H.G. Wells\' the Time Machine

H.G. WELLS' THE TIME MACHINE - NOVEL AND FILM

In the words of scholar and historian Michael Foot, the main theme in H.G. Wells' classic 1895 novel The Time Machine focuses on "what could happen if the war between the classes was allowed to develop and intensify" with the consequences being the growth of human cruelty and the development of the human race "into something inhuman, unsympathetic and overwhelmingly powerful" (30). Fortunately, this theme can also be readily found in the 1960 film version of The Time Machine, directed by George Pal and starring Rod Taylor as the "Time Traveller" and Yvette Mimieux as Weena, a young and innocent girl of the far distant future caught up in the world of the dreaded Morlocks and their thirst for human flesh.

After a close reading of The Time Machine, it appears that director George Pal retained a good amount of the material from the novel for his film adaptation in 1960. However, as Frank D. McConnell points out, "After so many films... deriving from or recapitulating the ideas of The Time Machine, it is perhaps easy to forget (its) own startling originality" (9), meaning that the novel was far ahead of its time (literally speaking) and that even a consummate and professional director like George Pal could not incorporate Wells' genius for storytelling into a rather short film, being some one hundred minutes long. Nevertheless, George Pal did accomplish a great feat with this film, for he showed how easy it is to translate Wells' literary mind onto the screen.

In essence, George Pal's adaptation of The Time Machine centers on the following plotline, one that is easily recognizable in the novel. The unnamed "Time Traveller" in the novel (portrayed in the film by Rod Taylor, presumably as H.G. Wells himself) is a Victorian scientist who constructs a contraption with the capability of sending him into the far distant future, specifically to the year 802,701 A.D. Upon his arrival in this strange, new world, he discovers that the human race has virtually "devolved" into two distinct groups -- "the gentle Eloi and the monstrous mutants, the Morlocks" (Salk, 938) who use the Eloi as their slaves and source of nourishment as cannibals. When the "Time Traveller" returns from his journey, his closest friend and supporter Mr. Filby (played by Alan Young in the film) realizes that his friend has only been gone for a short period of time, while the "Time Traveller" sees it as thousands of years. It is interesting to note that this is related to the so-called theory of space-time continuum in which the traveller in time experiences the passage of many centuries while those back on Earth experience a brief passage of time. The "Time Traveller" has also not aged, while those left behind have aged as they normally would.

In Chapter One of The Time Machine, the "Time Traveller" is discussing the theory of time travel with five of his associates -- Filby, an unnamed character called "a very young man," the Provincial Mayor, the Medical Man, and the Psychologist, all of whom (except for one) are featured in the film as various character actors, such as Sebastian Cabot. Following their discussions on time travel, the "Time Traveller" brings out his little model of the actual time machine and sets it on a table. He then takes the hand of the Psychologist and places his finger on the lever; soon after, "There was a breath of wind, and the lamp flame jumped... And the little machine suddenly swung around, became indistinct, was seen as a ghost... And it was gone -- vanished!" (McConnell, 20).

This scene from the novel is very reminiscent of that in the film and serves as a major plot point for the viewer. When the "Time Traveller" (Rod Taylor) brings out his scaled-down model of his time machine and to the amazement of his fellow associates sends it into the void, the viewer is forced to confront the realities of the machine which sets the stage for the "real thing" when Taylor climbs in his true time machine and takes off into the unknown. In the novel, Wells describes the first time that the "Time Traveller" removes himself from reality:

Landscape was misty and vague. I was still on the hillside upon which the house now stands, and the shoulder rose above me grey and dim. I saw trees growing and changing like puffs of vapour, now brown, now green; they grew, spread, shivered and passed away. I saw huge buildings rise up faint and fair and pass like dreams. The whole surface of the earth seemed changed -- melting and flowing under my eyes" (McConnell, 30-31).

Thus, as in the novel, the "Time Traveller" is experiencing the rapid alteration of the environment around him via going into the future. For the viewer, this great change shows that the "Time Traveller" is indeed going into the future, where things are quite unknown and the safety of such a journey is undetermined. Cinematically, director George Pal provides the viewer with some fantastic special effects which, incidentally, helped the film to win an Oscar for these effects in 1961.

Of course, the characters in the novel and the film are thoroughly enjoyable, especially that of Weena, played by the beautiful Yvette Mimieux. In this role, Mimieux expresses all of the sentiments of one who is trapped in a world filled with the horrible Morlocks who live underground due to their inability to withstand sunlight. When Weena meets up with the "Time Traveller," he is immediately struck by her beauty and peaceful countenance which ironically soon indicates great passivity and a lack of all aggression. As Wells describes it, the "Time Traveller," after pulling Weena from the river, was greatly affected by her friendliness. "She was exactly like a child," he says. "She wanted to be with me always." Yet she lived in world full of fear -- "She was fearless enough in the daylight... But she dreaded the dark, dreaded shadows, dreaded black things" (McConnell, 55).