quietearth [Celluloid 08.28.08] news short scifi dystopic



Considering Kurt Vonnegut's short story Harrison Bergeron and the Bruce Pittman made-for-tv adaptation are a couple of my personal favorite things of all time, my jaw almost hit the floor when I saw this new adaptation. 2081 is short film directed by Chandler Tuttle which is based on one of Vonnegut's most profound and shortest of stories. "2081 is set in a dystopian future where everyone is “equal every which way,” a world in which a Handicapper General goes to enormous lengths to prevent competition and to eliminate innate human differences. Beautiful people wear disfiguring masks; intelligent people have loud, distracting noises piped into their heads to interrupt their thoughts; athletes are burdened with heavy weights. The end result is a society where no one can think, no one can love, and no one can register how much they have been dehumanized by social engineering--so much so that when the brilliant, strong, handsome Harrison Bergeron is shot for breaking free of his restraints, his own parents are incapable of absorbing what has happened. Tuttle calls the story “a poetic tale of triumph and tragedy, an unbridled tribute to greatness—great art, great music, great dance, and the magnitude of the human spirit.” Trailer and stills after the break!




2081 official website with trailer

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Anonymous (12 years ago) Reply

YES!! Egalitarian Horror!

ultrajosua (12 years ago) Reply

I saw the trailer last week and investigated on the orignal story, which you can read in its full lenght here :
http://instruct.westvalley.edu/lafave/hb.html

And as good as the trailer seem... I don't know how they are going to keep the story going after that, I mean this is a really short story and in the trailer we see almost everything that's written. I really like the setting and this vision of the future but a movie about it, they'll need to work hard :)

quietearth (12 years ago) Reply

actually there's already a feature length film simply titled "Harrison Bergeron" based on this short and it's quite good, so I don't think it would be much of a strength to even turn this into a tv series.

sonaboy (12 years ago) Reply

I imagine they would just need to appropriate some of Vonnegut's other properties to just continue a mish mash of dystopian character studies that all relate somehow - the next in line being Welcome To The Monkey House, and then moving on into longer pieces like Player Piano.

This short film looks pretty fantastic, I'd say. Is this an american production?

quietearth (12 years ago) Reply

Yes, this is from the Moving Picture Institute in New York.

Anonymous (12 years ago) Reply

there are spoilers in this, they should gave said so. It said like the whole damn story.

Kate (12 years ago) Reply

This looks really, really good. I can't wait for it to come out in theatres/DVD. I will absolutely see it. THe whole thing, to me, is sheer poetry. It's such a sad and frightening story that is a possible reality. Once again, can't wait.

Jonathan (11 years ago) Reply

It's out on DVD. Amazon has it for $10.99. Buy it.

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