Harrison Bergeron

Plot synopsis:
In the year 2081, amendments to the Constitution dictate that all Americans are fully equal and not allowed to be smarter, better-looking, or more physically able than anyone else. The Handicapper General's agents enforce the equality laws, forcing citizens to wear "handicaps": masks for those who are too beautiful, radios inside the ears of intelligent people, and heavy weights for the strong or athletic.
One April, 14-year-old Harrison Bergeron, an intelligent and athletic teenager, is taken away from his parents, George and Hazel Bergeron, by the government. They are barely aware of the tragedy, as Hazel has "average" intelligence (a euphemism for stupidity), and George has a handicap radio installed by the government to regulate his above-average intelligence.
Hazel and George watch ballet on television. They comment on the dancers, who are weighed down to counteract their gracefulness and masked to hide their attractiveness. George's thoughts are continually interrupted by the different noises emitted by his handicap radio, which piques Hazel's curiosity and imagination regarding handicaps. Noticing his exhaustion, Hazel urges George to lie down and rest his "handicap bag", 47 pounds (21 kg) of weights locked around George's neck. She suggests taking a few of the weights out of the bag, but George resists, aware of the illegality of such an action.
On television, a news reporter struggles to read the bulletin and hands it to the ballerina wearing the most grotesque mask and heaviest weights. She begins reading in her unacceptably natural, beautiful voice, then apologizes before switching to a more unpleasant voice. Harrison's escape from prison is announced, and a full-body photograph of Harrison is shown, indicating that he is seven feet (2.1 m) tall and burdened by three hundred pounds (140 kg) of handicaps.
George recognizes his son for a moment, before having the thought eliminated by his radio. Harrison himself then storms the television studio in an attempt to overthrow the government. He calls himself the Emperor and rips off all of his handicaps, along with the handicaps of a ballerina who he proclaims his "Empress". He orders the musicians to play, promising them royalty if they do their best. Unhappy with their initial attempt, Harrison takes control for a short while, and the music improves. After listening and being moved by the music, Harrison and his Empress dance while flying to the ceiling, then pause in mid-air to kiss.
Diana Moon Glampers, the Handicapper General, enters the studio and kills Harrison and the Empress with a ten-gauge double-barreled shotgun. She forces the musicians to put on their handicaps, and the television goes dark. George, unaware of the televised incident, returns from the kitchen and asks Hazel why she was crying, to which she replies that something sad happened on television that she cannot remember. He comforts her and they return to their average lives.

Tags: comedy, satire

Review:
I had no idea what it was, and it had the familiar TV-movie feel but it also had something compelling which kept my interest so I sat and watched it through.I was amazed by this film, partly because of the scope, partly because of the parallels I could see in the world around me (which have only increased since), partly because it was so apparently innocent and unassuming and partly because I had never seen or heard of it before.
I think I realised shortly after that it was written by the respected Sci-Fi author K.V. and that I should really have read the story sometime.
You can't catch them all.However, much time passed and I forgot the name of the movie (it doesn't exactly stick in the mind) and I forgot which of the famous authors seeded it - but I didn't forget the content.
Kurt Vonnegut's story turned into an intriguing movie.
I read the Kurt Vonnegut short story "Harrison Bergeron" in the ninth grade, and in the tenth grade we tore it apart from beginning to end.
I loved that short story; I found it fascinating, the idea of a civilization where equality exists in its base form, and yet nothing is right.
Of course, the story Harrison Bergeron, as compared to Sean Astin, is as I said, Drastically Different (with capital letters included).
The film is nothing like the short story - the only things they have in common are the name and the base concept.
And if you haven't read the story, watch the movie anyway.
You'll get it right from the humorous beginning to a near tear-jerker ending.Thanks for making a film adaptation that I, for one, could enjoy..
The movie puts us in the future, where the not-so-intelligent have risen up against the intelligent and forced the government to create a mechanism (a head band) for ensuring that all citizens stay at the same level of intelligence - average.
Even though the film takes place in the future, it is an interesting and frightening look at our own times.
This is not the movie to watch right before you trust the government to do something that they say is in your best interest.Living some years from now, Harrison Bergeron is a smart young man.
