Somewhere in Time (1980) Review
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- čas přidán 21. 07. 2024
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Reeve had a level of handsomeness and physicality that most men would envy, and by all accounts he was also a very genuine and affable person, with a lot of integrity.
Henry Cavill would agree.
Yes! Definitely the Henry Cavill of his generation.
It is interesting how similar Reeve and Cavill are in some ways, beyond just playing Superman.
In real life both seem very genuine, honest and intensely passionate about the subjects that interest them and the roles they play.
I believe Reeve bulked up quite a bit for Superman. Such a tragedy what happened to him.
Watched this in ‘80. I mostly live in the past myself
The ending of the book may be more palatable. In that version Richard has a terminal illness and is already mentally checking out of life in 1980 when he learns about Elise. In 1912 he is healthy but upon his return he is ill again. While he is brokenhearted, it is the disease which actually kills him. This makes a bit more sense and makes him seem less crazy.
That would've been much better. Thanks for the tidbit, I may read the book now.
I suspected the book may be different - Imagine my surprise when I first read "What Dreams May Come" after watching the movie in passing on TV several times - it's totally different and a MUCH better story. I'll give this book a try.
@@thattinawoman5119 The book is even more tragic than the film, for the reason mentioned (Richard's terminal illness) and for other reasons. I love both: The book has some amazing things not in the film (like an incredibly awkward scene where Elise's mother finds Richard in her hotel room, an obvious societal no-no back then) and the film has some cool stuff not in the book (like the character of Arthur, and Barry's music). The time travel in the book is 1971-1896. Part of what makes the book great is that it's Richard's posthumous memoir, so you can read about what he's actually thinking while all this is happening.
Makes more sense.
@@thattinawoman5119 Is the book as sad as the movie was? It's been a few years since I've seen it, and I can't remember how it all went. I seem to recall he found her in the bad place and had to break her out of her funk, but I don't remember if he succeeded, and I think I remember a subplot involving them having a child.
This was my wife’s favorite film. Since she passed in 2009 I have never been able to watch it again. John Barry’s score is enough to bring me to tears.
🕯
I understand, and very sorry for your loss. Barry's score does the same to me.
Sorry for your loss.
I'm so sorry for your loss. My husband and I both liked the music from this movie. We used some of it during our wedding. He was killed in a car accident 10 years ago. If I could have laid down and died I would have, but that would have been selfish and ridiculous. It may be romantic in a movie, but not in real life! Perhaps someday you will be able to watch it again and smile at the memories, but I know how hard it is. God bless!
I'm so so sorry. I pray you will be reunited in spirit 🙏 ❤
This is unironically one of my favourite movies of all time. It's such a strange, sad story, and it stays with you for a long time after the credits roll. Christopher Reeves is absolutely magnetic in the lead - he puts his heart and soul into every second he's on screen. It's a criminally underrated film and I'm glad to see it getting some love.
It is my favorite film of his and I am a huge Superman fan. It's Chris up close and in every scene for 2 hours. I tell people if you are a Kurt Russell fan watch "Breakdown". It's Kurt up close and in every scene for 2 hours.
No joke I woke up early this morning and put this on for no particular reason, hadn't watched it in yrs, forgot how good it was -
then I come on here and Dave had made a review of it 🤠
I saw this in 82 when I was in high school. It had Reeve and the lovely Jane Seymour.
I need to give it a look though adult eyes. Thank you Dave, I will give it another look.
Utterly captivating.
Even in 2023/24 (only recently watched it)
Beautiful sound track as well
Two of the most beautiful people in cinema sharing the screen together.
Ys. That alone makes watching this movie fully worthwhile.
oooooohhhhhh Jane Seymour.... Now THERE'S A LADY.... A truly beautiful English rose! 👌😍😍😍
😎🇬🇧
Real name: Joyce Penelope Wilhelmina Frankenberg
Want to rethink that?
Nature definitely did things right with her.
@@Lensman864She was born in England as was her Father using your logic Kirk Douglas born Issur Danielovitch wasn't American
@@steveforster9764
English, yes. But the term "English Rose" was used for generically and historically English looking women not those of recent Polish (etc) descent. She was of course beautiful but NOT an English Rose.
Great in The Scarlet Pimpernel, one of the greatest movies
Chris before his sad accident. May he rest in peace.
