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for many years I have been longing to

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see la 2017 the single episode which

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Steven Spielberg directed for the

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television series the name of the game

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in 1971 it's never been released on DVD

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but it seems to have acquired a small

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cult of fans over the years and now that

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it is 2017 I figured it was as good a

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time as any to find some way of seeing

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it as chance would have it the pally

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Center for media in Beverly Hills had a

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copy of Le 2017 in their digital library

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archives so I went over there and took a

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look at it based on a first impression I

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will say this I didn't necessarily enjoy

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la 2017 but I certainly admired it the

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thing I loved the most about the episode

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was the art direction by William H ton

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Kay best known for his work on Mary

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Poppins I also enjoyed the climactic car

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chase up in the hills with those

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futuristic cars firing machine guns it's

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hard to believe the budget was only

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$375,000 one problem I had with the

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episode is that I had trouble following

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in the plot like I understood how Los

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Angeles was somehow driven to ruins in

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the future because the air was pooed by

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algae or something to that effect but I

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didn't really understand the objectives

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or motivations of any of the characters

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also most of the acting is rather

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average gene Barry does a competent job

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in the lead role but to be honest I kind

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of think that his five second cameo and

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Spielberg's War of the Worlds was more

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memorable by comparison the best

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performance in LA 2017 is by Edmund

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O'Brian who gives this really insane

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monologue grandma I had no idea what he

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was talking about but he certainly had

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presence and the fact that O'Brien was

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in the early stages of Alzheimer's when

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he took this role makes his performance

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all the more impressive but the biggest

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problem I had with the episode is that I

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didn't really get involved in the story

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I didn't care much about what was going

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on and it didn't move me much on an

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emotional level and whenever I watched

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something directed by Steven Spielberg I

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fully expect to have an emotional

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reaction to

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I mean nobody's better at doing that

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sort of thing that he is in fact the

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most moving moment in the whole episode

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is something really simple barry

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sullivan grieving over the death of his

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endangered pet goldfish without having

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to say a single word sold and gives a

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much better performance in this one

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scene than he did with all of his talky

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dialogue and Spielberg's Night Gallery

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episode but other than that LA 2017 left

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me cold although I did think Sharon

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Farrow was pretty hot as the secretary

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the thing about le 2017 is that it's a

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very cerebral episode and Spielberg

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isn't a cerebral filmmaker he's a

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visceral filmmaker le 2017 does have a

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lot of neat visual ideas but as a work

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of futuristic science fiction I wouldn't

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put on the level of later Spielberg

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masterpieces like AI or Minority Report

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still although I have some issues with

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le 2017 it's certainly worth seeing at

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least once this was 1971 and at the same

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time that Spielberg was working on la

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2017 at Universal George Lucas was

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working on thx 1138 at Warner Brothers

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now isn't that a coincidence that year

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both of them were in the beginning

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phases of their careers directing their

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own individual works of dystopian

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futuristic sci-fi little did anyone know

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that by the end of the decade both of

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them would change science fiction

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forever special thanks to Martin

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castaigne and the pally Center for media

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for letting me view their copy of la

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2017