Harrison Bergeron

I saw this movie more than a year ago by chance. I didn't even want to watch it first, but somehow I just got stuck in front of the TV. It was late at night after the Olympics, so i don't think a lot of people saw it. Though I have always loved Sean Astin this movie is certainly a good reason to love him all the more. The "utopia" idea is no new thing in a movie, and usually it's quite interesting how they figure it out eventually. Let's admit: making a good future movie is like walking on eggshells, but I think the cast and crew of this small movie has nothing to be ashamed of. They did really well. It is very impressive how the story of Harrison and of his pure heart and mind talks about life, the equality of men, the lies, the love and of course the arts. I think this movie had become a shiny little secret of the soul of the relatively few people who is lucky enough to have seen it.

This is not the movie to watch right before you trust the government to do something that they say is in your best interest.

Living some years from now, Harrison Bergeron is a smart young man. So smart, in fact, that he's had to repeat grades, several times. That's because A's are bad, C's are good. Everyone is to be rendered average by a headband that moniters brainwaves and keeps intelligence level to average. Harrison, however, is so smart that the headband does not work for him. Recruited by the government, he learns that people have so much more potential than is allowed. Armed with this new knowledge, he feels compelled to act.

In a wonderfully hilarious supporting role, Eugene Levy plays the randomly selected president, who has no idea how to lead a country but loves wielding power. His conversations are little sub-gems sprinkled throughout a gem of a movie. This one is well worth the while, though quite disturbing.

It's been over two years since Ive seen this movie and I can still remember it. the movie was just so mezmerizing, I couldn't stop watching it if I wanted to! I had to know what happened to harry. The movie was able to be depressing and funny at the same time, great tongue and cheek stuff. Its all in how you take it with this film. it can be precieved in so many ways. In short I loved it! this deserves to be a classic.

This is one of my favorite movies because it makes you think of the "what if" to the nth degree. It ranks up there in my mind with Matrix in terms of challenging your imagination to think outside the world as we know it. It is too bad it was only a made-for-TV movie because I think it would have done as well at the box office as many movies that are much less interesting have. The movie puts us in the future, where the not-so-intelligent have risen up against the intelligent and forced the government to create a mechanism (a head band) for ensuring that all citizens stay at the same level of intelligence - average. Our main character, Harrison, is, much to his family's dismay, above average and, despite the band, cannot contain his intellectual gifts.

Kurt Vonnegut's story turned into an intriguing movie. Not a sci-fi classic but worthy of particular praise for its grim vision of the future. Not a future dominated by machines because man has taught them to evolve (Terminator), nor a future inhabited by docile, lazy epicures who have even lost the ability to read (The Time Machine). This is somewhere in between, a future where the average prevails and where excellence is looked upon with scorn.

After a second civil war, America's leaders have realised that war is idealistic, so they look to an age where ideology was at its lowest point. The golden age of mass consumerism - the 1950s. Children are taught at school to achieve mediocrity, grade C is best, grade A is very bad. Adults are force fed tv with no stimulating content, and strive to buy the newest durable product they see advertised. All brain patterns are controlled by thought suppressing headbands.

The premise is marvellous and keeps the viewer hooked. It is darkly comic, but seriously thought provoking. Not brilliantly acted but certainly worth a look.