Harrison Bergeron | |
---|---|
Film poster
|
|
Written by |
Kurt Vonnegut (story) Arthur Crimm Jon Glascoe (uncredited) |
Directed by | Bruce Pittman |
Starring |
Sean Astin Christopher Plummer Eugene Levy Miranda de Pencier Howie Mandel |
Theme music composer | Louis Natale |
Country of origin | United States Canada |
Original language(s) | English |
Production | |
Producer(s) | Jon Glascoe Jonathan Hackett Joseph Pierson |
Cinematography | Michael Storey |
Editor(s) | Ion Webster |
Running time | 99 minutes |
Production company(s) | Atlantis Films |
Distributor | Republic Pictures |
Release | |
Original network | Showtime |
Original release | August 13, 1995 |
Harrison Bergeron is a 1995 cable television movie film loosely adapted from Kurt Vonnegut's 1961 short story of the same name. It was produced for Showtime and first screened on August 13, 1995. It was released to VHS in 1998.
The film takes place in a dystopian future in which the US government mandates total egalitarianism in all things, by having everyone attach wearable mind "handicapping" devices to their heads and showing only mind numbing shows on TV. The story centers on a high school student named Harrison Bergeron whose extreme intelligence makes him something of a pariah. He is ultimately recruited by a secret organization whose purpose is to operate the functions of society that cannot be handled by the unintelligent. While he thrives in this environment for a time and even falls in love with the girl who introduced him into the organization, he ultimately pays a personal price and comes to see the true social structure as unethical and immoral, and thus rebels – even if it means making a sacrifice.
Harrison Bergeron lives in a typical suburban town in the year 2053. The audience is told that after the second American Revolution—a war begun due to an ongoing economic depression that was a result of a combination of technological advancement and a widening disparity between the very rich and the very poor—it was mandated that all people be equal in all things. To this end, the social norm of this society has become egalitarianism. Citizens strive to be of equal wealth, intelligence, athletic prowess and social status to all around them. Through a process of selective breeding, mankind is perfecting the perfectly average human being. What is not accomplished through arranged marriages is made up for through technological means, the most prominent of which are only showing mind numbing shows on TV, and a headband device worn by all citizens which modulates intelligence, dialing up or down a person's IQ in order to arrive at a 'perfect' 100.
There are limits to the success of the devices, however, and Harrison Bergeron is one such case. He is a total failure in school, consistently receiving A's (C is the desired grade). Even though he has been held back four years and his headband is consistently modified to dampen his intelligence, he still continues to excel to the embarrassment of him and his family.
Harrison goes to see a doctor about his intelligence problem, and after several tests it is determined that the headband is unsuccessful because Harrison's synaptic connections reroute themselves after each adjustment in order to overcome the inhibitions the headband is designed to place on the thought process. He is told that he will have to have an operation akin to a lobotomy in order to permanently lower his intelligence.