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Hardware (1990)
Director Richard Stanley is one of those rare filmmakers that really are outside of the box with just about every film they make. The film that he is known for considering it had quite the following on VHS was the film “Hardware”. It’s a film that’s become quite the cult film over the years and although I remember seeing it quite often in the video store, it’s something that I hadn’t seen until the recent release by Severin Films. The movie itself is quite unique and interesting, but under further examination it’s not exactly something worth waiting sometime to see.
“Hardware” takes place in quite the post apocalyptic atmosphere seemingly created by some sort of nuclear wasteland. This environment is most relatable to the desert in our world although there is no water whatsoever in this land. We start out with a man named Mo, who is a space marine in the area. He runs into his friend Nomad who is a collector of a lot of the junk of the land. Mo buys a junked robot head from him as a Christmas present for his girlfriend who makes sculptures and pieces of art out of such things. Little do they realize that the robot head is one of a Mark 13 military cyborg and it’s beginning to rebuild itself to unleash some serious havoc. Eventually they figure out what is happening and have to deal with Mo’s girlfriend becoming the main target of the incredibly dangerous cyborg.
Although “Hardware” is a pretty ambitious film on a very modest 1.5 million dollar budget, it is quite the heavy film, which pains me to say is going to turn a lot of genre fans off. Not that genre fans are stupid or incapable of understanding what is happening, it’s just that a lot of horror fans seen to want to check their brain at the door and this is the wrong film for that type of attitude. I have to admit that upon putting the film and watching it for the first time I wasn’t quite into it and decided that it wasn’t the right time for me to watch it. After that I actually watched the film a few days later and was honestly left scratching my head. Then upon watching it again the next day a lot more started to sink in. The film itself has a lot to say about the impending doom that human beings are facing but doesn’t get too preachy about it. In other words the film lets you make a lot of decisions for yourself, something too many films don’t give the viewer enough credit to do.
The acting in the film is actually stellar considering the majority here were just up and coming actors. The movie stars Dylan McDermitt as the Mo or Moses character and he handles the material in a wonderful manner. Another excellent character in the film is one that you never see once on screen in Angry Bob. Angry Bob’s voice in the film is played by punk legend Iggy Pop and is quite the interesting addition to the film.
“Hardware” is an extremely deep and beautiful film and there are very few genre pieces that I can say the same for. It’s a very visionary style of filmmaking here by Richard Stanley and it’s easy to see from this film why so many film fans speak so highly of his work. The DVD itself is chalk full of wonderful extra features including a astonishing documentary about the film that compliments the film extraordinarily. Overall this one is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED from me even though I can easily say it’s not for everyone.
Rating - ***
-Ed Demko
