Severin Films | Buy at Amazon | Review by Sinferno
"No Flesh Shall be Spared" – Mark: 13
This is the Biblical phrase in the opening of HARDWARE and perhaps even more relevant, Mark 13 also refers to the exact model number of the central evil robot of the film. Not to be confused with the delightfully wonky Number Five from a Short Circuit movie, Mark 13 is a mute, unfeeling paramilitary antipersonnel droid who sees the world through the crimson rose colored glasses of infra-vision, which allows it to stalk and spill more redness from the hapless human characters with methodical and mechanical efficiency that is the very epitome of cold sinister purpose incarnate.
When the movie starts, Mo (Dylan McDermott), a desert scavenger who makes his hardscrabble living picking at the remains of the pre-apocalyptic world, aquires the scattered remains of the Mark 13 and brings it home to Jill (Stacey Travis), his sexy on again/off again metal sculptor girlfriend. But little does anyone know that the attractive (Cyberdine Technologies looking skull) piece of scrap actually houses the central processing unit of a lost military machine prototype, a scrappy little doer who can reassemble itself given a few moments and some basic tools. Left to its own devices and all the fixtures of Jill's welding shop/ apartment, it isn't long before our little automaton begins to reconstruct itself, much to the eventual despair, destruction and death of most every human being it comes in contact with. From there it is a mad melee as all the characters struggle to destroy the metal man run amok, or in most cases just to escape/survive. Throughout the film, they eventually figure out and attempt to exploit the robots secret weakness, using a natural element that has plagued electronic gizmos since the dawn of time as well as a certain green skinned boss from the WIZARD OF OZ. But I don't want to give away too much here...
Yet HARDWARE is so much more than this simple plot exposition would have you believe. This is a film that was heavily responsible for creating the NC-17 rating for all future films featuring stratospheric violent but non-penetration action. This is an extremely polarizing film. Everyone who sees it will either loathe it, call it the worst film they have ever seen, or they will wax poetic about it, describing the various symbolism of the intricate, music-video inspired extreme cinematography of the thing, the hidden messages and profound cultural message of the film. Calling it a good or bad film really doesn't depend so much on the finite content of this DVD but on your own tastes and preference.
However, if you can easily tolerate, perchance enjoy, an hour and a half cinematic monster movie that takes place in an cyberpunk universe, featuring all the usual false but inspiring technology of BLADE RUNNER, starring an evil protagonist robot who is every bit as deadly as a Terminator, who can also reassemble himself after almost any sort of battle damage using his Predator-inspired skill-set, all so he can kill every human on sight, while all the sarcastic TV commercials of a ROBO-COP movie play in the background and provide larger cultural commentary, you will be delighted! And don't forget the extreme gore, either. Though close to twenty years old, HARDWARE features some insanely graphic depictions of mechanized murders; scenes so nasty that they could easily keep pace with any of today's horror show staples. After all, the protagonist is akin to a sentient six foot power saw who shreds human flesh like so much scrap lumber and yet has no apparent off switch.
As you can probably tell, I liked this film, I always have. I remember seeing it in theaters in limited release and seeing a few people walk out of it (always during the violent scenes). It's the most influential Sci-fi horror film that most of you have never seen, not because of the sophomoric gore which was unheard of in it's day, but in spite of it. HARDWARE is layered, deep and even beautiful; filled with delicate soft touches despite it grisliness. For example, while "The Matrix" received much acclaim for portraying an entire world with a subtle green tinge to it, everything in the HARDWARE world has a beautiful red tint to it; the ruby skies, the first person thermal vision of the bot itself, and even the shock red hair of the sexy protagonist Jill. In some ways, perhaps for the first time, this gives the usual crusty dusty "after the crash" world of these sort of films a fresh coat of paint, and in other ways it foreshadows the extreme gore to follow. Also, the film is chock full of deep symbolism, especially religious iconography. From the "Baal" prefix on Mark 13's serial number to the plague ridden setting of modern post apocalyptic perdition, a lot of work was put into this movie to create references that 90% of you will miss anyway. Throw in cameos of Motorhead's front-man Lemmy as a cabbie and Iggy Pop as the joyless misanthropic voice of a DJ and you will see that HARDWARE is the baddest unstoppable heavy metal death machine of entertainment since Killdozer. One of the the last great cyberpunk, burning earth, death of civilization, B movies ever made.
| Yucko/Neato Factor: See that "/" between Yucko and Neato? That's actually a side view of the HARDWARE DVD perfectly balanced between the two usual extremities. |
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| Production Values: A stylistic, cool low-budget film from 20 years ago that dares to gives us what big Hollywood will not. It's a 5 because it can't be a six. |
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| Realism: Mark 13 was infinitely powerful and some of the reconstruction sequences lacked the usual plot blueprints of probability and believability. It can be slow moving in places as well, if you don't appreciate the hidden meanings coded into the plot. |
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| Value for Price: For $22.99 you receive a 2 disk special edition chock full of commentary, content and the trailer for HARDWARE in German, which is surprisingly more unsettling than the actual film. One grind, however. The Blu-ray version is cheaper than the DVD version! This is a blatant misappropriation of the very nature of "Value for Price." Hey Severin films, can't you just send me a gratis copy of the Blu-Ray version? I will give you an extra finger for it... Think of it as a "five finger discount". |
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| Plot: Simple, perhaps derivative. But it, like Mark 13 itself, continued to run under its own power against all odds until the bitter end. |
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