Hardware

BTW, there’s this terrific site about Hardware that has a ton of interesting things about it, including its most awesome and interesting sound track. Check it out:

http://www.everythingisundercontrol.org/soundtrack.html

Check out Death Machine by the same director.

Hi Sysscan, welcome to cyberpunkreview!

Regarding the Death Machine suggestion, Do you mean Dust Devil by Richard Stanley (Same director) or do you mean Death Machine(1995) by Stephen Norrington?

My mistake. It is Death Machine by Stephen Norrington. He was on the special effects crew for Hardware. Death Machine is pretty good though. It is one of my favorite cyberpunk movies. I didn’t see a review for it on this site. You should do one.

Hi sysscan, I have about 60-70 movies still to review (there’s a list of them in the Meatspace), including a number of big name ones (Robocop, Matrix sequels, etc.). I haven’t seen Death Machine but I’ve heard of it. Was not really sure it was cyberpunk or not. I’ll give it a go. Thanks for the recommendation!

This movie was the one that started me in the cyberpunk genre, so to say, after Hardware I begun reading PKD, Gibson, finding other movies to watch, it’s one of my all time favorites!
I had a VHS as well, then got a laserdisc, but it’s still pan&scanned. Did it come out on DVD in any country yet? I surely can’t find any info that it did. Too bad!

Whoops, forgot to fill out the name for the above post.
Anyways, the soundtrack is awesome indeed, plus I used a bunch of lines from the movie recorded off an LD in my own compilations of “cyberpunk” music.
“It’s stupid, sadistic, and suicidal to have children these days.”
or
“It’s gona get worse before it gets better, survival of the fittest.”
“You’d like that wouldn’t you?”
and the radio news
“The two creators of the population control bill were found dead today in what seemed to be a …” Well it’s long but darkly funny!

Hi Lenny Nero - I agree - the soundtrack is a riot (the download link for the sound track is in the comments above). As for widescreen, I have yet to find this anywhere. The movie has been released in DVD in Europe - but this is pan and scan as well.

Wow, how anyone be talking about the terd that is Death Machine on the Hardware forum is way beyond me.

So many great cameos in this film… namely Iggy Pop (Angry Bob, the radio broadcaster) and Lemmy Kilmiester of Motorhead fame (The tough Taxi Driver). Also the actor who played Alvy was fairly common Streamline anime voice actor. And hey, any soundtrack with early Ministry on it is a winner to me

Iggy Pop as Angry Bob with the “Industrial Dick” is totally awesome. ANd yeah, the soundtrack (available online) is terrific.

Hardware was released in Mainland Europe as M.A.R.K.13 and slightly edited. It has been released on a limited edition DVD, only 666 copies were made.

I got this on VHS as soon as it was released due to the cameo of (Fields of the Nephilim frontman) Carl MaCoy (The Nomad/Zone Tripper). I was totally blown away and have watched it so many times I end up reciting the entire dialogue. There are many themes explored in the movie, but incase anyone hasn’t seen it yet, I’ll leave you to find them all.

Unfortunately there was a large scene cut from the movie that reveals more about Mo Baxter, how he lost his arm and the relationship between Mo and Jill. It fits between the sex sceen and them going to sleep. This sceen IS NOT in the uncut version. The uncut version is the same as the UK release.

For more Hardware discussion, particularly the framing, goto

http://www.everythingisundercontrol.org/bb/index.php

And for those yet to witness:

http://1000futuristicfilms.net/hardware_info.htm

Enjoy.

Hi Syberberg, thanks for the great info! You might notice that I’ve linked the everythingisundercontrol.org site up above, regarding the most awesome soundtrack. And I certainly didn’t know that there was a “more” uncut uncut version. Too bad this movie isn’t brought back to DVD. Truly I just don’t understand why. I would guess that many low-end distributors would be fighting over the rights to do this. Any ideas about this?

Hi!
Now is 23:52, February 18, 2007, and after 15 years I finally found M.A.R.K.13, thanks to cyberpunkreview.com, I watched this movie when I was 6y old, and only thing I did remember was robot “redish eyes” and somewhat dark scene.
But when I saw the painted skull, I knew that this is it!!!

Thank you, and all the best to cyberpunkreview.com!!!

http://cgi.ebay.com/Hardware-DVD-Richard-Stanley-Horror-Dylan-McDermott_W0QQitemZ320138694077QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item320138694077

The DVD is on Ebay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Its like 25 bucks with shipping. It is PAL 2 but that is easily dealt with, with a little program called DVDshrink!

Hi Mihaly, it’s been out in Region 2 for a while. Let me know how you like it.

