The Illustrated Man (1969)

User Rating:

5.7/10   

Director:

Jack Smight

Writers:

Ray Bradbury (book)
Howard B. Kreitsek (writer)

Release Date:

26 March 1969 (USA)

Genre:

Sci-Fi

Tagline:

Don't dare stare at the illustrated man.

Plot:

A man, whose body is almost completely covered in tattoos, is looking for the woman who drew all the intricate designs on him...

Plot Keywords:

Tattoo | Male Nudity | Attempted Murder | Lemonade | Anthology

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Rod Steiger	...	Carl
Claire Bloom	...	Felicia
Robert Drivas	...	Willie
Don Dubbins	...	Pickard
Jason Evers	...	Simmons
Tim Weldon	...	John
Christine Matchett	...	Anna

Runtime:

103 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | USA:M (original rating) | USA:PG | West Germany:16

Company:

SKM

Trivia:

Average Shot Length = ~6.8 seconds. Median Shot Length = ~7.1 seconds.

Goofs:

Continuity: Just after Felicia has finished drawing the rose on Carl's hand, his hand is resting on a pillow and the rose can be seen in close-up. It is surrounded by four green leaves. Felicia then takes Carl outside to "look at it in the sunlight". Once outside, it can be seen that the rose is now surrounded by five green leaves. The leaves are also differently shaped.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Felicia: Each person who tries to see beyond his own time must face questions to which there cannot yet be proven answers.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "The Sopranos: House Arrest (#2.11)" (2000)

Definite breakaway from the mainstream

Science-fiction films in the 1950s and 1960s more often than not were clichés of one another. Any one of us who watched "Creature Feature" on Saturday nights in the Washington, D.C. area back in 1970's and 1980's ought to know. Some of you out there may have picked up a similar program that featured horror and science-fiction movies. "The Illustrated Man" broke away from that overly trite mainstream of science-fiction movies that Gene Roddenberry shoved down the throats of many sci-fi buffs in the 1960's and 1970's. You were always being taken off guard by the next scene. You were not tortured with any egg-headed aliens or men with leprechaun ears or ray guns like on "Star Trek". Not that "Star Trek" was a bad show. It's just been over-plagiarized by movie producers of other science-fiction yarns. Rod Steiger gave this film his all, because although he was obnoxious as the illustrated man himself, he was like this either very charming, very intelligent, very family-oriented, or very caring individual in the stories that came alive whenever the young man drifter observed his body illustrations. Seeing so many different personalities played by one actor shows real talent in my opinion. I first saw "The Illustrated Man" on some local channel on a small black and white TV set my sister gave me for Christmas when I was living out in Los Angeles back in the 1990's. I saw it once again on a big-screen color TV set on the Sci-Fi Channel after I moved back to Northern Virginia and liked it both times I saw it. Nowadays and even in recent years past the sci-fi movie and television entertainment scene has either become inundated with virtual reality in the form of "Spiderman" or "Lost" or systematically sterile scripts in the form of "The X-files" or "Millenium". "The Illustrated Man" had unique qualities that set it apart from all the others. That to me is true science-fiction. Not imitating what the next movie director is doing.