‘The Damned’ or — A British, Sea-side Version of Akira?!
It’s your typical British 1960’s, sea-side, black-leather biker flick as Oliver Reed and his gang noise up the locals, harass the birds, race their bikes and attack the middle-aged squares in Weymouth. Are these the Damned of the film’s title?
For the first thirty minutes or so it certainly seems to be the case as ‘The Damned’ (1963) plays out as a ‘beatniks on the loose’, generational clash where it is youth that is the threat (hint — they actually still are but just in a different manifestation). Yet there are slight intimations that there is something else going on here: a couple is sailing just off the coast, but what are those warships doing in the background?; or watch the conversation between a Scottish scientist and his artist mistress in a sea-side cafe where the distorted figures of sculptures occupy the centre of the table. Something is not quite right.
The closest, although somewhat inaccurate, parallel might be to ‘Psychomania’ (1973) although here instead of a biker gang taking a swerve into supernatural territory ‘The Damned’ goes from British biker-flick into… ‘Akira’ (1988)?… as teenage bikers suddenly encounter a group of Government protected mutant… well, I won’t say any more but it wasn’t long until ‘The Damned’ also had me thinking of ‘E.T.’ (hazmat suits), ‘A Clockwork Orange’, ‘Stranger Things’ (experimental children escaping), ‘Beneath The Planet of The Apes’ (the atom) and ‘Watchmen’s Dr Manhattan. To say this movie goes off in unexpected directions would be an understatement. What happened to the British, sea-side biker flick I’d been watching?!
The strangest aspect though isn’t just the unexpected leap from gang film to science fiction but also the sense of cinematic style director Joseph Losey brings to the project. For example, there is a stunning tracking shot 59 minutes in that’s seriously impressive and really ramps up the sense of unease. Likewise Losey’s handling of the cold, sterile world of surveillance gives the film the dystopian feel of ‘Alphaville’ at times or even ‘Rollerball’ (Losey makes excellent use of the interrogation properties of TV screens). Weren’t we just in a sleazy, sea-side town five minutes ago?
Not that the movie is flawless as there’s some tonal shifts that feel bizarre, although considering what ‘The Damned’ does narrative wise that’s also part of the fun and surprise, and the pacing can flag occasionally. Plus, even though Oliver Reed gives an energetic performance it’s not a particularly subtle one, coming across a lot of the time like an overly stimulated version of Eastender’s Pat Butcher. But these are quibbles in a movie that’s truly difficult to pin-down.
So if you enjoy teddy boy flicks that morph into nuclear paranoia territory or love it when art-house chiaroscuro meets a 60’s low-budget British kid’s sci-fi type thing, as though Antonioni had directed a Children’s Film Foundation movie, then you might want to check out ‘The Damned’. It’s a genuinely unique, fascinating, mutated little movie.
