MovieChat Forums > The Time Machine (1960) Discussion > Paradise

Paradise

posted 11 years ago by Tenate9
15 replies | jump to latest

When 'Mr.Wells' ( The time traveller ) first experiences the future time-period of the 'Morlock and Eloi'
He says... that it's a paradise, of rich vegetation, food and no winters - everything that could support a carefree life.

So when the Morlocks perish... why does this preclude the loss of their carefree lifestyle?
Apart from 'harvesting the Eloi' how did the ( barely sub-human ) Morlocks placate their environment?
Seems kind of erroneous to accept this? Surely it's still a paradise?

[–] tea-rex 11 years ago

Like Adam and Eve having been banned from paradise, they now have to work for their needs. They have to find and/or cultivate their food, build shelters against bad weather, do for themselves all that which the morlocks provided for them.

I did not save the boy, God did. I only CARRIED him.

[–] Tenate9 11 years ago

Thanks for your ( biblically inspired ) thoughts.
But the food still grew plentifully on the trees, the weather was still favourable...
nothing actually changed, to either their natural resources or circumstances?

[–] tea-rex 11 years ago

Nothing except that they have to go out and do it for themselves. It might sound easy compared to us today, but it won't be as easy as it was when the morlocks provided them with all they needed.
And don't forget, trees don't carry food ready to eat all year round. Especially when the community grows, it'll become real labour.

I did not save the boy, God did. I only CARRIED him.

[–] Tenate9 11 years ago

I understand what you are saying... that you are trying to be logical and following the internal reasoning of the narrator ( Mr.Wells/ the time traveller ) But the fruit does grow all year, it's an eternal summer remember. The Morlock's couldn't go out into the light, couldn't go up to the surface to the lay tables, harvest food etc... Therefore, how could they 'do' anything at all to sustain the Eloi in this paradise? It makes absolutely no sense. It was a paradise during the Morlock's reign and therefore afterwards too.

[–] tea-rex 10 years ago

If you want to see it that way, ok, but it ain't realistic.

Even if we assume that the plants round there carry fruits all year, they don't grow back over night once picked. So sooner or later, the community has two options: move away to where there is food and do that again once that region is exhausted, or cultivate and store their food. Either option carries a lot of work with it.

As for how the Morlocks were able to fill the tables: they either did it between dusk and dawn, or they moved the tables out of the open, did their deeds there and then moved them back.
In their way, the Morlocks had cultivated the Eloi like a herd of cattle.

I did not save the boy, God did. I only CARRIED him.

[–] Tenate9 10 years ago

We are talking about the same version of this film right? Not the remake, or the original novel... In the nineteen-sixty film version, the Morlocks are grunting subhumans. I doubt they lay tables, prepare food and gayly gather fruit. If the food was sustaining the Eloi before 'end of the Morlocks reign' ...then nothing could have possibly changed - after their demise.

[–] Poisoned_Dragon1964 10 years ago

In the nineteen-sixty film version, the Morlocks are grunting subhumans. I doubt they lay tables, prepare food and gayly gather fruit.

Of course they do, as Weena explains to George: "They give us the food we eat and the clothes we wear; we must do as they command."

The Morlocks were not subhumans; you're judging them by their appearances. They were what remained of technological civilization, maintaining and running machinery, and performing both plant and animal husbandry (the 'animals' being the Eloi) at night. The Eloi were closer to subhuman; they had lost all curiosity and volition.

They absolutely laid tables. Didn't you notice that everything was all set out in the Palace of Green Porcelain, when the Eloi came skipping back from the river? As to how this might have been accomplished more than once during daylight hours, I've speculated before that the tables descended into the floors by some mechanism. The Eloi tended to congregate everywhere as a group; when at the river, they were all at the river. It would seem to be habitual that they left the Palace completely unattended at intervals during the day. This would have been when the Morlocks bussed the tables below and returned them up top.

§« The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters. »§

[–] Tenate9 10 years ago

Hey Poisoned Dragon, thanks for your thoughts.

