept is intriguing, but it is not really developed. As for the characters, Mark noted that this was one of the few movies in which the mathematician is *not* the cold, unemotional scientist (while whatever other scientists there are seem more concerned about how whatever is happening affects humans). Of the five characters, the older couple are stereotypical "rugged individualists who aren't going to let the government push them around", the girl is in shock for most of the film, and the Andrew Keir (non-mathematician) scientist is a caricature.
As for the idea that the ants are becoming more intelligent, the plot seems to assume that they have acquired not just intelligence, but enough technical knowledge to know, for example, 1) that a printed circuit board is a crucial component, and 2) how to disable it.
PHASE IV was the only feature film Saul Bass directed. He was best known for his designs for film title sequences, film posters, and corporate logos. Of interest to the readers of the MT VOID, given its origins, is the fact that Bass designed both the final Bell System logo (still used by Southwestern Bell) and the American Bell/AT&T logo.
Released theatrically 13 September 1974.
Film Credits: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070531/reference
What others are saying: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/phase_iv_1974
WHO? (1974): WHO? is a real rarity; we taped it off Philadelphia's independent Channel 17 back in the 1980s, and I don't think it has shown up since. It was produced by Barry Levinson and starred Eliott Gould and Trevor Howard, so it was not exactly made by unknowns.
The plot is that a scientist who was in an accident near the East German border was in an accident, rescued by the East Germans, and rebuilt with an artificial face and an arm. Then they returned him. The question is whether it is Martino who was returned, or a construct designed and trained to resemble Martino.
The construct is not a robot or an android; it is basically human, with mechanical parts--a bionic man.
This is a movie that has not aged well, science-wise. A decade after the film, identification through DNA came into use. Retinal scans had been in use, but Martino hadn't had any done before his accident. (Isaac Asimov used a similar "loophole" in the last story in SECOND FOUNDATION.) The artificial face looks very fake--like someone whose face has been painted silver, and then a silver helmet put over it, leaving the eyes, mouth, and chin exposed. His larynx was rebuild, so voiceprints don't work. They don't seem to have addressed dental records, and Gould seems to think the remaining human arm (with fingerprints) may have been grafted on to someone else.
I'm not sure the logic holds. I think that the viewer is supposed to be left unsure whether the man is Martino. But since we see the East German interrogator extracting personal information from who we know is the real Martino, watching Elliott Gould trying to use personal information to answer the question seems like something he wouldn't expect to work.
I just wish they had had a more ambiguous ending, but I suppose that is a much more recent approach (e.g., LIMBO (1999)).
Released theatrically August 1975.
Film Credits: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072405/reference
What others are saying: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/who
THE BIG BUS (1976): AIRPORT was made in 1970; its best-known spoof, AIRPLANE!, was made in 1980. But in between in 1976 came THE BIG BUS, spoofing not just AIRPORT in its very specific familiar disaster-movie character types (the priest who has lost his calling, the divorcing couple who really still love each other, the man with six months to live, etc.), but also TITANIC (1953), EARTHQUAKE (1974), THE TOWERING INFERNO (1974), and THE HINDENBURG (1975). The plot involves an atomic-powered bus going non-stop from New York to Denver (why Denver?). Based on everything we see inside the bus (a bowling alley, a swimming pool, a cocktail lounge, a kitchen, and so on) I get the feeling it is TARDIS-like in being larger inside than outside. But logic is not what this film is aiming for. Financially a bomb, it has become a cult classic.
Released theatrically 23 June 1976.
Film Credits: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074205/reference
What others are saying: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/big_bus
[-ecl]
Another National Riddle (answer to riddle from Keith F. Lynch):
Last week, Keith F. Lynch asked:
Here's a new national trivia question: What do these nations all have in common? Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Lichteinstein, South Africa, Tanzania, Turkiye, the United Kingdom, and Zambia?
The answer:
Each of those nations shares the tune of their national anthem with another. For instance Estonia and Finland use the same tune for their anthems. And one tune is used by three different African nations. [-kfl]
Another A.I. Fail (comments by Evelyn C. Leeper):
I asked DuckDuckGo's Search Assist why 82 was interesting number, and it said:
"The number 82 is interesting because it is an even composite number, made up of the prime factors 2 and 41, and has four divisors: 1, 2, 41, and 82. Additionally, it is a Harshad number, meaning it is divisible by the sum of its digits, and it has significance in various fields, such as sports, where both the NHL and NBA have 82-game seasons."