He lived life to it's fullest and even after the accident. He was a Superman. My childhood hero.@@RebeccaCampbell1969
@@RebeccaCampbell1969 Horrible take on a catastrophic accident. I love eating popcorn, but I sure don't want to choke on a kernel.
To this day I miss Reeve. A true Hollywood legend. He will always be my Superman despite the many others who will wear the cape. He embodied the role and all others base Superman on what he did 40 years ago.
if you ever saw the ghost and mrs muir ...this ending is fine and the fact that the picture was of her looking at him..will always be great
I was just thinking this movie is like a updated version with a time travel twist of G&MM. Both are good movies, although I like G&MM a bit better (love Rex Harrison).
That's a great film!
@@charlie81dbz Ghost also has George (King of Cads) Sanders in supporting role. Anyway, both are great movies.
@@charlie81dbz I consider both films part of the "supernatural romance" category. Meaning there's something supernatural or metaphysical that brings the two lovers together, keeps them apart, or both. 'Somewhere in Time" has time-travel, but it's not sci-fi at all. It's more like a fantasy about longing, obsession, and unfulfilled dreams.
When I watched this with my kiddos, I specifically turned to see thier reaction to the photograph being taken. The way they suddenly realized what was happening, the look of suprise...it was great. I added my own commentary and point out, "The photograph he fell in love with...she was looking at him." Great stuff.
That score. That magical score. I will never forget.
Apparently this movie was a commercial flop in the US but a huge hit in Hong Kong--at the time it set a record of longest playing film in HK at 223 consecutive days and 3 months of a full house! I think the topic of "destiny" and 緣份 really resonates with Chinese people. This movie freaked me out when I first saw it at 8 years old but I always felt such a strong connection with it. So glad to see your review! The theme song is still often played at concerts here in Hong Kong.
Jane Seymour was astonishingly beautiful in the short clips Dave showed here. My God, what a face.
Bin in love with her since Live and Let Die.
She is.
Yep
Yes, she's very beautiful!
Hard to believe Dr Quinn was a babe.
Reeve is definitely missed.
I've seen this movie several times over the years and each time couldn't quite understand the obsessiveness from Richard Collier's perspective until something later dawned on me that caused it all to fall in place. That being that there was a cosmic force at work bringing him and Elise together that neither could explain, driving them to each other, and not merely his infatuation with a pretty picture. He was compelled to find her by an unseen force. And for Elise, this too was the reason for her own actions and why the first thing she said to him in the 1912 version of herself was "Is it you?" She herself was drawn to him without knowing why by a force working cosmically on their behalf. They were destined for each other, and destiny made sure found each other, almost as if they were actors acting out a play, the very theme of their lives. If seen in this context, it makes more sense as to the odd behaviors they both exhibited and would give in to. Also, the pocket watch is also a loop paradox. Elise took possession of it in 1912 and then gave it to Richard in 1972, who then carried it back to 1912 where it once again came into Elise's possession, never leaving that 60 year closed circle of time and is without origin or exit. Still love this movie today. And oh my God was Jane Seymour absolutely breathtaking in this.
Great analysis 👍
In the book, in the years before Richard shows up, Elise is given readings by two clairvoyants (who don't know each other) and they both give her the very same, very specific information (when she's 29, on a beach in November) about a man who will come to her and change her life. In the few days leading up to Richard's appearance, she's nervous and anxious wondering if this man will appear at the predicted time and place. She's so distracted that her rehearsals for the upcoming play are dreadful, and Robinson is concerned about it. That's why she says 'Is it you?" When he says "Yes", she practically faints. It's an almost supernatural sort of thing. (This is the main reason why a famous actress doesn't call the cops when some guy she never met before seems to be stalking her - she's expecting him, and is metaphysically drawn to him. She finds the whole situation fascinating and unsettling -like larger forces are at work.) Also, there's no watch-paradox in the book. She buys him the watch as a gift in the past, and he brings it back with him to the present and dies while holding it.
Thanks. =)@@leemaine1727
Elise was very selfish. She doomed him to seeking after her and giving up his present.
@@JB-ti7bl No she wasn't. He made his own choices, she didn't make him do anything. Fate was involved. He stumbled on the hotel by accident and saw her picture by accident. He didn't associate any of that with the old woman until later. When she was an old woman and gave him the watch, what happened in 1912 had already happened. it was a closed loop.
