Review of Colossus: The Forbin Project (1970) by Ray G — 01 Jan 2010

40 years ago this movie gave me nightmares. Not because it scared me, but because I was the computer engineer at Universal Studios in Hollywood where the movie was shot. A lot of people at the studio hated this project, and it was definitely a low budget effort.

The crews from Colossus came into the computer center to shoot background, and everytime they came in with all the lights, my computer systems(mainframes) would go down with memory errors because of all the heat in the room.

I just recently saw the movie and I was looking for my hands typing away at the computer console which they filmed for what seemed like 15 minutes. Apparently someone in editing hated my hands, as they got left out of the DVD version. It was still fun to see some of the old computer gear, although a lot of the shots were overpowered by shots of the non-functioning blinking light props built in the backlot.

This brought back a lot of memories.