Armed with this new knowledge, he feels compelled to act.In a wonderfully hilarious supporting role, Eugene Levy plays the randomly selected president, who has no idea how to lead a country but loves wielding power.
It's easy to imagine Mike Judge's hilarious film "Idiocracy" as a dumbed down version of Kurt Vonnegut's "Harrison Bergeron".
"Harrison Bergeron" is both darkly humorous, and at the same time frightening.
Sean Astin is Harrison Bergeron, a rebellious intellectual who tries to overthrow the system.
Bruce Pittman's intelligent and modest TV adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut's short story is a wonderful and much under-appreciated piece of high sci-fi.
Films of this kind are rarely made, simply because there's not much potential audience for low-budget science fiction - most people are in sci-fi mainly for special effects and impressive battles.
Harrison Bergeron, though, is one of those few adaptations made of real philosophical sci-fi, the kind that creates an image of the future as a reflection of our own reality.
And it succeeds quite well in delivering its message, and for what it is it could be enjoyed by almost everyone - though I doubt it could have done well in the theaters.The film revolves around two wonderful lead actors - one is Sean Astin, who recently gained success and fame as Sam Gamgee in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy.
The story is of a future America in which equality is achieved by discouraging exceptional talent or intelligence and creating forced mediocrity.
Harrison (Sean Astin) is one of the exceptional few whose intelligence surfaces despite the government's best efforts and is therefore given the chance to work for the government.
The script does an excellent job of expanding Vonnegut's very short story into a 100 minute film.Harrison Bergeron is well worth watching - if you can get your hands on it.
As far as I know there isn't a DVD available, but the VHS can be ordered on Amazon and the movie plays occasionally on television.
Though I have always loved Sean Astin this movie is certainly a good reason to love him all the more.
The "utopia" idea is no new thing in a movie, and usually it's quite interesting how they figure it out eventually.
Let's admit: making a good future movie is like walking on eggshells, but I think the cast and crew of this small movie has nothing to be ashamed of.
It is very impressive how the story of Harrison and of his pure heart and mind talks about life, the equality of men, the lies, the love and of course the arts.
I think this movie had become a shiny little secret of the soul of the relatively few people who is lucky enough to have seen it..
Harrison Bergeron is a movie that illustrates something most people don't realize.
Theplot is simple, yet chilling in its display of  cavalier inhumanity.Watch the movie for its unhidden message; enjoy it for its plot andturn of (tragic) events, but above all, learn from it  ideologies suchas political correctness and its first cousin, affirmative action, areinhumane at their foundation, insidious in their  progression, anddecidedly real in their ultimate danger..
From the opening credits, which scroll across the screen in all directions with "Lollipop" playing in the background, to the opening scene, in which the time is set as the mid 21st century, but the look is 1950's, this HBO made for TV movie promises to be strange, and it delivers.
I've only just seen this brilliant satirical sci-fi movie, and I think its one of the best stories I've seen for ages.
I read Kurt Vonnegut's story first and wrote a short essay on it.
With all that is going on in the world today, especially in the country I am in, it seems we are half way to this dystopian future Vonnegut imagined.
The movie seems to suggest that high intellect is fine aslong as its used economically and the system in place guards against high intellect entering into political reform to prevent the superior governance of monarchism, fascism or authoritarianism from appearing, by ensuring those systems never appear the unelected elite are able to run society & elections (eventually under global capitalism, ie run the whole world).
I think this movie is basically anti-leftist in every sense of the world & it portrays it realistically without suspending our disbelief.﻿.
Do your self a favour, read the short story, see the film (and other adaptations of K.V. works) and everything else Kurt Vonnegut ever wrote..
I believe the film is a terrific, endearing interpretation of the short story.
See this film if you have not read the story and if you have, because I guarantee you will enjoy it..
An adaptation of a memorable and loved Kurt Vonnegut Jr.short story.
I read the short story for which this film is based on in my English class, and then we proceded to watch the movie.
