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TV show review: CONTINUUM season 4
PHOTOGRAPHY

WORLD ON A WIRE  (1973)

DVD Review by David Blackwell

 

DETAILS:  212 minutes, making-of documentary, interview, trailer, film essay

VIDEO:  1.33:1 (Full Frame)

AUDIO:  German 2.0 Mono

Subtitles:  English

 

STUDIO:  Criterion/Janus Films/ Rainer Werner Fassbinder Foundation

RELEASE DATE:  2-21-2012

WORLD ON A WIRE goes places where THE MATRIX and INCEPTION would go decades later.  It is a two part TV film which is a combination of Phillip K Dick paranoia and film noir.   The relationship between Fred Stiller (the reluctant hero) and Eva Vollmer (the daughter of the dead scientist who used to head up the project Fred has been given) has parallels to the one between Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall in THE BIG SLEEP.

 

WORLD ON THE WIRE is about Dr. Fred Stiller who has been given the job to finish a virtual reality project that has been delayed by the death of the former project head, Dr. Vollmer.   Stiller soon finds a conspiracy at the center of the IZK Cybernetics Institute.   He starts to question reality as the security head of IKZ disappears without a trace in the middle of a party.  The head of security was told a secret by Vollmer before Vollmer was found electrocuted by the computers he was working on.  Was Vollmer murdered for what he knew?  Soon no one (except Stiller) remembers the head of security as he is replaced by someone that Stiller doesn't know.   Soon forces conspire to silence Stiller by any means necessary.  Stiller begins to question the reality around him as he works to uncover what Vollmer knew.


WORLD ON A WIRE is like a European art film version of INCEPTION crossed with Phillip K. Dick.  It questions the nature of reality and what is real.  Even the reality attacks Stiller like reality attacks people trying to change it in INCEPTION.   INCEPTION is what you could call WORLD ON A WIRE put on steroids via  the way one of the best filmmakers would see it.  WORLD ON A WIRE and INCEPTION share many parallels.   They would make a great double feature if you have a good movie theme night or a nice rainy afternoon.   

 

SPECIAL FEATURES: 

Disc 1-

Interview with German Film scholar Gerd Gemunden is an In-Depth analysis of WORLD ONA  WIRE and how it figures into the career of Fassbinder.

 

Trailer for the 2010 theatrical release

 

Disc 2-

WORLD ON A WIRE: LOOKING AHEAD TO TODAY-  this 50 minute documentary looks back at the making of WORLD ON A WIRE with interviews from surviving cast and crew members in addition to a look at the restoration of WORLD ON A WIRE.

 

FINAL ANLYSIS:   WORLD ON A WIRE is  a paranoid sci-fi noir TV movie that was ahead of its time.   It is recommended for fans of Phillip K. Dick, INCEPTION, and THE BIG SLEEP.

 

this DVD review is (c)2-28-2012 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission.  send all comments to feedback@enterline-media.com