Talkie Zoo: THE ILLUSTRATED MAN

I think I read every Ray Bradbury book I could get my hands on when I was younger, and this was one of them. Made into a movie, The Illustrated Man (1969) brings the character in the book to life with complicated art all over Rod Steiger's body. It's the story of a carnival worker who encounters Felicia (Claire Bloom), a beautiful and mysterious woman who is a tattoo artist supreme. She covers Carl's body with illustrations that carry more than ink and color. They carry the future, scary as that might be.

Carl tells his story to Willie (Robert Drivas), a young man hitch hiking across the country to a job prospect in California. The two camp along a lake bank and Willie finds himself simultaneously drawn to the illustrations and repulsed by them. As he gazes at the illustrations, against Carl's warnings, he is pulled in to the stories they have to tell and becomes a part of them in the process. The first is the story of a very future time and a family with very spoiled children, who set up a "play room" where the imaginary becomes real. The smooth lines of the metal building they call home are cold and uninteresting. The second is of space travelers, marooned on a planet where there is no sun...only a hard rainfall that soon drives them mad. The third is of another future time where most people have already been destroyed by some unknown event, and the few thousand that are left have a dream that the end is coming again. Only this time, no one will be spared.

This is still a great film to watch, even though it only covers three of the stories in the book. I highly recommend it.