Idaho Transfer

I haven't seen this film since it was first released, but can remember being particularly impressed by what a fine example it was of low budget, higher than average concept sci-fi. Not unlike an extend above the norm Twilight Zone episode, there were no stunning sets, or even matte paintings as I can recall, but very effective use of location at the Mountains of the Moon National Monument in Idaho---why hasn't anybody shot anything else there since?

Briefly the story revolves around a group of student scientists who have developed a time travel portal which delivers them to the same locale some few decades in the future. Discoveries are made, things happen, etc.; of necessity I can tell you little more without spoiling, what other reviewers rightfully refer to as the "punch line". I'd say it was positively Swiftean in its social satire as the best science fiction often is. Idaho Transfer is a wry, tragic, amusing, horrific, cautionary little tale somewhere between the much-upon-us worthiness of "Silent Running", and the full-blown apocalyptic satire of "A Boy and His Dog", and certainly deserving of the same cult status. It is also, I believe, Peter Fonda's directorial debut, and would be of interest to his fans for that reason alone.

The film is unusually well written, one of the more thoughtful sci fi films. Esp if you get frustrated by bloated excuses for FX and empty attempts to be "gritty."

The problem obviously is, virtually everything else about the film. Poor direction, no budget, unknown actors who are a mix of needing a chance to show what they can do, and should never act again.

You find yourself constantly wishing this were remade with a better director with a budget. But it's still interesting enough that I watched to the very end, wanting to see what happens.

A successful time-travel project, facilitated with the help of a group of students, is sabotaged by the government when it is revealed that a non-specified disaster(possibly apocalyptic in scale) is mankind's looming fate. The quest for conclusive details in this future event yields a most unexpected outcome.

IDAHO TRANSFER is a curious little item made under obvious financial constraint by some of the era's more adventurous personages on the indie film-making fringe. Though mostly off-target, it does benefit from capable direction, an intriguing premise, and a clever, trenchant conclusion.

This isn't your run-of-the-mill science-fiction story, nor is it a wonderwork of special effects wizardry. It's a subdued film...an earthy, phlegmatic "anti-Hollywood" undertaking which had the potential to materialize as something greater than it is. Sadly, the feeling is more of indifference than enthusiasm at the pith of this project. By and large, IDAHO TRANSFER feels like a vague transparency of what it intended to be...the film's concrete-minimalist iconography is utterly de-trop, as is the intentional and somewhat dissociative impassivity of the cast. They approach their roles with, presumably, veristic inspiration...that method of "non-acting" which aims to italicize a mien of hyper-realism. The poker-faced performances in play could only be called "realistic" if reality was a world full of freshly lobotomized potheads with a collective Asperger-ish countenance. There's an irony here, however...oddly enough, the aforementioned shortcomings also give rise to a unique atmospheric carriage of cold austerity. It is this air of encircling paucity and lost, lonely detachment which gives IDAHO TRANSFER an interesting singularity of sorts. It's a misfire, more than not...but to its credit, it's a misfire comparable to little else.

5/10.

Intrepid young researchers with the ability to travel ahead in time as part of a government sponsored project to survey ecology and forecast future food shortages, discover that earth may have succumbed to a nuclear disaster. As a result of the discovery, the government suspends their research and they stage a daring time travel to the future in an attempt to locate signs of life, or, aid its continuance. Isolated in the Idaho wilderness, they pair off in search of life only to encounter a series of harrowing symbols and shocking revelations concerning the fate of mankind.

Director Fonda has merged the youth movement culture of the early seventies with the sci-fi genre, affecting a creatively unique and stylishly photographed film that would surely attract cult status. While the themes are heavily symbolised (you really need to find the meaning beyond the text here), the dialogue somewhat lacking narrative context, and the characters shallow, the film still packs a punch. Bruce Logan's cinematography in a barren Idaho wilderness is a highlight, while performances by the unknown cast (save for Keith Carradine in a small role) range from rank amateur to semi professional at best, although this doesn't diminish the overall impact.

Quirky (the time transporter has to separate metal from mineral matter and so the researchers commute sans pants owing to the zippers) and experimental looking, there's an apparent allegorical message about mankind's custodianship of the planet, and the role of youth in arresting its decline which will either hit or miss depending on your preference for sci-fi rendered social commentary. And while forbearance is required to accept some of the events depicted in the film (e.g. there's a character who's head is seemingly beaten to a pulp with a rock in a sustained, frenzied attack, yet bares little more than a scratch), if you persevere, you may be rewarded.

'Idaho Transfer' marks Peter Fonda's second experiment as a director. It is a hippie science-fiction film that explores another idea of time traveling. The premise is quite intriguing - scientists accidentally discover the time travel and that some mysterious ecological catastrophe wipe out the human civilization not so far in the future. Time travel have some side effects - adults develop kidney hemorrhage, so they die soon after the experience. After that the scientists decide to send only teenagers into the future to build new civilization. Soon, the government takes over the project and time travel machines are turned off, trapping a group of project members into bleak future. The story includes couple of devilish plot twists that I don't want to spoil here as they are actually good ones.

Unfortunately the interesting ideas are executed sloppily, as the screenplay is underdeveloped and director quite doesn't manage to tie everything together leaving many blanks unfilled. As most of the cast were not professional actors the acting is uneven and occasionally wooden, but it is compensated by gorgeous cinematography and scenery shots.

By far not the greatest science-fiction movie by the icon of counterculture and indi filmmaking, but original and interesting enough to give it a shot.