Richard Matheson, writer of at least 5 great episodes of twilight zone, one great Trek, the two kolchak tv movies, trilogy of terror. Incredible shrinking man, I am Legend. Somewhere in Time to say nothing of all his novels and short stories. Just one of the best outputs of creativity ive ever seen!❤❤❤
The character of Richard Collier died of a broken heart - he was literally pining himself to death. It's not unknown. But I do wonder that, in the story, if the doctor was right and Richard hadn't eaten for a week, was it because he'd actually been in his hotel room the whole time? Not sure, but Richard Mathieson did understand what motivated his characters - and he wrote a classic that endures.
No, because when he's forced back to the present by the penny, he wakes up in what would have been Elise's hotel room, and not his own. I think what the movie is saying is that he is so distraught after being forced back to 1980, he spends the next week alone at the hotel without eating or sleeping. He basically lost the will to live. He actually only spends less than 3 days in the past.
The doctor should have given him intravenous drip for nutrition ....
@@alesh2275 LOL He apparently died right after the doctor got there.
Old Dan the dog pines away to death in Where the Red Fern Grows, after his sister dog, Ann, gets shredded by the mountain lion.
As a 34-year-old single man in 1980, I watched this movie in a nearly empty theater and wondered why the whole world wasn't watching and enjoying it. I found myself relating to Richard and his quest to get back to the past, and I felt like I was dying when he was. It has been so satisfying to see that millions of others have discovered this gem in the time that has passed since its release.
This movie was when it became clear that Christopher Reeve as Superman was so iconic that audiences had trouble seeing him as anything else. Four decades of time passage allow modern viewers to more easily see this movie as it truly is rather than as a movie that failed to give audiences what their preconceived notions desired.
I felt like Robinson wasn't a time traveler. His knowledge of Richard was only experience. He had tutored aspiring actresses in the past, only to see them give up their prospects for love. Elise was immediately drawn to Richard, hence...she asks "Is it you?" Its meant to be a trick on the audience. Does Elise know that Richard is a time traveler come back to meet her? No, shes simply commenting on what Robinson told her in the past.
This is the comment I was looking for. I've heard the theories about Robinson before and even as a kid I understood that this is what they meant about him knowing things. He's been around, she isn't the first girl he's mentored.
@@BooshmanLee Robinson is definitely not a time traveler. He's just very shrewd and protective of her career, so he says "Don't get attached to any man - he may destroy you" as a pre-emptive strike so her career won't be sidetracked by a romance - with anybody.
@@peteg475 Yeah, definitely just trying to protect his investment.
In the book, "Is it you?" means something slightly different. In the years before Richard shows up, Elise is given readings by two clairvoyants (who don't know each other) and they both give her very specific information (when she's 29, on a beach in November) about a man who will come to her and change her life. In the few days leading up to Richard's appearance, she's nervous and anxious wondering if this man will appear at the predicted time and place. She's so distracted that her rehearsals for the upcoming play are dreadful, and Robinson is concerned about it. That's why she says 'Is it you?" When he says "Yes", she practically faints. It's an almost supernatural sort of thing. (This is the main reason why a famous actress doesn't call the cops when some guy she never met before seems to be stalking her - she's expecting him, and is metaphysically drawn to him. She finds the whole situation fascinating and unsettling -like larger forces are at work.)
@@peteg475 Is that in the book "Bid Time Return" or the other one? I think it was called "The Diary of Elise McKenna".
I still remember first seeing this on TV while at my grandmother's house as a kid. I had to be REALLY young at the time, between the releases of Superman II and Superman III, so I'd have been like 6-8 years old, and absolutely loved it. It was the first time I'd seen Reeve not playing Clark Kent, and I remember getting Twilight Zone vibes The very end of the movie where he discovers the penny in his pocket kind of freaked me out at that age. The whole thing seemed like a dream, and I certainly learned to appreciate the romance of it when I got older. For YEARS, I'd started to feel like I was the only person alive who'd even _heard_ of the film. So glad people are discovering and rediscovering this one.
Since the 90s every fall there has been a Somewhere in Time convention at the Hotel where they filmed it. Look it up on CZcams. Chris and Jane attended a few times. Everyone dress like 1912. There is a Plaque where Chris and Jane's characters meet for the first time dedicated to the film. This movie is Magic to some people, like me. It touches our soul.
