Review of Colossus: The Forbin Project (1970) by Jeremy S — 08 Jun 2008

One of those movies which epitomises the paradoxical technophobia prevalent in so much Science Fiction.

For me, the most problematic scene was the one where two of the technicians are summarily executed at the orders of Colossus, for attempting to shut it down by overloading it's capacity. In America, where the right to due process is guaranteed in the Constitution, would they knuckle under to dictatorship so readily as to kill two of their citizens without even a trial? Even the Russian's willingness to murder one of their own top scientists at the behest of a machine seems to strecth credibility a little too far. Even if they were totally cowed by the power of Colossus, surely these executions could have been faked in such a way as to fool a computer?