The cast was pretty good, Sean Astin (ENCINO MAN), Christopher Plummer (DRACULA 2000), and Eugene Levy (BEST IN SHOW) in a very small role as the president who likes to swear a lot (I thought his scenes were hilarious).
There is not much to HARRISON BERGERON, the story is good, but the whole being made for TV thing didn't help this film much.
Not the best film ever made and certainly not worthy of anything special, it is still worthy of your time and is definetly worth the watch.HARRISON BERGERON: 3/5..
It was an interesting choice that mixed the tones of idyllic 1950's television shows with other dystopia works to create the tone of fabrication that was so pervasive throughout the film..
I remember my high school made us read this story and watch this movie, the whole time presenting as some shining example of free thinkers winning out against oppressive blah blah blah.
At the time, I thought the dystopia society was so ridiculous and baseless that it was hard to take seriously as any kind of cautionary tale.Then, years later, I was doing research on Vonnegut and guess what?
The future society was intentionally so over the top and not grounded in any kind of reality that people would see how utterly ridiculous the end game logic of the "red menace" propagators was.Unfortunately, satire is always lost on reactionaries, and this story was taken at face value as a cautionary tale of what happens when Americans stop believing in Jesus and John Galt and embrace the evils of equality.
Harrison Bergeron (Sean Astin) has been held back for 3 years in school because he is too smart.
He is recruited to join.I can certainly understand what Kurt Vonnegut is driving at with his short story.
Having seen the film and red the comments in here, here's what I have to say about Harrison Bergeron: First of all, acting: Sean Astin is the obvious wrong choice for the lead in this TV film.
A better choice from within the cast would be his brother Mackenzie, but I guess the perfect Harrison would be Jonathan Brandis as he has eyes that pour out intelligence, the convincing looks that he may be darn intelligent - and even athletic- as Harrison Bergeron is described in the original story.
Sean Astin looks too old, too fat, too short for the part and most important of all, he looks as if he is Forrest Gump and it's definitely not what Harrison Bergeron should be represented as.
Astin doesn't look smart enough to work at the till at the local supermarket and give the right change to you, never mind masterminding a third American Revolution.
Miranda de Pencier seemed too old for her role and surely doesn't look at all like the love interest able to create an obsession for someone as smart and (supposedly) cool as Harrison.
Anyone as smart as Harrison should learn in four years in the same class that he should shut up and say "I don't have a clue," instead of telling who did what in the American War of Independence.
Yet, it's a shortcoming of the Vonnegut story as well as of the film.
I didn't bother too much about the now infamous Macaulay Culkin dialogue I red a lot about in the above comments, for I am sick of the fact that anytime someone mentions a film of quality from the 20th century, it must either be Casablanca -which is not credible enough in the year 2000 never mind 2053-, Citizen Kane -which is incomprehensibly boring for most people-, or It's A Wonderful Life.
Why should the people of the future wear dull, grey clothes; work and live in dull, confined, grey spaces which look like the interior of a crowded submarine; and never seem happy or joyful and never make any jokes at all?
It is too crowded with too many ideas so that they are either misrepresented, mis-emphasised or look silly;  besides the film looks cheap, it has terrible acting at parts, but it is surprisingly all right to watch most of the time, too.
I'm a big vonnegut fan and am very familiar with the story this Showtime original film bastardized beyond belief, but even if I wasn't, the poor acting, VERY poor casting (Sean Astin as the brilliant, athletic, and all around individual, Harrison??
The Vonnegut short story was excellent, but this movie has little to do with that story.
Not that it is easy to make a full length movie from a short story only several pages long.
Other than that they just took Vonnegut's vision of a future world and did their own thing with it.
If you have never read the short story, go ahead and watch this movie though.
It sets a pace, speaks to a theme, and gives the viewer a story they could believe in.Other reviewers here have observed how "Harrison Bergeron" is a political commentary on the conduct of government (especially American government).
For the gifted and talented among us, the world looks much like Harrison's world in the beginning of the film.
The movie sums this up well with a line: "It's lonely, being smart." It would be arrogance to believe that people like Harrison are 'better' than the rest, but it would be foolish to say this difference does not matter.