We're about the same age, and I remember this movie being on the nascent cable stations: HBO, Showtime, etc. Simpler times...
one of my fav movies. That scream she does, calling for Richard, is heart breaking.
I know right? That's why this film still bothers me a little bit
Saw this as a youngster and was so emotionally moved by it, even now at 45 years of age I still well up watching it... John Barry's main theme is one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever written... If you watch this movie and are not emotionally moved by it, you have no soul...
My ex wife loved this movie. Richard Matheson wrote it. Its a movie which is charming and harks back to how movies were made with no agendas or cynicism. I enjoy a rewatch now and again. Its very poignant and beautiful film of a different time and age. Its charming inoffensive and maybe somewhat naive but enjoyable and has a dark ending in reality.
Matheson also wrote “what dreams may come” which was adapted into a movie starring Robin Williams. The movie touches like 25% of what the book is but with how gigantic the world is in that book it’s the only way. Both are absolutely amazing and heartbreaking at the same time. I’d recommend the movie whole heartedly
It’s filmed a lot on Mackinac Island, Michigan. I highly recommend you visit it sometime.
A true snapshot of the past.
I've been there twice.
At the Grand Hotel, once.
I never thought Robinson was from the future. But he does say to Richard "I know who you are" which could imply that possibly. I always felt that Robinson was simply aware that at some point Elise would attract a man who potentially derail his plans for her career.
One of the most beautiful soundtracks. John Barry’s score is just gorgeous!
People dressed so much better in the past, Jane Seymour looks amazing.
They were surrounded by quality. Going out in your pajamas would be utterly shameful. Not so much anymore. 🤡
Really good movie, Chris was so much more than just Superman, he was a great actor and most actors didn't have his range. Street Smarts is another underrated movie with him and Morgon Freeman as the bad guy.
Morgans first big part in a movie and got an Oscar Nomination for it. He was 50.
Julliard trained and Robin Williams' roommate too
The making of documentary on the dvd is a scene by scene expose of what went on. It's a fascinating watch and really brings to light Reeve's humility and decency. I love this film and I think the ending works as it shows an 'all in' kind of love that most of us only dream of. Great review.
This is one of those movies that has a special place in my heart. My family was a big movie family growing up in the 80s and Somewhere in Time was one of our favorites. I bought it a few months ago and look forward to watching it again. It takes me back to simpler times.
1980 was a watershed year for popular culture. Great movies, music, television and literature, too. Things haven't been the same since.
Great movie, with one of the saddest and emotional scores ever produced.
Personally I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more beautiful actress than Jane Seymour in this movie. 😊
John Barry’s score is amazing
Ah Dave, so many memories of this film. It was supposed to be Christopher Reeves breakaway film after Superman, but it was not really liked commercially or critically. Anyway long story short, me & my mate went to see this with only a handful of people in the cinema and gosh was it so romantic to us teenage girls. We wept buckets at the end. In years to come I got the feeling it was a time travel style Vertigo homage - which is also about male obsession. Still love it and its nice to see it getting some recognition.
The perfect love story in my humble opinion. It is my favourite film.
It is a great lost movie IMHO.
@DianeCee57 I agree. It is a lovely film to discover.
It's a lovely movie not just for a fake holiday
This movie made me cry
It made a lot of us cry. It was an epically beautiful movie.
Just the music makes me cry. And the film is gut-wrenching and gorgeous if you've ever loved like that. Dave hasn't, apparently. It's something you'd have to experience to understand.
@@rationalmuscle It was a movie to just imagine as possible. Them being together at the end made it even better.
Ive seen people comment how the ending is similar to that of "Titanic"
There's some weird connections between The Titanic and this story. The film is set in 1912 only two months after the Titanic sank.(though the book isn't set in 1912). In the book, Richard Collier visits the Queen Mary in Long Beach on the way to the hotel, and he talks about the Titanic. Charles Frohman, the legendary real-life theater manager who was the inspiration for Robinson (Elise's manager), drowned in 1915 when the Lusitania sank. Also, John Barry scored another film in 1980: "Raise the Titanic." Not a great flick, but underrated in my view. Anyway, both films have that signature Barry sound.
I grew up with this movie. Still love it. And my god, Reeve and Seymour have to be about as close to perfection of human form as possible. As an artist, they are two of the most flawless, beautiful people I've ever seen.
