Between Time and Timbuktu (1972)

Brilliant and touching

A Disappointing Continuation

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

I saw this when it came out, and wanted to see it again ever since. I did finally find a DVD bootleg, but it is a copy of a lousy videotape. It really should be available without the crummy copy! It is a great movie, thoughtful and funny. It was fun to spot several places I know in it, like the shores of the Wachusett Reservoir, the Lindemann Center building in Boston where my dad had an office, the Quincy Market cold storage facility in Watertown. Bob and Ray's reference to the red driveway reminds me of Lincoln, where roads only get patched, and they have Martian pavement after over 50 years. This movie is far too good to keep under wraps. I only just thought to look here because I saw an article about Glamping, figuring it must be what Diana Moon Glampers does, but it is some other silly thing altogether.

Between Time and Timbuktu (or Prometheus-5) is a space fantasy comprised of excerpts from novels and stories by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. He was commissioned to be an adviser on and contributor to the script in 1971. The program was nationally aired on Public (Broadcasting) Television Stations on March 13, 1972. Many good people created funny stuff as the filming progressed, most notably Bob Elliott and Ray Goulding, and with Fred Barzyk, the director. Created at WGBH Television studios in Boston. Starring William Hickey, the reluctant astronaut "Stony Stevenson", who won a sweepstakes "Blast-Off Space Food – Jingle Contest", and they come to the door of his house like Publishers Clearinghouse. His mother Mrs. Stevenson (Dortha Duckworth) answers the door. She later relocated to Mission Control during the time Stony is in space. The spaceflight is followed by Walter Gesundheit (Ray Goulding) and Budd Williams Jr. (Bob Elliott). In mission control is lead by Col. Donald "Tex" Pirandello (Franklin Cover) and Sandy Abernathy (Russell Morash) is a reporter covering the protest from the radical evangelist Dr. Bobby Denton (John Devlin), who was released yesterday from Federal Prison. He preached that Prometheus-5 is a Tower of Babel. The movie is a medley of the following Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. stores: Transported in time by the Chronosynclastic Infundibulum, he travels "one hundred and twenty million miles in three months, four days, thirteen hours, three minutes and seven seconds." The Island of San Lorenzo: (Cat's Cradle) He meets the leader "Bokonon (Kevin Mc Carthy)" who wrote "The books of Bokonon" and his "children" (followers) are referred to as Bokononoists. An island girl (Edie Lynch) and all are being chased by soldier (Jerry Gershman). The religion was outlawed by the President (to give more zest, more tang) and it did in the beginning… Then people practicing the religion started being executed. "I suppose that it goes to show that you have to be very careful who you pretend to be, because one day you may wake up to find that's what you are". The next stop in the Chronosynclastic Infundibulum is (Player Piano) where we meet Dr. Paul Proteus (James Sloyan) who is on trial for armed insurrection and treason. The prosecutor (George Serries) has a classic line: "In this unbiased essay we will see the fruits of our great society. This is the same society that the defendant wishes to destroy. This is the same society that is paying you for jury duty today. It is indeed "A Land of Plenty" (animated movie is shown). The next stop in the Chronosynclastic Infundibulum is a telephone booth in Schenectady (also from Player Piano), asking for change from a drunk (John Peters) who gives him coins saying "That is the saddest story I ever heard". Then next stop in the Chronosynclastic Infundibulum onto (Cat's Cradle) into the lobby of the "Hoenikker Laboratory of Immortality" (Hurd Hatfield) and assistant Miss Martin (Helen Stenborg) laying on a table, being thawed out. Disclosed is his research on "Ice Nine", a seed with a melting point of a hundred and forty degrees Fahrenheit, to freeze mud for military applications. The next stop in the Chronosynclastic Infundibulum falls onto (Welcome to the Monkey House) with a Handicapper General, a woman named Diana Moon Glampers (Benay Venuta). This is a society where true equality is based on "handicapping everyone". In a TV studio, a ballet is being performed by two dancers, shackled and masked. Harrison Bergeron (Avind Haerum) suddenly breaks out of his handicaps, and removes the Ballerina (Alexis Hoff) handicaps. The strains of "Romeo and Juliet" fill the air. They dance. Meanwhile, a double-barrel shotgun is being loaded, and fired at the two dancers. Our next stop in the Chronosynclastic Infundibulum falls into "The Ethical Suicide Parlor, the population explosion has people massed and pressed against one another outside. Stony is escorted by Nancy (Susan Sullivan) delivers a tray of food to Lionel J. Howard (Charles White) while a TV commercial announcer (Phillip Bruns) plays in the room. Lionel J. Howard has chosen cyanide. His wife wanted him to take the carbon monoxide, but he told her "cyanide's more masculine". After taking the needle, his last request is "What are people for?" Next is a long line of candles quietly flickering and Stony with a kitten on a flat dry ground in wide empty arena at night (Happy Birthday Wanda June). Noise of a fire truck approaching: "Hi, I am Wanda June" (Ariane Munker). Stony asks "Am I dead?" Wanda replies "Nothing to be ashamed about, today was going to be my birthday, but I was hit by an ice cream truck before I could have my party. I am dead now, I am in heaven. Everybody up here is happy." The celebration comes to a discordant end as Hitler (Page Johnson) appears, goose-stepping and snarling from a balcony. "What a poor specimen of a man you are!" Stony replies "That's been said before". Hitler "Do you know who I am?" and Stony says "Yes. And you scare the hell out of me. More than anything I've seen in my life." Hitler: "I am death, and I am final. (Aside, awed by himself) God, am I ever final!" speaking to Wanda June "Go to the worms, my blond Teutonic child" Stony commands people to randomly appear and disappear. Next we see Stony working his way out of a grave in Brooklyn cemetery, reading epitaph on tombstone "Stony Stevenson. Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt." Stony walks away from the grave and approaches a man with a lawn mower (McIntyre Dixon) There's a tombstone back there… "Tombstone? An understatement is what that is." It says "Stony Stevenson, astronaut". He's not actually buried there, that's just a memorial his mother put up. He is out there in space or time, who knows where he is? His space capsule splashed down in the Pacific with a note and a half-empty bottle of Tang. The note said what's written on the tombstone.

I saw this film one time and one time only, in a Sci-Fi Lit class in my senior year of high school in 1980. This made a big impression on me to this day. There were moments of joyful silliness (Walter Gesundheit is actually a double pun, if you are studying German, which I also was taking that year), and scenes of incredibly pure beauty. I found large parts of this movie promoted a philosophy of hope, which was very important to a (then) suicidal teenager. This film kept me out of the knife-room for MONTHS.I don't know where the teacher obtained the print, and if I could get a copy these days, I would without hesitation, even if I had to pay a lot. Quick, someone tell Mr. Vonnegut so it will be released.

Saw this in a revival theatre. I was mentally (you know) ready for a sci-fi film and totally enjoyed it.I don't know if I would "buy" the premise of the story today, but the time travel venues were thought provoking. Food for thought for a (then)-seeking youth.