I see your point ( and cuppa-tea-rex's ) and... understand what and why you are saying it.

But I can't see the Morlocks designing a range of pretty, pink, yellow and white garments for the Eloi to wear.
I don't see them gayly bussing tables and lying them all out so carefully.
Who cleans the Eloi clothes and the dishes ...and why would they harvest the Eloi this bizarre way?

Obviously this is a contradiction, between the 'script' and 'pre-production' ... especially the wardrobe department.
Because going by the internal standards of the film and only the film... there is no way that the Morlocks that we see,
are capable of such restaurateur, culinary and garment artistry.

The recent 'remake' kind of solved this problem, by having the 'class system' and their Morlocks being almost drones, compared to their more sophisticated leaders.

But, back to my initial point... it's still absolutely a paradise for the Eloi, now the Morlocks have gone?

[–] tea-rex 10 years ago

So who did provide the food we see in the movie? Who serviced the Morlock's machinery we see in the "Underworld"?

One thing is for sure, the Eloi weren't capable of looking after their own needs and had resigned themselves to a fate controlled by others (the Morlocks).

I did not save the boy, God did. I only CARRIED him.

[–] Tenate9 10 years ago

My point was... that after the 'Morlocks' had been defeated. It left a near perfect paradise for the Eloi.

Plentiful food, no winters, no obvious predators, free of preordained sexism,
free from racial tension and indigenous cultural hatred.

Yes, they were mentally comatose (from centuries of preconditioning) by the Morlocks.
But now awoken from this trance, they could surely just enjoy their new found paradise?
There's no reason for the script to have the 'time traveller ( Mr.Wells ) character saying...
That they were now in for some truly hard times - It makes no sense?

[–] guitarslinger47 10 years ago

I think you're both missing a point.
You're both concentrating on the food/clothes/shelter aspect of it.
I believe the hard time he was talking about is that they were going to evolve. And what happens when humans evolve.
We see it in the movie. That one Eloi male goes from being a complacent meal ready to eat to a killer in a matter of minutes because of how he saw Wells fight the Morlock.
Then as they escape they all turn into killers by throwing the wood down the chimneys to make it burn.
Well's brief encounter with them changed them.

I don't think the Time Traveler meant getting food and clothes was going to be a struggle. I believe the struggle he refers to is the evolution of the Elois and what he himself unleashed by interfering with them.
I think that's why he goes back to them (in the movie it is assumed he went back) to try and guide them.

[–] wittmann73 10 years ago

The Time Traveller is called "Wells"?

Wasnt that the author?

[–] ExaltedOne 10 years ago

Apparently both, according to the film makers. Check this: http://i61.tinypic.com/2czrek3.jpg

[–] PKLarkins 10 years ago

This is a bit of a discrepancy between the movie and the book. The book makes it clear that the Eloi are no more capable of taking care of themselves than newborn babies are. The Morlocks are not sub-human; they and the Eloi are separate branches of humanity. The Morlocks knew how to grow and harvest food, make clothing, and do everything needed for survival; the Eloi knew none of these things. The Eloi were not fully human people in a trance, as the film portrayed them, but near-insensible livestock for the clever but ugly Morlocks. They are the Jekyll and Hyde of the species, if you will. In the book the Morlocks were not destroyed; the protagonist went back to get Weena, not to rebuild civilization. He had no hope of that.

The movie made the premise less credible by making the Eloi seem like humans, but hypnotized, and the Morlocks just monsters. It basically changes the premise. I'm sure the writers meant to say that the Eloi would now have to work to survive.

[–] Shuggy 10 years ago

It's all a lot clearer when you know that Wells was writing a parable about the future of capitalism. Today we would say that the Eloi are what will become of the 1%, the Morlocks of the 99%. So we are to take it (but the film glossed over) that the underground machinery is very extensive and there are vastly more Morlocks than we see. (They have to provide for their own needs as well as the Eloi's.)

All that is visible must grow beyond itself...
http://www.cafepress.co.uk/ahua/8761658