Predestination

2014, Australia, The Spierig Brothers, starring Ethan Hawke and Sarah Snook

Based on Robert Heinlein's short story "All You Zombies" - DVD released on Amazon, February 10, 2015

This is a small set movie, filmed in re-purposed locations in Australia. No breathtaking outside shots, mostly indoor and nighttime. Low budget, tightly focused on telling Heinlein's puzzling story visually. Many details added that were not given in Robert Heinlein's short-short, replacing exposition with action, but Heinlein's best dialog remains. They even made Jane a redhead; not specified in the story, but a detail showing true devotion to Heinlein (Ginny was a redhead in her youth).

Two major roles, one minor role, many small parts, hundreds of actors. I imagine most worked for screen credit.

The movie portrays the world Heinlein predicted from 1958 (like major space travel), not the world that actually happened. I've never before seen a movie take that kind of risk to remain true to the original story. Given the few screenings in the United States, this faithfulness cost the producers millions in revenue. Don't expect to see such courage in a major film production ever again.

I'm glad I lived to see a production of a Heinlein story that respected his storytelling. In a couple of decades, small budget productions will use computers and artificial intelligence to translate text directly to screen, without thousands of people involved, and this kind of faithful rendition will be commonplace, indeed, the cheapest way to produce a coherent movie. Predestination, set in a "past future", may be a harbinger of things to come.

Few US moviegoers will like this movie. I do not recommend it to everyone, not even to sophisticated viewers with developed notions of what a movie should be. GLBT science fiction fans will have strong feelings about it, both ways. This film is a good introduction to Heinlein's brave explorations of gender, written when Ozzie and Harriet was Hollywood's view of things. My deepest respect to the filmmakers for showcasing uncommon thoughts from that time, and my thanks to the Australian citizens whose tax dollars paid to bring a deeply US-American author to the screen.