Those of you who visit
here, or have looked at the books I have written, you’ll realize that I’m a
sucker for time travel stories. I consider them to be fantasy because, by the
definition that Bob Tucker, Bob Cornett and I agreed on decades ago, science
fiction dealt with what was possible at some point but fantasy was, well, just
that.
So, when I saw a movie
called Time Changer that was described as a professor from the 1890s
traveling into his future, which would be, of course, our present, I thought I
would take a look at it. Time After Time, that Nick Meyer movie of
decades ago had, sort of, the same thing going on. There we had H.G. Wells traveling into modern
San Francisco, though now, it was a couple of decades ago. The sense of wonder
and the fish out of water aspect of that movie was part of the enjoyment.
Here, we are treated to
a professor, Russell Carlisle (D. David Morin) as the time traveler. He has
written a book dealing with modern morality, that is, that morality in 1890. He
needs the approval of a committee at his college so that his book might be
published. All by one, Norris Anderson (Gavin MacLeod), are on board, but
Anderson objects.
His quibble is over a
single paragraph that seemed to remove Jesus Christ from the discussion.
Anderson believed that this was an important omission and refused to endorse
the book without some modification. Here we delve into a rather protracted
discussion of morality and the place that Christianity has in the discussion.
By leaving that out, by calling on humanity to maintain moral standards, the
importance of religion is ignored.
I thought the
discussion went on longer than necessary, but then it was setting up the story
because Anderson had a time machine. Anderson attempts to get Carlisle to visit
him at home to carry on the discussion, but Carlisle doesn’t believe it will do
any good.
As you can imagine,
given the title of the movie, Carlisle does visit Andernson, and is eventually
convinced that he needs to travel into the future. The trip is on with very
little instruction from Anderson, although Anderson does provide Carlisle with
some money from 1890 and suggests that he sell those coins to a coin dealer in
the far future. While a good idea, it relies on the idea that all coins from
more than 100 years ago would be extremely valuable, but you can find, today,
many coins selling for twenty or thirty dollars. Rarity is important but it
seems that no effort is made to find coins that would be worth a great deal
based on rarity.
I’d go into greater
detail with this problem, but it is just a small part of the movie. Carlisle,
then moves around the modern world but there isn’t much in the way of a sense
of wonder. He seems to understand television and cars and probably flight.
True, in the 1890s these things were discussed or envisioned but he is just too
comfortable with them
Then there is a scene
that would have gotten him arrested. A little girl, what 10 or 12, steals his
sandwich, and he is off, chasing her through the park. No one seems to worry
about this adult male chasing a female child. No one makes an inquiry about it.
And then, we are
treated to more philosophical discussions of religion and its importance in
living our lives. It becomes ham-handed and it is clear that the message of
this movie is that religion, or rather Christianity, is an important part of a
good life.
This is where I break
from the movie. While the earlier discussion sets up the reason for the time
travel, now it is just tedious. I wanted to shout at the TV, “I’ve got it. Move
on.”
Carlisle returns to his
own time automatically and his view of the world altered by what he had seen.
The preaching continued but it was not very subtle, unlike some of the other
Hollywood productions in which the message is somewhat disguised, though Time
Changer probably isn’t a standard Hollywood production.
I’m rather ambivalent
about this movie. I don’t plan to watch it again and those movies I like, I
tend to review them periodically. Who can’t watch The Thing from Another
World with Ken Tobey or the original The Day the Earth Stood Still more
than once? Time Changers isn’t one of those.
I suppose I’ll just
say, if you have a couple of hours to waste, don’t waste them here. Find one of
the classic, 1950s or 1960s science fiction films. They were well craft, well
written and well-acted. This one just sort of hangs there with its flaws for
everyone to see. As I say, I think I’d have avoided it had I known a little
more about it.
For those who like
these things, the movie was released in 2016 though seems to have a copyright
date of 2002. It runs an hour and thirty-five minutes and had an estimated
budget of $825,000. There are several actors, with minor roles, who are well
known including Hal Linden and Jennifer O’Neill and the above mentioned Gavin
MacLeod.
