Watching: The Lawnmower Man
The Lawnmower Man (1992) is a film adapted from a Stephen King short story that follows the exploits of Dr. Lawrence Angelo (Pierce Brosnan*1) as he attempts and successfully upgrades the mind of Jobe Smith (Jeff Fahey*2), a kind, innocent suffering from severe mental disabilities *3.
The story is essentially a Frankenstein tale, but instead of injecting a dead body with simple electricity after stitching together dead limbs and brains, Angelo injects a living patient, Jobe, with drugs which raise his intellectual potential way beyond any living human. Of course, the conduit for this potential intelligence is virtual reality. Eventually, after injecting himself with enough of these drugs to make any junkie cringe, Jobe claims to witness God, which we learn gives him a major hard-on for himself. Guess what? Jobe gets a god complex and goes on a killing spree seeking revenge against those who did him wrong when he was still in his original state of being. These things all seem really cliche, and they are, but the movie is still incredibly nice looking, especially taking into account when the movie was filmed. To summarize: Frankenstein meets Of Mice and Men and then has an affair with Flowers for Algernon.
In the end, Jobe gets sucked into a virtual mainframe, and when I say “sucked in” I mean literally sucked in. His body becomes shriveled and flat, and his physical form is transferred into a computer. I believe we science fiction nerds refer to this as the singularity. Essentially, the line between human and machine are blurred. Think about the plethora of movies that have been released in the last decade that tackle this issue. For some reason that shitty movie that Spielberg made is the only one that comes to mind, A.I. I would say that while this movie, The Lawnmower Man, is unfathomably bad, I couldn’t help but also be slightly sucked in. I guess I would be somewhere between the completely “sucked” Jobe, and the “normal” sized Jobe. I kept watching… cringing… watching… laughing? I don’t know.
A true critique of The Lawnmower Man has to take into account the positives and the negatives. So, because I refuse to actually go back and watch any of the movie, I am simply going to list some of the things that stick out in my memory.
#1. CyberSex/Awkward Sex/Awkward, forced Romance: The movie itself takes on the issue of Jobe’s sexual evolution as his mind evolves. This is also where the movie is definitely playing with the Of Mice and Men themes. The difference is that instead of bunnies as foreplay, Jobe’s idea centers around a few things: initially grass, lawnmowers, cowboys, slutty neighbors, and eventually full on VR sex that ends with pure death. The pure death is the part that is the same as Steinbeck’s novella. What is fascinating is how they actually visualized sex in this movie.
I remember when this movie was first released, and my dad rented the film and told me that after he watched it he would let me, as long as there was nothing “bad” in it (little did I know how many different definitions of “bad” could readily apply to this film). The next day he told me: “No way, you can’t watch that, they have cyborg love making in that, and it’s just too much for you”. I remember watching the film in middle school and thinking: “This is it? This is all that there is in the film?” Let me show you the “love making” scene.
Anyone who seriously got excited about this, probably had no idea at the amount of lewd, disgusting material that would be at the fingertips of every horny male only a decade later.
I think the most awkward part of the film is the speed at which Jobe evolves into a Cassanova. The first “romantic” “intimate” scene takes place with the town hussy tempting Jobe (who at this point has just begun to get smarter) into her room. She then begins kissing him and follows up with an innocent question: “have you ever kissed a girl before” to which the audience is painstakingly aware of the obvious answer: “NO”. I have never seen a more awkward kiss.
Literally, twenty minutes later, after gaining some more VR knowledge, meager, just-devirginized Jobe is basically living with this woman. These VR intelligence injections would make a million. Upon further reflection, this may be what the herds of nerds got off to upon initial viewing of this film: the potential of not only getting smarter, but getting good in a hypothetical bed.
#2. Surreality: While this film is like a Baudrillardian/McCluhanian wet dream, there’s no reason to even venture into these territories, because let’s be honest, that’s boring. I am quick to note that there is a surreal aspect to the movie that is worth a line or few. I found myself awed by the plasticity of some of the characters. The most notable of these action figures was the Irish lawn contractor that employs Jobe. I can’t tell if it is simply bad acting, or if this character is supposed to be this cookie cutter.
There are many scenes and characters that have this plastic feel to them, so I am going to go out on a limb here and will note that they are supposed to add a surreal feeling to the film, but let’s be honest, they are probably just poorly written characters who are poorly acted.
#3. Cigarettes: While the future seems to be fueled by mad scientists, evil corporations, and sex, the future is also definitely fueled by nicotine. The amount of smoking in this movie is just reckless. Perhaps this is one of the most badass features of the future.
#4. Cyber Jobe: Cyber Jobe is just mean. See the pic below for needed affirmation. This guy is quick, he’s embedded in VR, and can summon swarms of cyber bees on command. His omnipresence should not be underestimated. Jobe is able to not only project a golden cyber hologram of his head wherever he wants, he is able to also turn people into thousands of little spheres which get knocked away like a bad game of drunken college pool. The entire thing is relatively amazing.
#5. Jobe’s Hair: Not much to say about this one. It’s hideous.
#5. The Ending: Millions of phones go off around the city, Pierce Brosnan gets a “knowing look” about him, and we all understand that Jobe didn’t die in a fiery blaze set off by Dr. Angelo. I felt needy at the end of this film.
All in all, should you watch the movie? I would say yes, especially if you have a case of beer and some friends around. Or perhaps if you are lonely, and into some VR love? Watch this alone. Remember, you will be labeled creepy. I’m sorry.
*1. As I watch movies with these actors who are/were huge I realize that I only make connections to these actors through the most immediate means available. For example, Pierce Brosnan is only, and will probably for always only be Goldeneye. Of course I’m aware that he is not actually Goldeneye, or, for that matter, Goldeneye, but I’ve never actually “cared” about James Bond, and probably never will, so therefore, Pierce Brosnan will always be known as Goldeneye — and not even the movie character, but rather the pixelated avatar in the N64 game Goldeneye. I feel as if all of this is relevant because of the nature of pixelation, avatars, and of course The Lawnmower Man.
*2. You may recognize this name, he’s the pilot, Frank Lupidas, from Lost. Is it strange that I suddenly want to write about Lost. I am going to suppress this urge. That’s a rabbit hole to which no one should be subjected.
*3. Strangely enough, because this is my first posting on the Internet since my tear jerking days of high school (see DeadJournal/LiveJournal phenomenon — ugh, social networking… ugh, blogging… I think I need to start drinking) I felt incredibly vulnerable writing “mentally disabled, mentally retarded, etc…”. I needed to go look up these terms on Google. It looks like I have completely given up any control to those on the Internet… wait… am I slowly turning into the Lawnmower Man? This is always a possibility. Ruhh… Rohh…
