Nor the nails of the cross, nor the blood of Christ can bring you hope this eve

Colossus: the Forbin Project is sits with one foot in 60s science fiction movies and another in grim early 70s thrillers. On the one hand you have bright sets, crew cuts and swinging high ball parties. On the surface this is another low budget Cold War science fiction film. The heart of the movie is, on the other hand, much darker. This is a bleak story with an A+ ending.

The movie requires a jaw-dropping suspension of disbelief. An untested super-computer is given complete control of the nation's military and then sealed to prevent any way of disabling it. One you put this aside, you can enjoy the attempts by the scientists, the military and the CIA to prevent the computer from taking over the planet. As you can guess, the computer is a wily and rather dangerous foe.

The efforts to stop the machine are led by Dr. Charles Forbin, who is played like a smarmy, cocky Dr. Clayton Forrester. I recognized the actor, but couldn't place him until I realized I had seen his face in the checkout line. Actor Eric Braeden has earned his keep on the Young and the Restless since 1980. His Shatner-esque cheesiness in Colossus must have impressed the soap opera execs.

Pop culture aficionados will like this movie. There are familiar faces all over the place. Not only do we get Mrs. Cunningham and Webster's mom on Team Science, but we also get the Chief as the leader of the military effort to take back control of the nation's missiles.

I suppose this movie is about hubris with Forbin as Icarus. It can also be read as a critique of technological optimism, which was near its peak at the time of the movie's launch. As such, I think the movie is a legitimate science fiction film, if dated and a bit garish.