Review of The Terminal Man (1974) by Ryan K — 10 Mar 2012

Interesting premise seems far more believable today: computer scientist Harry Benson (George Segal) has been suffering from longer and increasingly violent seizures, so he agrees to have a microcomputer surgically implanted in his brain, monitoring its activity and stopping the episodes with electrical stimulation.

Unfortunately, Harry becomes addicted to the stimulation and his brain responds with more seizures until the system is overloaded. There's an additional element: Harry is paranoid of technology and its increasing domination over humanity.

It's not clear what this adds to the mix, nor is it all that clear what humanity Harry has to lose in the first place - we seldom see much guilt or fear from him during the proceedings. Director Hodges tells the story as coldly as possible, so what appears to be a screed against technological interference in the mind ultimately had me sympathizing more with the doctors.