science fiction film
Science fiction (or sci-fi) is a film genre that uses Speculative fiction, speculative, fictional science-based depictions of phenomena that are not fully accepted by mainstream science, such as Extraterrestrial life in fiction, extraterrestria ...
directed by
Peter Fonda
Peter Henry Fonda (February 23, 1940 – August 16, 2019) was an American actor, film director, and screenwriter. He was a two-time Academy Award nominee, both for acting and screenwriting, and a two-time Golden Globe Award winner for his a ...
. It stars Kelley Bohanon, The IMDb lists her first name with the spelling "Kelly". It is spelled "Kelley" in the credits of the film.Kevin Hearst, Dale Hopkins, and Keith Carradine.
It is the only film Fonda directed in which he did not appear.
Plot summary
Teenager Karen Braden (Kelley Bohanon) is a troubled mental hospital outpatient who is taken by her father George and sister Isa to a government facility near the Craters of the Moon lava fields in
Idaho
Idaho ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest and Mountain states, Mountain West subregions of the Western United States. It borders Montana and Wyoming to the east, Nevada and Utah to the south, and Washington (state), ...
. The project there was commissioned to develop matter transference, but made a different discovery: time travel. They also discovered that a mysterious ecological catastrophe will soon wipe out civilization.
The time travel process has negative health effects, though. Adults "not much older than 20" are unable to survive for long, as their kidneys hemorrhage shortly after the experience. So the scientists decide to only send young people 56 years into the future so they can build a new civilization.
After the government takes over the project, the transfer machines are turned off, trapping a large number of project members in the future. Now trapped, they begin exploring the future world.
A survivor from the project is picked up by a family dressed in futuristic clothing. She is placed alive in the trunk of their car. The small girl in the back seat asks what will happen when they run out of them (people from the past),
"Will we have to use each other, then?"
Bellevue, Washington
Bellevue ( ) is a city in the Eastside (King County, Washington), Eastside region of King County, Washington, United States, located across Lake Washington from Seattle. It is the third-largest city in the Seattle metropolitan area, and the f ...
as a location. The film was shot after Fonda had finished directing '' The Hired Hand'' (1971) and August 1971.
The end credits conclude with the Latin phrase "
Esto Perpetua
is a Latin language, Latin phrase meaning "let it be perpetual".
It is the List of U.S. state mottos, motto of Idaho. The motto appears on the back of the 2007 Idaho quarter (United States coin), quarter dollar coin.
The words are traced back t ...
". Translated, it means "Let it be perpetual" or "It is forever"; appropriate for a time travel film, it is also the
motto
A motto (derived from the Latin language, Latin , 'mutter', by way of Italian language, Italian , 'word' or 'sentence') is a Sentence (linguistics), sentence or phrase expressing a belief or purpose, or the general motivation or intention of a ...
of the state of Idaho. Fonda either neglected, or did not wish to renew his rights on this film, and according to several sources, the movie passed into the Public Domain.
Fonda also produced a documentary about the making of the film.
Reception
Fonda said "The film was in release for only three weeks when the distributor (Cinemation) went bankrupt. The banks had the film for years. Luckily, I was able to retain the rights."
Reception of ''Idaho Transfer'' has been mixed. ''
Time
Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...
'' described it as a "very deliberate and closely controlled film graced with a slow, severe beauty that makes its quiet edge of panic all the more chilling", whereas Jay Robert Nash in ''The Motion Picture Guide'' declares it a "useless piece of drivel about an obnoxious group of teens".
Notes and references
See also
*
List of American films of 1973
This is a list of American films released in 1973 in film, 1973.
Box office
The highest-grossing American films released in 1973, by domestic box office gross revenue as estimated by ''The Numbers (website), The Numbers'', are as follows:
...
Time
Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...