Idaho Transfer

1973 science fiction movie

Rating: 12/20

Plot: Kids are whisked 56 years into the future in an attempt to save humanity from being wiped out by some unnamed catastrophic event.

The second Fonda-directed movie I've seen in the past week, Idaho Transfer is an odd little sci-fi movie. I hesitate to call it a gem because its limitations really get in the way. Fonda doesn't seem all that interested in telling a story that makes much sense, and for the second movie in a row, I had to seek some help afterward in order to even find out what happened. The actors and actresses are mostly non-professionals, and it shows. The movie does have a Carradine in it though. The acting is not good, lines seemingly read with these stilted deliveries, but in a way, it adds to the weird vibe of the whole thing. But I'll tell you what--listening to the two sisters having conversations about all this time-travel stuff and scientific mumbo-jumbo nearly caused me to bail, especially when there were voiceovers over scenes of their driving.

The complete lack of budget was not one of the major problems. Fonda seems to be working with a budget of about 150 dollars, but that also adds to that aforementioned weird vibe. And I actually liked the lone special effect used in this movie--a kind of shaky slow fade used during the "transferring." The setting is mostly this post-apocalyptic desert strewn with lava rocks, and where this really succeeds as a science fiction movie is in Fonda taking advantage of the otherworldly beauty of Craters of the Moon National Park. A large percentage of the movie is shots of characters maneuvering through this landscape, making it like a cross between Gerry and Primer. There are a few gorgeous shots, including one that includes this inexplicable rainbow.

If Fonda and writer Thomas Matthiesen (a guy who has nothing else on his filmography) didn't really succeed in telling a Twilight Zone type of story, you'd want the movie to be strong thematically. It almost gets there, but it's a little thematically muddled unfortunately.

Bruce Langhorn (or Bruce Langehorne as he's credited here) did the score for this one, but there's a lot more synth than in The Hired Hand. It's not bad though.