Being different in any way is painful for young people, and even more so when the difference allows someone to more fully comprehend the meaning of it.I would never want to be as smart as Harrison Bergeron in a society where excellence was penalized.
At worst, the educational system destroys our brightest minds by teaching them to conform to the standard of the norm.When I saw this film, I remembered again the darkest parts of growing up smart in a place where intelligence is a liability.
The result: it is difficult to find groups who are together solving the greatest problems that beset humanity, as was once done.So, I enjoy Harrison Bergeron for its humor, political insight, and science (non)fiction, but I appreciate it more for its portrayal of the talented and gifted.
Movies like Harrison Bergeron remind us that there are others who experience the angst, the ennui, and the pain of being uncommonly gifted.
I won't take the time to re-cap the story line which all of the reviews here have already done so well, but I didn't want to comment on something that no one else has up until this point.First of all, I don't really see this as sci-fi, because it is already happening today- we don't even need the "mind bands" to dumb us down because there is already an insidious growing movement to see diversity squashed and mediocrity rewarded.
To be honest, my favorite scene is the one in which Plummer's character shows Astin's character Bergeron the DVD of the "cost" of intelligence and uniqueness.
An adaptation and expansion of the beloved Vonnegut short story.
(some spoilers below)_Harrison Bergeron_ is the film version of Kurt Vonnegut's short story.
Set 100 years in the future, it is the story of a young man brimming with intelligence, who unfortunately is born into a society where mediocrity is mandatory.
But Harrison has more inside of him than anyone knows.The brevity of the short story led me to be suspicious when I saw that there was a full-length movie made out of it.
The acting is good; although Sean Astin could do with a few more types of facial expressions, he does a good job as the gifted but iconoclastic kid who has grown up idolizing mediocrity, but suddenly finds himself immersed in the joys of the mind and the love of a woman.The world sketched by the short story is filled in just the way we knew it had to be (perhaps Vonnegut had a hand in this?).
Lucky us--we get to see all this unfold throughout the movie.The image I remember most from the story is that of the gorgeous ballerina, suddenly freed from her sandbagged state of mediocrity, dancing with Harrison in a joyous climax before disaster ensues.
The climactic scenes take place in the TV studio instead, with Harrison showing the world what they have missed in embracing mediocrity.Dialogue is a cut above your average sci fi drama, and one exchange is too cute not to quote:Phillipa: Have you been watching the old movies I gave you?
Harrison: Oh, yes.Yes, it's the obligatory reference to the time period in which the film was produced...but it's handled with wit.In sum, this is that rare movie that is utterly faithful to, but creatively expansive of, its literary source..
The story kept you interested throughout, and really made you think.
(In a good way, for those of you who just groaned at having to think...)The acting did leave something to be desired, but it didn't really detract from the movie.
However, even his performance wasn't bad - it was, ironically enough, mediocre.The story is handled so well throughout the film, that even though there isn't much surprise as to what is coming next, you are so interested in the characters and the story that you just have to keep watching.Possibly the most poignant moment of the film is when Harrison learns that his effort to start a 3rd revolution has only succeeded in affecting 1.3 percent of the population (give or take a .2 percent margin of error) - showing that people don't really want to strive for excellence and actually prefer mediocrity.Although the future the film portrayed strove for mediocrity, this movie was anything but average.
A film definitely worth your time..
Mid 1990s Movie That Feels Like It Was Made Today.
I'm not much of a Sean Astin fan, but in this film, he fits.
Soon, though, he understands the consequences of allowing the so-called "smart people" to govern the "average" (think political correctness, fascism, and other "isms" of today!).
A couple of plot twists at the end that give you something to think about; and suddenly what seems like it might be a boring made-for-cable movie turns into a relevant film for the political events of today's America.
Harrison Bergeron is an amazing little 1995 made-for-television film that is underrated and deserves some more respect.
it was beyond exceptional, especially for a TV movie.Harrison lives in a society where every person is equal...
The society, an alternate version of the United States, is styled to look like the 1950's (apparently because everybody appeared happy in the 1950's), although the film takes place in the 21st century.
It's certainly worth watching, I honestly think everybody should view it at least one time.