To put the story into context, Peter Fonda's IDAHO TRANSFER is essentially a tale about intellectual free spirits(.."cerebral" hippies, I guess you could say)who use a time traveling device to enter the future, studying an area where no life seems to exist due perhaps to a nuclear holocaust. The only ones able to travel in time are young, around age twenty..it seems that if ones older than, say, thirty-ish suffer kidney problems which kill. It is established that the time traveling machine is a secret operation using government funds, and those who move forward in time(..most of them)consider remaining, hoping to perhaps make their own home elsewhere. The film focuses on Karen(Kelly Bohanon, in quite a fascinating performance), an oddball who desires to have a child, who loses her sister due to a series of accidents. Karen(..already affected by a rape)never quite recovers from the death of sister Isa(Caroline Hildebrand)and decides to remain in the future, falling in love with Arthur(Keith Carradine). Nerdy, but sweet Ronald(Kevin Hearst)becomes Karen's confident and friend, and they set out ahead of their commune to find Portland, awaiting the others who follow behind. Arthur and crippled Jennifer(Meredith Hull)remain with disturbed Leslie(Dale Hopkins)who seems to be slipping into madness due to the fact that the time traveling device's control mechanism seems inoperable with the idea of not returning to her own time too difficult a burden to bare. Along the way, though, Karen realizes she must return to Arthur, leaving the group out on her own which will yield devastating consequences.
Obviously, director Peter Fonda was speaking out regarding man's destroying mother earth to fuel the resources we need to survive. We rape and pillage the land and what's underneath it, leaving a barren wasteland. The climax, quite audacious, shows that mankind has become "energy cannibals", the supply for such resources coming from another source. Striking / gorgeous cinematography creating a spellbinding use of the location of Idaho. I think Fonda chooses certain beautiful natural locations to further his message that these places can remain this way if we quit ruining them with our desires for energy consumption. It's an ecological parable, through and through, with off-beat characters and an unpredictable story-line with quite a heady conclusion right out of left field. Karen is quite a multi-faceted character, full of differing emotions, and it's an interesting choice by Fonda to focus on her character instead of someone like Carradine's or Hearst's. She makes some questionable decisions which come back to haunt her, but Karen is a spontaneous kind of character who often follows her heart, even when it costs her dearly. The film is very much a fixture of it's time, but Fonda gives us quite a unusual contribution to the post-apocalypse genre.
Obviously, director Peter Fonda was speaking out regarding man's destroying mother earth to fuel the resources we need to survive. We rape and pillage the land and what's underneath it, leaving a barren wasteland. The climax, quite audacious, shows that mankind has become "energy cannibals", the supply for such resources coming from another source. Striking / gorgeous cinematography creating a spellbinding use of the location of Idaho. I think Fonda chooses certain beautiful natural locations to further his message that these places can remain this way if we quit ruining them with our desires for energy consumption. It's an ecological parable, through and through, with off-beat characters and an unpredictable story-line with quite a heady conclusion right out of left field. Karen is quite a multi-faceted character, full of differing emotions, and it's an interesting choice by Fonda to focus on her character instead of someone like Carradine's or Hearst's. She makes some questionable decisions which come back to haunt her, but Karen is a spontaneous kind of character who often follows her heart, even when it costs her dearly. The film is very much a fixture of it's time, but Fonda gives us quite a unusual contribution to the post-apocalypse genre.