Second that. Those two are the reason in itself to watch the movie. The perfect pair.
This is actually one of my favourite films ever. It’s beautiful to look at - sumptuous - you can almost touch it. Reeve and Seymour were at their peak of stunningly beautiful. The music is amazing. I think it’s one of the few movies of a book adaptation I’ve ever seen/read which handled the ending better than the book - which is saying something considering the prolific output Matheson had around this time. (Not the actual ending - the time travel at the end). I’ve been dying to go stay at the Coronado my whole adult life! It’s just such a wonderful film.
They used two different film stocks for the present and the past, so the past would look slightly more pastel, soft-edged and surreal. You might not have noticed, but your brain did.
My late wife and I stayed at the Hotel del Coronado for a week in the summer of 2016. It was the most romantic thing we ever did. We never would have had the idea to go there without this story.
@@peteg475 Oh it's very noticeable! I love the effect.
Speaking of living in the past through memories, in the Hyperion book series it is mentioned that at some point humans developed a drug that allowed people to relive memories as if they were actually happening in the present. This led some to essentially shut themselves off from the world and only relive the "good times" that their past selves experienced.
Perhaps my wife's favorite movie. The Book that it was based on "Bid Time Return" was actually based at the Del Coronado in San Diego, CA. We travelled there on vacation right after air travel resumed in 2001 and spent a week there. It was a special time as the normally busy hotel was virtually vacant. We were upgraded to a better room in the original part of the hotel.
Our fondest memory of this and any other vacation we've had in our marriage, to date, was the strains of the theme of this movie drifting up to our room late one night before the piano bar closed over the sound of the waves of the ocean and the moonlight. I took my wife's hand and we began to dance on the balcony overlooking the courtyard and the sea. It was truly a memory we will always cherish and at that time we too traveled back somewhere in time, together.
My late wife and I stayed at the Hotel del Coronado for a week in the summer of 2016. It was the most romantic thing we ever did. We never would have had the idea to go there without this story. Amazing place.
@PaulAtreidesMuadDib-
Oh you have taken my breath away( liteterally) with your comment.
This is my favourite film, it transports the viewer to somewhere so beautiful, a romance so impossible, that it could never be real - (or so I thought) but now after hearing your story, the description of you and your wife, the love and romance, that memory!!
Well clearly that beautiful place and life IS REAL (for some people). I am so happy for you both, and hope you will have a long happy life filled with beautiful memories.
I am very happily single, and will stay that way for the rest of my life. I have no romance whatsoever, and when anyone shows an interest in me, I walk away, I don't want it for myself, and yet your story has really moved me, it's beautiful and uplifting. Bless you both and all TRUE ROMANTICS.
Excellent soundtrack. I still have the album
I first saw this film during a period of unemployment, channel flicking as you did back in the day, I randomly came across a BBC2 'Afternoon matinee' caught the title and then saw that Superman was in it. It was completely different to my expectations of an early 80's time travel movie. However, it's now a film a watch from time to time and I really like it. I think if you've ever experienced the unexpected loss of loved one, it can effects you in a different way. You can really feel this in the music by John Barry, who lost both his parents just before composing the score. Both Reeve and Seymour, are fantastic and the rumour is they were at it, during the time of filming, and you can see the chemistry between them. One of favourite parts is when Richard is first transported to 1912, and hides behind a curtain, a young lady then walks out in her underwear the expression on his face and raising of the eyebrows is pure comedy gold, but would be considered 'toxic masculinity' today.
The title loaded before the thumbnail and I was really excited Dave had started talking about Iron Maiden albums
You too? 😂
This film was shot on Mackinac Island (in the strait that connects Lake Michiigan and Lake Huron) which has been a summer resort for 150 years. Great pains are taken to preserve the Grand Hotel in showy old time shape. No cars are allowed on the island. A college friend of mine worked at the hotel every summer and was an extra in this movie. She is seated behind Christopher Reeves in the theater scene.
I saw it when it came out. I had a similar reaction to yours. My friend said that they changed the end because the first version was thought too depressing. Also according to her Reeves and Seymour had an intense fling during shooting so there was some chemistry I guess. Years later they both appeared in Smallville.
