Film 9/52: The Illustrated Man (1969)


Ray Bradbury was a gifted writer of great importance. Many of the authors whose work I cherish considered him a mentor. As I had the pleasure of spending a few hours with him a few decades ago, my fondness for Ray Bradbury, the man, even exceeds my fondness for his work. While I have enjoyed a number of his short stories, his novels, or stories woven together as novels, such as the case of The Martian Chronicles or The Illustrated Man, have never resonated with me. 

I had never seen the film The Illustrated Man, so it seemed a perfect candidate for this series. And it didn't hurt that a radio spot for the film was prominently featured in Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (and included on the soundtrack album), which got me thinking about it for the first time in years.

Rod Steiger plays the title character, a man whose body is nearly covered with tattoos, who encounters a young drifter, portrayed by Robert Drivas. The illustrated man is frankly a jerk, but the kid is fascinated by his tattoos, which Steiger explains were created by a woman (Claire Bloom — who I loved in Robert Wise's The Haunting) that could see the future. The IM is committed to finding and killing her for what she did. Staring at the tattoos causes people to see the stories (of the future?) associated with them. I was familiar with the story, "The Veldt" (one of three out of the eighteen stories in the collection that are showcased in The Illustrated Man), but had not read the other two: "The Long Rain" and "The Last Night of the World." While I found the wraparound narrative and flashbacks of the illustrated man getting his tattoos to be compelling, I felt that the three adapted stories were a bit bland. I don't know if the story selection is to blame, or perhaps the lack of a budget to pull them off effectively. The film was not held in high regard by Bradbury, either, so I don't think I'm alone in my appraisal.  

On the bright side, Jerry Goldsmith provides an effective score that heightens the mood; I found several cues to be reminiscent of his fantastic Planet of the Apes score. While not a classic film that I will return to again and again, The Illustrated Man is another one that I'm glad to check off my unwatched list, having given it the best possible presentation in The Slaughtered Lamb Cinema. I can say that watching it has inspired me to revisit the collection to see if my opinion of it has changed since I last picked it up. I think Uncle Ray would be happy to hear that.


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