Simon

The 1970s were a time of change in American cinema, and there were a lot of quirky movies made that I watch and find myself thinking they were too quirky for their own good. Another example of this phenomenon is the Alan Arkin film Simon.

We don't see Simon for several minutes; instead the movie first introduces us to the Institute for Advanced Concepts. This is one of those super-secret government agencies set on a large campus with ample green space, where they come up with all sorts of crazy conspiracy theory ideas that are too wacky to be real but in the movie's universe are things that actually happened, such as jamming all the Nielsen TV rating boxes so that they can decide which TV shows are the popular ones. The question of "why" implies that they're going to plan something much bigger.

Their idea comes when they realizes that a lot of Americans believe that there is in fact life out there in space. Now, they're not going to find an extraterrestrial, so they're going to have to create on on their own. But how? Well, if they can manipulate Nielsen boxes they can come up with methods to make a man think he's actually from outer space. But they need someone who won't really be missed. To that end, they ask their proto-AI computer to look through the information is has on all Americans for an orphan from near birth who doesn't have any other family. The computer settles on Simon Mendelssohn, a psychology professor who has bizarre ideas on Einsteinian relativity and the end of the world, as well as using the sort of sensory deprivation tank from the movie Altered States. They convince him to come to the Institute, not telling him what they really do of course.

Dr. Becker (Austin Pendleton), the head of the Institute, has his fellow researchers, particularly Van Dongen (Wallace Shawn) and Cynthia (Madeline Kahn), work on Simon. Eventually, the idea they come up with is to put him in a sensory deprivation tank for 200 hours (never discussed is how you eat, drink, or pee during those times), during which time they'll put hypnotic suggestions into his mind that he was actually born to an extraterrestrial mother and is a machine. The plan works, more or less.

At least, it works for a while. The researches are able to use their powers to get Simon to take over the airwaves and broadcast a bunch of strange and incoherent ideas. Surely at this point Simon's girlfriend from the outside Lisa (Judy Graubart) is going to recognize him. But more worrying for the researchers is that he becomes popular enough that his ideas threaten them. So they call on other goverment departments to kill Simon. He goes on the run, while Lisa tries to bring back the real Simon who is not an alien at all.

As with quite a few movies I've blogged about, it's not that hard to see why the writers and cast thought that what they were making was going to be quite funny. But for me, I find it hit-and-miss, with more miss than hit. Still, again I can see why there are people out there who would love this stuff, so watch and come to your own conclusions.