I watched this movie as a young boy with my mom in the early 80’s, we both enjoyed it. Admittedly I think I liked it because of Jane Seymour more than anything else, she was stunningly beautiful
Richard's story isn't sad or pathetic and he isn't living in the past. The point of the story is that two people who are soulmates can be born in different eras and so tragically never meet. The fantasy that the time travel plot provides is that they have the chance to meet each other.
Agree with Dave. The concept of "soulmates" is itself dangerous. As you suggest, some people may not be in the correct timeline to meet their supposed "soulmate". It's an excuse to close yourself off from love that can be.
@@JB-ti7bl It's an ideallized romantic fiction that ends tragically. Nobody is taking an actual real-life lesson (or a model of behavior) from this story.
As always the John Barry soundtrack was superb. Wasnt a big fan of the film though.
Barry's parents had died a few months before he was contracted to write the score. That stunning main theme was written in their memory.
I saw this movie opening night Oct 3/80. I was 16 and at that time and the biggest Superman & Chris Reeves fan. I had been in love with Jane Seymour since Live and Let Die. Richard Matheson was and is one of my favorite writers. I've noticed threw the years that this movie has a magical effect on certain people. It's pure magic to me. To say I love this movie is an understatement. This isn't a movie to me it is part of my soul. Can we say this might be the greatest soundtrack of all time. I think James Cameron ripped this off for The Terminator. A man falls in love with a photo of a woman and gos back in time to be with her. Turns out that when the photo was taken she was thinking of him. Another romantic film with Christopher Plummer as the second man, this time to Harrison Ford is "Hanover Street"(1979). I have a real soft spot for this movie. The soundtrack is by John Barry as well and it is beautiful.
The actions of the characters make sense if you believe you only have one soul-mate in this world, and one chance to find true love.
And really, the way the events in the film play out are, cleverly, and paradoxically (as is usual with time travel) exactly what causes the two main characters to believe they have one soulmate, and that's it's each other.
Basically, the act of having fallen in love in the past leaves them with no choice but to believe.
Or if you've ever had a love like that, which few have.
"Soulmate" is a dumb and dangerous concept.
@@SliderFury1 In a way, it's the woman visiting him in 1972 that is the selfish act. She sets him on a course of ruination!
@@JB-ti7bl To her it already happened. HE found HER first. It's a closed time loop. She didn't make him do anything. He didn't know who she was, and he was already in love with her photograph when his research revealed the young actress and the old woman were the same person.
Classic film with two superb actors. Jane Seymour was amazingly beautiful in her role.
I believe that Richard Matheson was inspired with his view of time travel by two books by Jack Finney (the name of the professor in the movie). These are Time and Again and From Time to Time. They use the same approach to time traveling.
" Forever young" is a great time travel movie as well!
I haven't seen this in years. I remember watching it only because Christopher Reeve was in it. I was probably 10 at the time and Superman was my idol. I think I need to rewatch this. I think I could appreciate it more now as an adult.
I saw this movie 40 years ago and was so impressed with the detail, especially the costume design.
Such a sad and beautiful movie, this really really hits you in the heart
Saw this as a child first, then got married and this was our dream vacation (Mackinac Island). Favorite film along with Doctor Zhivago. This universal theme is that love is beyond time. It is both universal as well as eternal. Soo jumping time is possible
My mother loved this movie with it being mostly filmed in Mackinaw Island, MI where I'm from, but also Jane Seymour is one of her favorite actresses.
I'm not surprised to learn that this is based on a Richard Matheson book. That man is an absolute LEGEND in the world of science fiction. His contributions to the genre are truly staggering.
Easily my favourite time travel movie (and one of my favourite romances), even if it is a little goofy at times... For what it's worth, Happy Accidents (Vincent D'Onofrio and Marisa Tomei) is another great, unique take on the time travel movie you should check out if you haven't seen it.
My wife's favorite movie! There really aren't enough movies and shows set in the Edwardian era.
I remember seeing this movie on tv when I was a kid in the early 80s. I always loved time travel movies and this one was unique. I also remember being absolutely dumbstruck at the utter angelic beauty of Jane Seymour. Nobody could have looked more perfect in a turn of the century period piece.
Now you can finally understand why Terminator is just Somewhere in Time with killer cyborgs.
I remember watching this as a kid. When he couldn’t get back to her I burst into tears and sat crying for 20 mins. It’s amazing what you find so sad when you’re a kid. Now I could watch a passenger liner sink and enjoy an ice cream no problem.