Filmed for ONLY one million dollars? Thats a huge budget ahah !!!

$$$$ doesn’t mean anything. Especially if there’s good writing. But a bad movie will turn out crappy with 1 million dollars or 100 million dollars. Michael Bay proves this over, and over, over…

Yes, yes - It’s very good film.

That reminds me, I haven’t seen this in ages and ages. Good movie. Dust devil was also a good one. If I remember rightly they both had an unusual atmosphere to them.

[…] listening to the music of Simon Boswell, who not only does the soundtrack for Burn:Cycle but also Hardware and Hackers. […]

I recently saw this movie and really liked the first 25 minutes. A very nice start with plenty of atmosphere, cool looks and dystopian feel to it. The rest of the movie was disappointing. Largely confined to the apartment and battling the hard-to-kill Terminator like cyborg.

Not bad, but nothing special, I would give it a 5 out of 10. story is very simple, and the “hip” environment has been presented to the viewer only superficially without going into details. This leads to a feeling of like you re just watching a movie rather than getting an idea of an another fictional reality.

m.a.r.k 13- hardware 1990

is the most brilliant scfi shocker i have ever seen since bladerunner and alien
and it is excellently visualized with great sets and stae of the art special effects
and great performances from dylan mcdermott and the slitheringley sexy stacy travis
as the kimono laddened heroin and a bright red feeling to the movie and looks good
in electronic 3d and an kick ass soundtrack to boot and i give it a 20/10

frankie smales

(frankie smales movie & tv review uk)

[…] long, lost, forgotten low-budget cyberpunk flick from Richard Stanley has been ripped off here. In Hardware, set in a dystopic future, a guy finds a cool looking robot head which he brings back home to give […]

Hi!

Talking about low-budget aswomes… You don’t have a «Fortress» (1993) review here.

«Fortress 2» (1999) is crap, but if you liked «Hardware», you should REALLY check out «Fortress».

Another low-budget dystopian is «Daybreak» (1993) but I’ve seen it only one a long time ago, so I don’t recall very much of it.

hooooooooooooooooooo

i used to have this on vhs!!! fucked if ill ever find it anywhere again lol. great film. love the presentation

un pelicul�n de ciencia ficci�n fuera de lo normal, con multitud de paranoias raras (no las voy a comentar por si alguien no ha visto la pelicula), yo hubiese quitado unas pocas y la pelicula hubiese quedado mas seria.

te deja en la boca un sabor agridulce alucinante al final de la pelicula con ese temazo musical titulado “the order of death” (public image) que he escuchado miles de veces, nunca me canso de oirlo.

salu2 desde Espa�a-Spain.

“No Flesh Shall Be Spared”, Mark:13

Cyber Greetings from Portugal!

Definitely, Richard Stanley’s Hardware (1990) aka M.A.R.K.13 is one of the best “low-budget” post-apocalyptic dystopian cyberpunk film from the early 90’s. I’ve always remembered it to be quite a dark movie, almost like Ridley Scott’s Alien (1979) or James Cameron’s The Terminator (1984), although not as great production wise. It really serves as an example of modest cinematography coupled with great atmospherics. One should have in mind that not every investor or producer wants to risk money on a potential “weak” product, more so in such lesser genres as thematic science fiction or horror. Those were the hard times…
This film is on the top of my “Most Wanted” and I still hope it will be released in a decent DVD (if not Blu-Ray) edition, uncut and in its 1.85:1 original aspect ratio (some would say 4:3 fullscreen; others matted 1.85:1).
I still have my old VHS copy taken from a late night TV broadcast, right after it premiered at the Fantasporto Film Festival in 1991. Oh, the secret glory!

“Cyberpunk” aside, also recommended is the 5 disc limited edition of Richard Stanley’s second feature as director, Dust Devil (1992), if not for the film itself (comes in Final Cut and Work Print versions) then for its content alone (3 feature length documentaries, Simon Boswell’s Original Soundtrack on CD, et al.)

Richard Stanley has upped his page; check it out for some cool stuff at:

http://www.myspace.com/richardstanley13

There’s also this little BBC documentary on independent filmmaking, featuring some behind-the-scenes footage of Hardware and of Richard Stanley’s impressions on his first directing role. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O61gm2ZuFWQ

The Future is Red and Hot!

