I caught this back at a first run theatre when I was in college in 1981. I loved the animation, the music and stories. Now, a little over 30 years later, the songs sound lousy, the animation poor, the humor juvenile, the constant female nudity gets tedious and the film is incredibly sadistic and vicious. How this got by with an R rating is beyond me. Anyone feel the same way?
shareI still like it, but to be honest, I rarely watch it nowadays. The music is still okay by me. I don't think the animation can fairly be compared to what is being done now because it was all done by hand.
Carve every word before you let it fall. - Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
All right-- u make a fair point about the animation but Disney was doing better animation than this and theirs was also hand-drawn (back then). The jerky movements of some of the chaarcters just got on my nerves once in a while.
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I agree with u--the right audience is VERY important for a film. As I originally said I liked it when I saw it in college but now...
shareDo you think this should have been rated X? There's certainly a lot of female nudity, but it seems more the stuff of adolescent fantasy than adult sexuality. An R rating seems appropriate to me, then and now.
I had been listening to the soundtrack for years before I finally saw this, and I can't say it's a great film though the music is absolutely killer to me – which is to say I still love it (that's probably more a commentary on my tastes than this film). The stories have a better buildup than payoff, and the gratuitous nature of the stories seems more designed to shock rather than entertain. I'll give this 6/10 based on entertainment value, and I'll leave it in the time capsule for a few more years before I drag it out again.
"Do you think this should have been rated X? There's certainly a lot of female nudity, but it seems more the stuff of adolescent fantasy than adult sexuality. An R rating seems appropriate to me, then and now."
Well it sure as hell wouldn't get an R nowadays! Aside from the virtually constant female nudity there was druge abuse, swearing and extreme violence. When it came out the ratings system was a little more liberal than it is today. I remember reading an article when the movie came out that the MPAA said it would have gotten an X if it had been done with live actors! I can see them slapping this with an NC-17 today.
You made a good point--u love the SOUNDTRACK! That's all people seem to like in this. No one raves about the "stunning" animation or "intelligent" stories and characters. Personally the music did nothing for me and I'm STILL wondering how Journey's "Open Arms" got in it! So the movie just doesn't work for me.
It certainly would have gotten an X if it were made with live actors, but I think the animation (which isn't that great and hardly realistic) blunts the impact a bit. Considering the brutality that PG-13 films get away with these days, I'm not sure it would get an NC-17 now for violence, and the breasts aren't even "real," even for animated ones, at least based on my limited understanding of them.
As for "Open Arms," I suspect the song was intended to throw a bone, so to speak, to the guys who dragged their girlfriends to this film hoping they would get some afterward. I doubt that ever happened!
LOL I can't imagine ANY guy bringing a woman to see this as a date! Back in 1981 my audience consisted mostly of college guys (no surprise there). You're right--the animation was pretty bad even for 1981. Still the MPAA has really clamped down on explicit sex and violence so i think this would get an NC-17. I could be wrong though:)
I guess this had as many guys in the audience as a Rush concert, eh?
How I wish I liked this film more because I have such fond "memories" of it. Of course, those memories were all before I actually saw it. Mostly, I just wish it was better because it seems like the perfect culty title to obsess over. Unfortunately, it's just not that good.
I had forgotten that I did see it a year or two after it opened at a revival theatre. It was the same type of audience (99.9% male) except this time they were applauding all the songs, making truly disgusting comments during the frequent female nude scenes and basically acting like a bunch of grade school kids. So this DOES have an audience--I guess:)
Well, it certainly had an audience in 1981, but today kids of all ages have the Internet.
Watching the fawning bonus features on this disc, I really, really wanted to agree with the accolades, but I just couldn't. I wondered if the artists even believed what they said. But that's typical of "making of" features, unfortunately.
At least this is much better than "Heavy Metal 2000," but that bar is very low.
YECH! I couldn't make it through "Heavy Metal 2000"! Made the first look like high art!
shareWeird things will happen to you with this movie.
I first saw it when I was around 13 not too long after it first came out and I thought it was the greatest film ever.
I saw it again in my early 30's and was turned off by the juvenile aspects of the film and general poor quality of the art work.
I am now in my 40's and I see it in more favorable nostaligic light, a good memory from my youth.
I don't feel the same way. This film is iconic and awesome.
shareI also watched HM the same time as you and in similar circumstances. To be honest, I still like HM because it represents that time period in my youth (like yours) when new things could be so fascinating. I do my best not to judge HM by 2013 standards. If you put your mind and yourself mentally back in 1981 and then think of HM, you'll understand why you liked it so much back then. It was part of your youth, and helped define yourself in that time.
shareI basically agree with you, but there are still some interesting moments. We were all a little immature back then.
Keep in mind that a lot of the sexually explicit cartoons made after this film were inspired by 'Heavy Metal', which paved the way for more adult themes in cartoons. Cartoons can also get away with a lot more.
Back in the early 80s I listened to older boys (a year or two older than me) talk about this movie. It played at a local multiplex but of course I never saw it, those who did saw it on cable when their parents weren't at home. My family didn't get cable until 1985 and that point Heavy Metal was yanked due to some kind of legal hassles over the soundtrack.
Fast forward to 1996 HM finally gets released on VHS. I rented it at the mom-and-pop video store in my college town. Beavis and Butthead were popular then and that's who this movie seems to be aimed at. I didn't hate it, and I don't now but I was just too mature for it at that point. Taarna taking off her robe to reveal she's totally naked and then putting on that ridiculously skimpy outfit--why bother to put anything on at all? She's the dreamgirl for a 14-year old boy, not for a grown man who's seen a real naked woman up close.
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