John Barry. What a man.
The soundtrack of this movie is superb…just heavenly
At 4:38, surely the professor's name "Finney" is a reference to Jack Finney - and his 70s novel Time and Again, which also explores the idea of time travel by putting the traveler in an old building (the Dakota in NYC).
I could have sworn _Time And Again_ was mentioned in the movie's credits; I picked the book up because I thought they'd said it was the basis of this movie. I've seen adaptations with more changes...
@@boobah5643 Matheson wrote the screenplay based on his own book. But he admired Jack Finney and his book quite a bit, certainly. It has a very high reputation in its genre.
My mother loved this movie when it came out. So much so, I was almost given the name McKenna, but my dad shot it down. 😅
I saw a musical version years ago. It was really good and I wish it could've made it to Broadway so I could buy the soundtrack.
The music in this movie is amazing, especially the main theme.
And that soundtrack!!!😻
Jack Finney's book Time and Again was the big inspiration for Richard Matheson's tale (same time travel method) thus the professor name.
I can understand why Matheson was inspired by a photo of the early 20th century actress Maude Addams (not to be confused with a Bond girl with almost the exact same name who isn't too shabby herself. )
But the former Maude, egad. That woman really could have launched a thousand ships.
Yes, the most flattering pictures of Maude really are something else. There's a reason she was the most famous actress in the country.
It was Jane Seymour, after all. I'd travel in time to be with her. She was one of my first "celebrity crushes" when I saw her on Battlestar Galactica as a kid.
Wow! Great reviews Dave. I saw this film in the cinema when quite young and much of what you had to say about it reflects my own thoughts at the time. A big shout-out to the beautiful Jane Seymour, by the way.
Given your interest in this film and its age, your should seriously consider reviewing a similar film from 1979, "Time After Time," starring Malcolm McDowell. He plays HG Wells who in this film really does create a time machine, like in his own novel, but travels to the future to 1979 San Francisco. This movie has some very clever concepts, from Wells having to exchange his 1893 British notes for US currency to get by, to his attempting to use the machine to go back short time periods to stop a series of murders, but finding that since they've already happened, he's thwarted in every attempt. It also stars Marty Steenburgen as his modern love interest.
I was taken by your observation in "Somewhere in Time" that the past still exists and that historical figures are still alive in previous times. I'm a novelist and I've written a trilogy in which that very concept plays a part.
Keep up the good work!
Somewhere in Time was my parents favorite movie. Beautiful score, wonderfully tragic story
Watched this with my late mother, we absolutely loved it, I'm not a fan of romance movies but this is a beautiful movie and the chemistry between Reeve and Seymour is beautiful aswell.
Running late on replying to this one, Dave. However, great video about possibly my favorite movie, ever. I first saw it around 1986 or 1987; I liked it so much that I said I'd honeymoon there if I ever got married. And, I did! My future wife & I loved the music so much that we used it all through our wedding, then I surprised her by taking her to Mackinac Island/The Grand Hotel for our honeymoon. One thing to point out: in the book, the encounter was only a tragedy for Richard. For Elise, it improved her acting & stage presence & actually gave her the career that Robinson wanted. Matheson (who wrote the script for the movie, too) changed the storyline so that it was tragic for both.
I've lost count of how many times I've watched this wonderful movie.
I always understood it that even though Richard did in fact go back in time this was at least in part due to his brain tumour which gave him that ability and is what ultimately killed him, not a broken heart.
Thank you for this.. I saw this movie with Akemi in a small Japanese town and the movie is entwined with our falling for each other… this reminds me of a long ago love affair…a golden age for me.
Oh that magical soundtrack❤❤❤
I think that movie belongs to those of us who have had to fight for every breath after we lose someone we truly, truly loved. Heartbreak can do some terrible things to a human being both body and soul - there is downward pull. You want to give up but you know it is wrong to want to do so.
Unless you have actually suffered that level of heartbreak, it won't mean of any thing to you and you can't imagine grieving yourself to death.
Agree! I saw this movie as a teenager and thought the romance a bit over the top and kinda silly. Now as a widow when I watch this film it makes a lot more sense, the dying of a broken heart seems quite plausible to me. Grief has a huge physical impact.
Thank you for all your hard work sir.
