Idaho Transfer

The only reason I saw this film was due a mistake. I mistook the UK title, Deranged, for the 1974 Ed Gein flick. I was hoping this would be one of those great 'happy accidents', but unfortunately; it wasn't. Peter Fonda's Sci-Fi adventure has a good premise, but the plot fails to capitalise on it due to the fact that it's completely pointless. Screenplay writer Thomas Matthiesen doesn't seem to know where to go with his post-apocalyptic theme, and so what we get left with is a lumbering 'survivors' theme, tied in with something to do with time travel. The idea behind the central plot is that bunch of researchers travel into the future in order to discover what it is that has wiped out humanity. However, they soon become stranded and after uncovering some evidence, discover that maybe mankind hasn't been wiped out completely. Idaho Transfer actually gets off to quite an intriguing start; but it quickly dries up, and the middle of the film is much like watching paint dry. The plot picks up towards the end; when it pretty much self-destructs.

The film is directed by Easy Rider star, Peter Fonda, and to be fair; he does quite a good job. Fonda creates a good impression of a post-apocalyptic world. The environments are always desolate, and create a sense of hopelessness in the viewer. It's just unfortunate that the plot is desolate also. Peter Fonda doesn't appear in front of the camera and the lead role goes to Kelly Bohanon. None of the cast really stands out, and Bohanon is no different. Keith Carradine is the only name I recognise on the cast list and his performance is nothing special. To be honest, I've never been a big fan of seventies Sci-Fi; it doesn't age well, and these days the 'futuristic' computers look like they wouldn't be out of place in the Stone Age. I can't really say that it's a shame this film isn't very good; it hasn't got a great deal going for it anyway, but it definitely could have been a bit better, and its poor plotting that has made it lose out at the end of the day. I can't really say that there's anything to recommend this film for, and as it's not easy to come by; I don't recommend going out of your way to find a copy.

As other people have commented, there is something mysteriously appealing about this movie. At first it looks like a bit of hippy fun for director Peter Fonda, and probably was. I purchased it for $3 dollars in a second hand video shop for it's 'Tron' like front cover. I then found no computer special effects in the movie at all. My copy is called 'Nuclear Escape', and looking on the net, i found it to have been called derranged also. Intriguingly odd.

I saw this movie many years ago completely by mistake (the video store had got it mixed up with another film called Deranged) and it has haunted me ever since.

After years of searching for a copy I finally located it on Ebay. On watching it again I was surprised to find it had lost none of its hypnotic power. I was also surprised to find it was directed by Peter Fonda.

The story concerns a group of youngsters who go into the future to study the earth, post apocalypse. A number of incidents result in them getting stuck in the future, left with the notion of restarting civilisation.

The film itself is unbelievably stark in its presentation, this is mainly due to the restrictions of a clearly minuscule budget (the sets in their entirety include a road, a corridor, a room and a desert plain). There is very little warmth from the story, sets or characters, the script is fairly cheesy and the special effects are pretty poor.

Despite of this the film someone creates a hold over you. Despite its flaws I never once considered turning it off, I sat, hypnotised as the scenes unfolded. Ever had a dream from which you've woken up slightly troubled, though you're not sure why? This is the film version of one of those dreams.

It's hard to explain in writing. If you ever come across a copy of this film I urge you to see it. You may not like it but I guarantee you'll not forget it too soon.

and I've not even mentioned the ending...!

A successful time-travel project, facilitated with the help of a group of students, is sabotaged by the government when it is revealed that a non-specified disaster(possibly apocalyptic in scale) is mankind's looming fate. The quest for conclusive details in this future event yields a most unexpected outcome.

IDAHO TRANSFER is a curious little item made under obvious financial constraint by some of the era's more adventurous personages on the indie film-making fringe. Though mostly off-target, it does benefit from capable direction, an intriguing premise, and a clever, trenchant conclusion.

This isn't your run-of-the-mill science-fiction story, nor is it a wonderwork of special effects wizardry. It's a subdued film...an earthy, phlegmatic "anti-Hollywood" undertaking which had the potential to materialize as something greater than it is. Sadly, the feeling is more of indifference than enthusiasm at the pith of this project. By and large, IDAHO TRANSFER feels like a vague transparency of what it intended to be...the film's concrete-minimalist iconography is utterly de-trop, as is the intentional and somewhat dissociative impassivity of the cast. They approach their roles with, presumably, veristic inspiration...that method of "non-acting" which aims to italicize a mien of hyper-realism. The poker-faced performances in play could only be called "realistic" if reality was a world full of freshly lobotomized potheads with a collective Asperger-ish countenance. There's an irony here, however...oddly enough, the aforementioned shortcomings also give rise to a unique atmospheric carriage of cold austerity. It is this air of encircling paucity and lost, lonely detachment which gives IDAHO TRANSFER an interesting singularity of sorts. It's a misfire, more than not...but to its credit, it's a misfire comparable to little else.

5/10.

I haven't seen this film since it was first released, but can remember being particularly impressed by what a fine example it was of low budget, higher than average concept sci-fi. Not unlike an extend above the norm Twilight Zone episode, there were no stunning sets, or even matte paintings as I can recall, but very effective use of location at the Mountains of the Moon National Monument in Idaho---why hasn't anybody shot anything else there since?

Briefly the story revolves around a group of student scientists who have developed a time travel portal which delivers them to the same locale some few decades in the future. Discoveries are made, things happen, etc.; of necessity I can tell you little more without spoiling, what other reviewers rightfully refer to as the "punch line". I'd say it was positively Swiftean in its social satire as the best science fiction often is. Idaho Transfer is a wry, tragic, amusing, horrific, cautionary little tale somewhere between the much-upon-us worthiness of "Silent Running", and the full-blown apocalyptic satire of "A Boy and His Dog", and certainly deserving of the same cult status. It is also, I believe, Peter Fonda's directorial debut, and would be of interest to his fans for that reason alone.