This movie has the best soundtrack for a Cyberpunk film after Bladerunner in my opinion, I have had to copy my original as it was getting too much play. When I saw this first I was blown away, I had read the 2000AD short story and found this to be a good take on it. To this day I love to quote this film, I love the building security guys, “…dying in space is real easy, one f**k-up and your gas, spread out over a thousand miles of stratosphere” or Lincoln Wineberg Jr’s “wobbly” poem. I love how a cheap Indi movie can portray the feel of a cyberpunk dystopia when big budget movies along those lines just fail. This is one movie I’d recommend to anyone out to find some cyberpunk material or who wants a great post-apocalyptic soundtrack to download to their brain…

anyone know where to get an original laserdisc of this?

Just got around to seeing this movie on Zone Horror last night, it really is a fantastic little movie Quite a downbeat ending, but all the better for it. I could have lived without the cameo from Motorhead’s Lemmy though.

hi damageinc86

yes i can help you that the movie is hard to get on laserdisc
now that everyone has upgraded to dvd since the late 90’s now
and only way you can get this on laserdisc try online auction sites like ebay or visit your local collectable movie memorabillia
store to see if they have the original laserdisc if all failing that
just get an dvd player and do the same of try to get it on dvd by looking in ebay because sadly theres is no real money in laserdiscs anymore because of the dvd and the hybrid dvd
boom are hitting stores worldwide and just treat laserdiscs as wall hanging display items ok.

yours faithfully

frankie smales

(retro movie fan & guru)

On June 22nd Richard Stanley’s Hardware will finally be getting an official DVD release, so there ought to be a much more viewable copy available then.

I also did a little digging around and company releasing it recently applied to the BBFC for ratings for a couple of Stanley’s old Super8 movies, including the ‘prequel’ to Hardware, ‘Incidents In An Expanding Universe’, which runs at about 45 minutes and introduces all the characters we later see in Hardware.

http://www.bbfc.co.uk/website/Classified.nsf/0/c79726275a6e052c802575a6005acee2?OpenDocument&ExpandSection=4

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hardware-DVD-Stacey-Travis/dp/B001TJKW4A/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1242565022&sr=8-1

Yeah the bad news past and gone about the quallity of the print sure is right it robs it of 1 measly star but now has be reissued due 22 June 2009 so we can brake out the ecstatic jawbreaking grin of pleasure watching it as a 10 out of 10! As it is!
And lean back in euphoric xstacy while M.A.R.K. 13 conducts the classics with skyskraper sized speaker in wide-angle and fingers crossed the volume will still be cranked up as she turns on Ministry late at night making me jump in my seat but not adjust my volume
“Ohh we all sing our wibbely wobbely… ” Hehehhehe
Cult Supreme!

Recently picked up a copy of Hardware. Its a special edition DVD

awesome hardware movies! 10/10!

Blu Ray is out, still kind of high though, Ive been tryin to peep one on ebay.

hi, i’m watching your very interesting cyberpunk movie reviews, must say that i think some films of your list don’t belong to cyberpunk genere but only sci-fi, nevermind, agrre with you 100% about this awsome film, pure gold cyberpunk.

Btw, compliment for your very nice site.

“.. sky was the color of television tuned to a dead channel :)”

Started off good, got odd and stupid towards the middle. Was not a fan, and usually I’m pretty easily pleased with movies. Especially CP ones… hrmm

i watched hardware twice and… i just don’t get this one. it starts off beautifully in the wasteland featuring a zone-wanderer collecting junk, rolls on with angry bob’s cynical and dark-humored radio broadcast, “the skyline was beautiful on fire, all twisted metal stretching upwards, everything washed in a thin orange haze”, etc etc… and then the whole thing gets stuck somehow, the story begins “lagging” at a certain point (namely the frame where Jill gets her gift) and no significant development occurs ever since (besides the resurrection and the killing). it’s all idlings to the end from that point. i don’t say the overall film necessarily would be bad, it’s just as if the director would’ve lost the script halfway the shooting and additionally forgotten what he originally wanted with it, so he rush-made up the rest on a sunday afternoon to finish the job before deadline. it owns a unique cp-feel for sure and has some decent attributes regarding both scenes and characters to build in this radioactive dystopia, but as a movie, it fails. it’s just embarassing for me to watch after a while. as for the soundtrack… the lyrics are considerately.. well… the tune is pretty catchy though. 5/10

and the dramaturgy play is just ludicrous

Dans l’ensemble, le film fonctionne. Il contient accrocheurs, magnifiquement multicolores visuels (presque tous les scène est baignée dans une couleur différente déposant), et réussit à créer un paysage entièrement réalisé futuriste sur un budget extrêmement limité. Le Mark 13, créé par l’imagination l’image, semble raisonnablement menaçante, même si elle est un peu trop penser à des robots sans peau terminator de The Terminator et ses suites.