Hardware Special Edition   Starring: Dylan McDermott, Stacey Travis, Carl McCoy, Lemmy, William Hootkins and Iggy Pop Optimum Home Entertainment RRP: £19.99 OPTD1583 Certificate: 18 Available 22 June 2009

Following war and the ecological breakdown of the planet, radioactive waste is blown in the wind and the lands have been reduced to desert. Through this inhospitable terrain scavengers roam trying to make a living selling the debris of past conflicts. When Moses Baxter finds an apparently deactivated robot head, he thinks he has found the ideal gift for his sculptor girlfriend Jill. She is likewise delighted until the head reactivates and uses the metal and machinery in her workshop to reconstruct itself. Fully mobile the robot carries out its last command, KILL...

Hardware: Special Edition (1990 - 1 hr, 30 min, 22 sec) is a cyberpunk, post apocalyptic, dystopian tale of caution - another way of saying don’t expect to laugh much during the film - directed by Richard Stanley. The film was partially based on a strip from 2000AD and is considered to be the first adaptation from the comic, ahead of its better known cousin Judge Dredd (1995), which at least had some elements of irony and wit, something Stanley’s dour film lacks. Hardware won two awards - one for the director and one for the special effects.

One of the problems with Hardware is that nothing much happens; if you strip away the science fiction elements what we have here is a slasher movie, with the robot running amok. The leads, Dylan McDermott (Moses Baxter) and Stacey Travis (Jill), are given little time to develop as characters, so it is difficult to care about their fate. To show that they seem to care about each other the director has included the obligatory bedroom scene. Oddly enough one of the most interesting characters is the sexual stalker who is spying on Moses and Jill; unfortunately he doesn’t last for much of the film, but is dispatched in the movie’s best death scene, with enough gore to fill an abattoir.

Although the film sports a naff narrative it does well in the style stakes and Stanley has taken care to give the viewer a sense that these people don’t just live in a single room, the cityscapes outside of Jill’s apartment are very effective. The film boasts a number of celebrities namely Iggy Pop, who you never see. He plays the voice of D.J. Angry Bob, who spends his whole time broadcasting nothing but bad news, and Lemmy of Motorhead, Hawkwind fame who has a cameo as a taxi driver.

It’s not a bad film but it does suffer from a case of style over content. That said the realisation of the robot is well executed, guaranteed to give you the odd jump now and then.

For what is an indie, budget film, made by a music video director the disc is veritable chock a block with extras, not least of which is the full length commentary from Richard Stanley and the producer Paul Trijbits, discussing amongst other things the look and feel of the movie and the difficulty in getting a movie made with a non-union crew. The film is expanded in the deleted, extended and behind the scenes section which holds five different pieces, all annoyingly prefaced with the same warning. Sex and Death (3 min, 37 sec) is an extension to the sex scene with the stalker talking dirty to himself, nothing which would be really missed from the film. Jill and Mo (11 min, 33 sec) has some more of the film lovers talking and... well, talking. Mark 13 (2 min, 35 sec) is a bit more of the robot running amok and The Death of Lincoln (1 min, 37 sec) is a behind the scenes segment showing the filming of the voyeur's death. Lastly, we have The Kids Get Theirs (1 min, 36 sec) a rough-cut deleted scene of Moses beating up a bunch of kids.

The extras continue with a short film, The Sea of Perdition (8 min, 31 sec), which in good Star Wars fashion is episode seven, with no indication of what happened to episodes one to six. The tale tells of a lone female astronaut, lost on Mars, who finds a cave. In the cave a naked version of herself arises out of a pond, kisses her, reducing her to a skeleton. No don’t get me started; with no context the short makes little sense apart from a record of an inexplicable moment in time. On the plus side it is well shot and left me wanting to see the other chapters, so it couldn’t have been all bad. If you’re a big fan of Stanley then the two Super-8 early features will be of interest, for the casual viewer I’m not sure that they add much to the disc, except for the second feature. Rites of Passage (9 min, 48 sec) tells the story of an aboriginal man and Incidents in an Expanding Universe (44 min, 27 sec) is a film that Stanley made aged fifteen, which is pretty much Hardware, but without the robot.

The Voice of the Moon (32 min, 24 sec) is another meaty extra and is a film Stanley made highlighting the struggles of the Taliban to push back the Soviet forces from Afghanistan. It’s less of a documentary, more a sequence of images which evokes emotion, much like Koyaanisqatsi (1982). Odd really how quickly allies become enemies, anyway the disc wraps up with the original theatrical trailer (3 min, 22 sec).

Overall the film is middling, with some good imagery, but a weak plot. What can’t be criticised is the presentation of the disc which is first class and will please any fans of Stanley’s work. And for once there is enough extra material here to justify the title Special Edition. The film is presented with an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 with a 2.0 stereo audio track.

7

Charles Packer