Essay Questions

How does the movie represent the era in which it was made?

In the 1960s, people were preoccupied by the thought of war, and especially of nuclear war. America was still deeply enmeshed in the Cold War and there was genuine fear amongst the population that some kind of nuclear warfare was imminent. At the same time, most of the adult population could well remember World War Two and many had fought in it. The movie brings together both the memory of war, and the fear of an escalated version of it. George travels in time first to World War One, where he discovers his friend has been killed, and then to the 1960s, when he discovers that nuclear war has already begun. This time travel reflects the preoccupation with war that was rife at the time of its release, and also shows an extremely traumatic side of war in that death and destruction, what the audience most fear, is what George discovers.

George would rather be a big fish in a small pond than a small fish in a big pond. Discuss.

George comes from a time that is relatively safe and sedate. He seems to be a popular man with several good friends. He chooses to travel through time to several new ages, including the Twentieth Century and an un-named time in the future over eight hundred years later. This latter stop is deeply unpleasant in terms of what he finds. Thousands of men have devolved so much that they have become cannibals and routinely use people's fear of nuclear attack to trick them into the nuclear shelters, where they are trapped, killed and consumed. However, George falls in love, and in rescuing his love, Weena, he becomes a hero, not only in her eyes, but in his own. George has never felt like a hero before. For the first time, he feels important; he is the "big fish". Arriving back in his own time, in the Nineteenth Century, he finds that his friends put a damper on his exciting time travels and seem to disbelieve him. He could not feel deflated, or less important. He is back to being the "small fish" again and he does not like it. He therefore makes the decision to return to the future where admittedly he runs the risk of becoming a meal for one of his fellow citizens, but where he also feels important. This desire for a meaningful existence over-rides his desire to avoid being eaten by cannibals, illustrating that to George, the need to matter and to "be" someone is his main motivation.

Is this movie a love story?

This is a thoroughly depressing movie when you think about it. After the initial excitement about George's ability to travel into the future, the discoveries he makes there are doom, gloom and destruction. There does not seem to be much that is pleasant to inspire George and his fellow Eighteenth Century folk to move forward into a new age. Then he meets Weena, amid violence, threats to their person and rampant cannibalism. Not exactly the most romantic backdrop for a first date, but nonetheless George develops extremely strong feelings for Weena that seem to be reciprocated. When he manages to escape in the nick of time, and return to his own time period, he still misses her, and thinks about her, racked with guilt and regret about leaving her in the future instead of bringing her with him. It does not take much for him to return to the future to find her, and to stay there with her. The principle of fighting through the most dangerous of circumstances just to get the girl is a central tenet of the typical love story, which means that although George and Weena are anything but a typical couple, this movie does nonetheless have a romantic sub-plot running through it.