Nerds That Geek Movie Review: 'The Time Machine (1960)'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

​When it comes to adaptations as whole, for some, there is no middle ground. There is either the book or the movie, and one is always better than the other and good luck in trying to convince them otherwise. Of course, they are entitled to their opinion, and I’ve rarely met someone on either side of the spectrum who doesn’t offer a compelling argument as to why they’re right. But for me, I’m big on there being room for both options, simply because, it’s supremely awesome to see how someone else saw the story that you know and love.
 
After all, our imaginations, are our own and how we see characters and any particular event in a book, is unique to our minds, which is why I believe that movie adaptations of novels have value, since they are in essence, our favorite stories come to life. And when I was younger, the works of H.G. Wells managed to captivate me time and time again, to the point where my mother rented a particular adaptation of his work for me to enjoy, one that I must have watched over and over again in my youth and one that I recently felt the need to revisit after seeing its remake on cable a little while back, The Time Machine.
 
Now, this is a film that we don’t need to discuss plot wise, simply because, we all know it by heart, and let’s be honest, it’s not the plot that wows us in this film, since it matches the book to a tee, it’s the fact that so many of us saw it as kids and we were blown away by the incredible special effects that helped us travel through time alongside H.G. because my goodness, these effects still take my breath away after all these years. Sure, there’s a touch of dating to them, and you can spot the miniatures now, but the way they play out on screen and the awe that they inspire is just magical to say the least.
 
Yet, while the effects are cool in their own right, what truly makes this film special in my mind, is the sense of wonder that it evokes when one watches it. I always felt that in the novel, our intrepid Time Traveler, was always cool and collected despite the incredible things happening around him. But here, in the film, H.G.’s eyes are wide with wonder at the sights and sounds that accompany time travel and seeing the awe he experiences and his concern in the finale along with his heroism is inspiring to say the least and well, there’s a real human element in the film that I simply did not find in the novel at all.
 
But, all of that aside, this really is a magnificent classic through and through and if I find it on television, I instantly drop everything I’m doing and kick back and watch. Because the true magic of this motion picture, is that in many ways, it does let you travel through time, since the instant I see it, I’m transported back to the basement of the house I grew up in, to the exact moment when I first sat down in front our T.V. to watch this gem and well, it’s hard in this day and age to replicate that kind of wonder, but that’s just what this film accomplishes and why it should be celebrated as often as possible.    

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