*multiple video sequences simultaneously on-screen
*on-screen windowing of images
*the great Colossus POV as it spies on Forbin, especially in the more titillating sections

and all of that visual flamboyance is coupled with the magnificently chilling audio centerpiece: the Voice of Colossus and its horrifying implacable tone. I’ve never trusted a Vocoder since, and obviously the original audio presentation of the Borg collective and other scifi gestures borrow from this powerful film.

I especially like Eric Braeden’s performance. Having a lead actor with a foreign accent was an interesting choice that I feel actually helped the film, and Braeden did a great job of portraying a very intelligent man whose intellectual detachment is his undoing. Having the original Rudy from the Six Million Dollar Man as one of the scientists is also a fun bonus.

Since I loved the movie, I went on to read all three of the Colossus novels. They’ve faded in memory, but I remember liking the first one but finding the others rather weak when D.F. Jones brought in an alien element. I do recall a horrifying part of one of the books where Colossus is destroying great paintings, probably the Mona Lisa is one of them, to observe the emotional impact of that sacrilege on art lovers.

Anyway, I eagerly look forward to the Ninjas’ analysis of this film, one of my personal favorites.