James Cameron must love this film. A) In “Terminator” (1884) Kyle Reese goes back in time because he’s in love with Sarah Conner and he is sent by John Conner to protect her. He has a photo of her. He says “I always wondered what you were thinking about in this photograph.” Turns out, she’s thinking of Kyle and a kid snaps the photo. Same as this film, she’s thinking of Richard in the old photo. B) When Richard dies, she’s waiting for him in the afterlife. She turns and greets him. In Titanic, when Rose dies, Jack is waiting for her, he turns around and greets him.
Considering how Matheson’s stories tended to end - he wrote a fair number of the original Twilight Zone scripts and 50s sci-fi movies (The Incredible Shrinking Man comes to mind) - the ending is rather Mathesonian. The whole using your mind to travel in time or to alternate realities was a pretty common trope in 50s - 60s fantasy stories so I’m not surprised Matheson used it in his book.
Somewhere in Time was a little bit weird. But one of the things that help sell it, at least for me, is John Barry's score.
I thought it was one of the better Christopher Reeve's non-Superman movies. He has such wonderful expressions on his face thru out it.
I think, while the manager seemed mysterious in what he was saying and doing, I think a more simple answer to a "man coming who would destroy her" was his years of experience of knowing other actresses who threw away their careers for a man. An age old story.
I'm not a romance film guy, or a slasher flick guy due to early childhood trauma with Psycho, but I really liked this film.
I saw this film as a very young child, and it always stayed with me. Though I don't think I've seen it since. "Time After Time" was another film from the same period that had a similar impact, although obviously wiite different in many ways.
This was one of my mother’s favorite movies. Thank you for your honest review of it.
All I used to hear about this film was the John Barry score. Personally I think Reeve had a difficult time progressing passed his Superman build. Instead of being typecast as an action hero he often took roles were he tried to pull off being a playright like in the film Deathtrap.
This film reminds me of the collab song by Michael Stipe and Natalie Merchant "Photograph". There's an episode of the late 80s series Thirty Something where one of the characters finds an old diary hidden inside the wall of her new home. It was written by a newlywed whose husband left to serve in WWII. The woman becomes lost in the diary and the end has a conversation with the young bride. The last page of the diary has a letter from the US Army informing her that her husband became Missing In Action.
After a few of your comments I was a bit unsure where you would go with it but very glad you put it on the reccommended list and pleased you mentioned the musical score which is just beautiful. This was my mums fave film so has a place in my heart and brilliantly acted by Reeve and Seymore.
I feel the same way if the woman was Jane Seymour. Rumor has it that Reeve and Seymour had a real relationship but fate stepped in and they separated, but Miss Seymour named one of her sons, Christopoher.
I know this is a shallow observation, but Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour, when they starred in this film, look like two human beings who were genetically engineered to look perfect. Even with all the advancements in lighting, makeup, CGI, cosmetic surgery and diet and exercise programs that have developed in the past 44 years, you seldom find actors and actresses today that are this good looking on screen.
I watched that movie when I was a kid... and I cried like the kid I was... Then I watched again not so long ago, and I struggled not to cry again... 🙂
The time mechanics of this remind me a little of "The Butterfly Effect" (2004), the idea that physical objects can be critical in being able to connect to the past, while the notion of bending reality via sheer force of will brings to mind the writings of Carlos Castaneda which were popular in the late 80s and early 90s, especially among university students.
Matheson used the device of time-travel by self-hypnosis, as a nod to Jack Finney's great novel 'Time and Again", which does the same thing. Richard's professor being named "Finney" isn't a coincidence.
In the special features section of the DVD, Jane Seymour recalls that there was little in the budget for music. Jane Seymour convinced the great John Barry, a close friend and fellow englishman, to do the score.
Ah - I really love this film. It's so unique - a time travel love story. Christopher Reeve probably doesn't get the credit he is due as actor - mainly due to the Superman role - but he shows how good he can be in this film.
Watched it as a young teen and liked it. Will always love films that mess with time.
I watched this with my parents back in the 90s as a kid, completely went over the top of my head.
After watching this video my wife and I sat down last night and started watching the movie and I must say it is a great film so far. My wife who is a very picky movie watcher got interested in the story so we are going to finish it tonight. Thanks for the review!
Also, side note. In the film GroundHog day, Phil plays the song featured in the movie on the piano. Coincidence?