Mike Hodges' The Terminal Man
Mike Hodges’ The Terminal Man (1974) I wrote this some time ago, trying to get it published somewhere, but it wasn't accepted. I'm really happy with it, though. With the passing of Mike Hodges, one of my favourite English filmmakers, I thought I could make it my inaugural post here. I'll try to add some illustrations at some point. This is not widely seen, I don’t think. It’s not widely available (Warner Archive standard-def studio cut DVD only - in the USA). It was apparently never even released to cinemas over here, though I saw the director’s cut at a Hodges retrospective a few years ago. Is it well-regarded? Perhaps it isn’t present enough in the world to have any kind of rep. It should be. Perhaps it isn’t because it’s bleak. It is bleak. It’s a sci-fi, but it isn’t very concerned with being a sci-fi. Any filmmaker who offers some skewed perspective on the world is almost science fiction in some sense - but The Terminal Man is SF on the basis of an id...