by David C. Terr

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Title: Time After Time

Director: Nicholas Meyer

Starring: Malcolm McDowell, Mary Steenburgen, David Warner

Release Date: Aug. 31, 1979

Running Time: 112 min

Genres: Adventure, Sci-Fi , Thriller, Romance, Drama

Commentary
Time After Time is a Sci-Fi classic. In addition to Sci-Fi , it contains element of mystery, suspense, humor, and horror. When I first watched it as a teenager, it was my second favorite movie of all time, after 2001. I have watched it several times since. Although I still love it, now it seems dated, and now I think it's too pessimistic. It's a fascinating tale, but very bleak in its view of society's violent nature.

Plot Summary
Time After Time concerns H.G. Wells (Malcolm McDowell), the famous 19th century British science fiction author, who pursues his former friend John Leslie Stevenson (David Warner), who turns out to be Jack the Ripper in disguise. Wells builds a time machine which the Ripper uses to escape into the future, ending up in San Francisco in 1979 (the year the movie was made). While there, Wells meets and falls in love with banker Amy Robbins (Mary Steenburgen).

Social Relevance
As I mentioned, Time After Time is very pessimistic about human nature. The Ripper tells Wells that he feels quite at home in 1979, claiming that he was a freak in 1893 but now he's an amateur. He shows Wells several violent TV programs to bring his point across. This goes very much against Wells' previously optimistic view that the world would become a socialist utopia, free of war, crime, disease, and inequality. Shortly after watching this movie, I became similarly disillusioned. Now I think the film is overly pessimistic in the sense that man's savage nature has not gotten worse as the movie seems to imply, but has stayed more or less the same.