Well, being an even composite number is not that unusual, nor is have four divisors.
That a couple of sports leagues have 82-game seasons does not make the number 82 interesting.
As for being a Harshad number ... the sum of its digits is 10, and 82 is *not* evenly divisible by 10.
In other words, a total fail. [-ecl]
Audiobooks (comments by Evelyn C. Leeper):
I have been listening to the audiobook of DAUGHTER OF TIME by Josephine Tey and realized one problem with audiobooks is the lack of punctuation. One can indicate the ends of sentences, questions, and so on with inflection, and different speakers with different accents, but parentheses elude the speaker. The result is that it is perfectly clear who has large soft hands when I read:
"The Amazon was Nurse Darroll, who came from Gloucestershire and was homesick each daffodil season. (The Midget came from Lytham St Anne's, and there was no daffodil nonsense about her.) She had large soft hands and large soft cow's eyes and she always looked very sorry for you, but the slightest physical exertion set her breathing like a suction-pump."
but when I hear it, the parentheses disappear and we get:
"The Amazon was Nurse Darroll, who came from Gloucestershire and was homesick each daffodil season. The Midget came from Lytham St Anne's, and there was no daffodil nonsense about her. She had large soft hands and large soft cow's eyes and she always looked very sorry for you, but the slightest physical exertion set her breathing like a suction-pump."
The result is that it sounds as though the Midget has large soft hands.
[Yes, I realize that Victor Borge solved this--well, sort of.
Watch NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN (letter of comment by Steve Coltrin):
In response to Evelyn's comments on Netflix's James Bond Marathon
in the 01/30/26 issue of the MT VOID, Steve Coltrin writes:
[Evelyn writes that NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN isn't included.]
It's showing up for me.
(For those unfamiliar: NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN is essentially
THUNDERBALL with some of the serial numbers filed off and Connery
in place of Moore. I don't think it's incredibly essential ...
unless you love SCUBA diving as much as Cubby Broccoli did.)
[-sc]
When I look specifically for NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN on Netflix, it
does show up, but when I look at the page about the James Bond
Marathon
https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/james-bond-movies,
it isn't included. [-ecl]
Steve responds:
Ah, gotcha. Whoever made that list must have Opinions about what is
and isn't a James Bond movie. (And as you know, Bob, arguing about
whose Opinions are right is why computer networks were invented in
the firstplace.) [-sc]
This Week's Reading (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper):
AUTHOR-IN-CHIEF: THE UNTOLD STORY OF OUR PRESIDENTS AND THE BOOKS
THEY WROTE by Craig Ferman (Simon and Schuster, ISBN
978-1-476-78693-1) is a bit more general than the titles might
indicate, and also a bit more specific. It covers to at least some
degree books written by non-Presidents (Thomas Paine and Benjamin
Franklin, among others) while concentrating on some Presidents
more than others. But it also covers a lot about people's reading
habits throughout American history, as well as ideas of
authorship, publishing, and bookselling from pre-Revolutionary
times to the present. On the other hand, it covers very little
about the Presidents other than their writings.
Interspersed with information about the Presidents and books
themselves are interesting tidbits of literary history. For
example, when the Federalist Papers were published, the author was
listed merely as Publius, with no distinction among the various
papers. Two days before his scheduled duel with Aaron Burr,
Alexander Hamilton went to a friend's office and secretly left a
paper in a volume of Pliny: a list of which of James Madison, John
Jay, and himself wrote each of the papers. Two days later, Burr
killed him in that duel.
(It turns out that Hamilton may have claimed more credit for
himself than was due. Textual and stylometric analysis indicates
that about a half dozen papers that Hamilton claimed for himself
appear to be have written at least in part by Madison.)
And for those of us buying and selling books online, we find out
that "Media Mail" (or its predecessor, called "Book Mail") began
in 1938. Books used to be much more expensive to ship than
magazines (their main competitor for the reading public). Morris
Ernst shipped two packages of the same weight to the White House,
but one held books (including the Bible and Shakespeare), and the
other held pornographic magazines. The books cost sixty cents to
ship, the magazines fifteen. (And don't we wish for even those
prices today!) Roosevelt issued a proclamation lowering the rates
to ship books, and Congress finally passed a law for it in 1942.
(This was back when the Post Office was under the total control of
the Federal government. I guess a proclamation was what we would
call an executive order now.) [-ecl]
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Evelyn C. Leeper
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Quote of the Week:
For what a man would like to be true, that he more
readily believes.
--Francis Bacon