If it stayed with me before, the first time I caught it years and years ago it terrified me now, living in the world we do, which frankly is en route to an irreversible slide into a pit of shit if we don’t quickly take power back and save both the planet and the fundamental idea of humanity.

This film is a beautiful poem to the preservation of the natural world but also the inherent arrogance of mankind, stopping when we think we have done enough. When it comes to nature and machine, the idea of enough is alien. Yet we do one gesture, and sit back and admire it. Taking our eye off the ball.

Douglas Trumbull’s sci-fi is a gorgeous, hand crafted fable, with an immense central performance from Bruce Dern, prescient and entertaining, of its time, with a timeless social core. A wonderful, important film that sits nicely alongside the likes of Kubrick’s 2001, Malick’s Tree of Life, Scott’s Blade Runner etc.

Oh, what a coincidence, the masterpieces that Trumbull did the incredible effects for.

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As an aside, I saw it on the recently issued Masters of Cinema blu ray and I have to say I’m already in heaven with this series. A UK Criterion collection I can’t wait to dig into Touch of Evil and Hari Kiri which are also in my newly burgeoning collection. If you have a blu ray player you need these editions which look amazing, and are beautifully collated with documentation and extras. Sales pitch over.

ps. Look at that cover!