Idaho Transfer (1973)

With recent global warming causing unpredictable weather patterns worldwide, and documentary films such as 'Chasing Ice' and 'An Inconvenient Truth' bringing more awareness to environmental issues, it reminds me of the plethora of sci-fi and dystopian movies that bombarded theatre screens as I was growing up in Canada in the 70's. Most of the ilk, perhaps to necessitate dramatic strength for the film's structure, maybe due to civil unrest from political turmoil worldwide in the late 60's, presented a future extremely difficult to endure and preciously doubtful to either survive or maintain. 'Idaho Transfer' was no exception.Director Fonda was obviously very talented, and the cinematography is beautiful for such a low-budget piece. The time-travel ideas were uniquely conceived, and though the soundtrack was dated, it worked for me. Fonda realized that like the landscape and the solitary experience the teenagers were facing, one needs to let the ideas have a chance to breathe and reveal their multifaceted meanings. Though the actors weren't professional, the casting works because of the naturalistic, almost documentarian approach Fonda utilized. The pessimism of 'Idaho Transfer' and its bleak outlook--that even though science may be able to, in theory, save humanity, human nature may not be able to handle the idea of a 'utopia' so easily--shows us, two generations later, how interconnected art and politics are, and how important it is NOW to take a stand and support what is truly necessary for mankind, while there is still a chance for us to do so, and a world worthy of saving.I fervently wish that Fonda had directed more films! =)

This might actually be the worst movie I've ever seen. From start to finish, there was ZERO effort put into explaining anything about what was going on. There is a hint of imagination lurking within, but it is muffled by a cloud of half-formed plots. I find that it's not very effective for a film to just blatantly exclude the audience. The characters are either stumbling around a bleak, rocky landscape pointing calculators at things, hiking for some reason, or having really awkward, badly scripted conversations, or they're stumbling around without pants in a mysterious building. There is definitely something to do with time travel, but the characters have to take off their pants and straddle some kind of exercise machine. It's MADNESS. I hated every second of it. The characters like to just start talking about things that the audience has no information about, and build a shaky, agonizing plot around it. I don't even know where to begin explaining it's other intricately weaved flaws. Please don't watch it.

You can discuss cerebral this and creative that until the cows come home, but in the end, "Idaho Transfer" must be regarded as pure crap. I hate to seem like "Captain Obvious", but this is nothing more than hippies wandering around in the desert, talking nonsense. The word tedious immediately comes to mind. There is zero character development, and there is never a hint of explanation for the time travel device. Beyond that there are extended scenes, like improving your rock skipping technique, that are criminally boring. Sure it's low budget, but so are lots of other films, so that is no excuse for this terminally comatose minimalist nonsense. Recommended, for sleep inducement. - MERK

This film reminds me of two very different films. In its pacing, use of space and landscape, cinematography, spare character development with deliberate mystery and blanks to be filled in by the viewer - or to be left a mystery - it reminds me very much of L'Avventura. This is a comparison of success, as Idaho Transfer does all the same things quite well. Not the masterpiece the great Italian film is, but very successful none the less.I also admit to being very taken with the spare quality that low cost productions sometimes create out of necessity. The resulting atmosphere is one of my favorite things to discover in a film, and this is one of the most successful examples I have ever seen.Another plus is the way amateur actors, with the right direction, create an ambiance of dialog and presence almost impossible to get with experienced performers. Again, this film does it better than most. It is a little like the extremely effective delivery of Bela Lugosi's lines in Dracula - a result of delivering them phonetically in that case.The other film I thought of was Virus - Fukkatsu no hi (1980), reputedly the most expensive Japanese film ever. Virus tried to do most of the same things as Idaho Transfer, but with a large scale, name actors and way too much wasted cash. It is by comparison dead on arrival. Peter Fonda's little film walks all over it, beating it at its own game on every level, and by a large margin. That is no small accomplishment, and neither is this film. For me it is close to perfect in every quality I most enjoy in films. I'd like to give it a ten, but then what would I give L'Avventura?