The Time Machine

Author(s): George (GA)
The Time Machine

Directed by: Terrence Malick
Written by: Terrence Malick
Music by: Philip Glass

Cast:

Paul Bettany as the Time Traveler
Rufus Sewell as Hillyer
Elle Fanning as Weena

Tagline: What he wanted couldn’t be found in his own time…

Synopsis:

1895-He came in looking ragged and worn. His house, which was always so neat and perfect, did nothing to make him look any better. He had invited Hillyer over because he had said he had something to tell him. Hillyer was a bit uncomfortable, but he knew his friend would have a scientific and logical explanation. Hillyer poured himself and his friend a drink, waiting. After some silence, his friend told Hillyer about the fourth dimension and how time travel was possible. Hillyer barely understood, but could tell his friend was just telling him the basics. He stopped abruptly and told him he found people there after he had traveled into the future. Hillyer, interested, told him to go on. The Time Traveler took a drink and began:

802,701- I opened my eyes and saw I was in a vast field. I was no longer in my laboratory at home, but in a new place where the air was cool and the sky was cloudless. I was still sitting in my machine and looked at the dial. It read 802,701 A.D. I thought for sure that there wouldn’t be people there, but after a few moments I was proven wrong. The creatures that came up to me were timid though not frightened. The stared at my time machine with wide eyes and were puzzled by my clothing. I tried to catch what they were saying but all I could get was that they were called the Eloi. Leaving my machine, I went with these people to their camp. There were no elderly people and they all had white skin with blond hair. They lived in tents and huts with a well in the center. There was no water in it, but I could here strange, mechanical sounds coming out of it.

All the Eloi frolicked and danced on the grass by what seemed to be the Thames River . There was no one there to tell them that they were being foolish and bad. No one there to tell them that they were doing something that was not normal. No one to stop them from living freely. Complete freedom. Total happiness. Utter peace. I befriended a small girl who I saved from drowning in the River. The Eloi called her Weena, so I did also. She was like a curious puppy always following, but keeping a keen eye on her master. It was night where I saw the flaw in this perfect society. The Eloi huddled together, scared of something lurking in the darkness. I could catch fleeting glimpses of what looked like monsters running through the fields. There was no moonlight. The next morning I counted three Eloi less than I did the previous day. No one else seemed to notice, but I couldn’t help feeling a jolt of despair in my stomach. While walking through the forests, I noticed many things about the nature around me. The trees were startlingly tall and had vivid green leaves. The plants were not that different from today, with leaves and stem the same as in our time. Weena stopped and gave me two flowers that I did not know. They were beautiful though. I saw it was getting dark and made camp for the night. We camped in the woods and built a fire around ourselves. I could hear the creatures from last night (which Weena called Morlocks) walking and breathing heavily. I put Weena closer to me and got the biggest stick from the fire as my weapon. I could hear them clearly and almost could make out their speech. I couldn’t bear it any longer. I ran through the forest with my torch and swung at everything I thought that moved. When I was out of breath I returned to the fire and was horrified. Weena was gone. I looked around but was dazed from my wild “attack”. I sat down and cried. It was all I could do. I got back the next day tired and traumatized.

How could a peaceful and innocent society like this be terrorized by the evil that was the Morlocks? The rest of the Eloi looked at me puzzled, probably wondering why Weena wasn’t there. I looked away, ashamed. I went back to where I left my time machine and saw it wasn’t there. I hurried, frantically trying to make the Eloi tell me where it was. I looked at the well and could hear the mechanical noises coming out of there. I don’t know how I knew the Morlocks were down there, but I did. If my time machine was anywhere, it was down there too. I went down. What I saw was unbelievable. The Morlocks were there in a cave with many mechanical devices. The fluorescent lights above me and sounds of factories from today were polar opposites of the Eloi culture. I looked around and saw no Weena. But what I did see was a mass of white skin around a group of Morlocks. Unable to contain my disgust, I screamed in horror. They quickly turned around and I saw what was behind them. My time machine. What happened next seemed like I was in another dimension. I am pretty sure I struggled with them, but soon I got in the chair of the time machine and pulled the lever back toward me. When I opened my eyes I was back in the laboratory.

1895- Hillyer looked at him in astonishment. What his friend was saying was preposterous, he knew that. But he couldn’t help but be drawn to his friend’s story. As if reading his mind, the Time Traveler produced two dried up flowers, presumably the ones the girl Weena gave him. Hillyer was stunned. But something happened then, that Hillyer did not expect. His friend asked him a simple question. Why did I leave? Hillyer thought that the obvious answer was so that he his friend wouldn’t die, but knew he was looking beyond that. He had found something that everybody was looking for. A paradise that would accept anyone. Somewhere that had no laws, theft, adultery, or murder by their own kind. Hillyer knew his friend could dispose of these “Morlocks” if he brought the right equipment and who would stop him? Not he. He saw his friend get up and walk back to his laboratory. There was a flash of light, and Hillyer knew he was gone. Back to the heaven he had always been seeking.

“Even when mind and strength had gone, gratitude and a mutual tenderness still lived on in the heart of man.” – H.G. Wells, The Time Machine

What the Press would say:

Terrence Malick is known to be a filmmaker of many eccentric qualities, but is always able to produce beautiful and hypnotizing movies. The Time Machine is no exception. Malick uses Wells’ novel to project a message that it is not a fool’s errand to seek paradise. There are considerable differences between the film and its original source, but it is the closest interpretation of the novel yet. Wells used his novel to be an allegory for communism and the oppression of peoples in turn of the century and imperialistic Europe . Malick uses the novel in a different light. He makes the Time Traveler’s mission not a pessimistic allegory for oppression, but a story about a man who desperately wants to obtain a heaven and get away from the violence around him. The acting (as always in a Malick film) is underplayed and a segway to the scenery around them. Bettany does a good job at playing an emotionally worn dreamer, and Sewell does well for what he is in. Elle Fanning is superb as the sadly innocent and joyful Weena. Although she never says intelligible English, her emotions are very apparent in the film. Bettany’s voiceovers are beautiful and very insightful to the world around him and to his inner conflict with the world. Sewell also has a long voiceover at the end of the movie before the end credits roll about the Time Traveler’s views and says the end quote of the original novel to finish the movie. The film also begins and ends with shots of the future world and the beginning also has a voiceover by Sewell. The score by Philip Glass is beautiful and goes perfectly well with film. The cinematography and art direction is top notch (as always in a Malick film) and the sound is crystal clear and makes you feel in the movie. In the end, though, the film belongs to Terrence Malick. His vision and style is perfect for the film, and while not a direct version of the novel, it is beautiful and haunting in every sense of the word.

Nominations:

Best Picture
Best Actor (Paul Bettany)
Best Supporting Actress (Elle Fanning)
Best Director (Terrence Malick)
Best Adapted Screenplay