The Monitors is a 1969 U.S. satirical science fiction film. Shot in Chicago, it was the first film production of the city's Second City comedy troupe and was coproduced and financed by the Bell and Howell film-equipment manufacturing company (then based in nearby Skokie) in an effort to establish Chicago as a film production center. It is based on the 1966 novel of the same name by Keith Laumer.
Plot
Earth has been taken over by a benign group of aliens known as the Monitors, gentlemanly figures clad in black overcoats and bowler hats. They are dedicated to suppressing humanity's propensities for violence, sex, war, and trouble, enforcing their ethos with spray cans of a pacifying gas and with television ads praising the Monitors' rule—the latter featuring cameos by a variety of comedic actors, as well as bandleader Xavier Cugat and Illinois senator Everett Dirksen (who died before the film's release).
A conflict with the Monitors, inspired by the outrageous antics of a street preacher (Larry Storch), leads to the flight of movie actress Barbara (Susan Oliver), who is a collaborator with the Monitors, along with free-lance pilot Harry (Guy Stockwell) and Harry's brother Max (Avery Schreiber), and their spiriting away by the "preacher", who turns out to be a leader of SCRAG or "Secret Counter Retaliatorial Group", an anti-Monitor resistance group. After a series of vicissitudes, with Harry among the Monitors and Barbara and Max among the SCRAG forces, the principals are reunited. They leave Barbara and fly off to Washington, D.C., in an attempt to foil a SCRAG plot to bomb Monitor headquarters.
The Monitors, who have been aware of all these events, decide that human beings are not worthy of their leadership and depart. Humanity is freed to return to its violent and corrupt ways.
Cast
Main characters
Harry Jordan (Guy Stockwell) – Harry had been a top gun in the U.S. Air Force in the world war that resulted in the Monitors' taking essential control of the Earth to prevent its complete destruction. (He had "14 confirmed kills", a character says; five kills make a pilot an ace.) This war record makes him known to both the president of the United States and to the Monitors. However, as the film begins, Harry has had a series of failed jobs and is struggling to adjust to life under the Monitors. He resents what he considers to be their illegitimate authority and interferes in the Monitors' police action to quell a public disturbance. Shortly afterward, however, Harry saves the life of a Monitor, even though doing so results in his being captured for his role in the riot. Even though he works to overthrow the Monitors, he also comes to oppose SCRAG, the right-wing "citizen's army" that wants to impose its own version of American government. Although SCRAG operatives free Harry from his captivity, he is reluctant to use their "implosion bomb" against the Monitors. After Harry learns that he cannot disable the timing mechanism of the weapon, he impulsively decides to try to use it in an attempt to coerce the Monitors into leaving Earth. The implacable refusal of the Monitors to leave by force ultimately causes Harry to respect their efforts to bring peace to warlike Earth.
Barbara Cole (Susan Oliver) – Barbara is a famous actress who idealistically admires the efforts of the Monitors to eliminate conflicts and improve social conditions. ("Everyone has to choose," she says. "Peace or war, wealth or poverty.") Instead of challenging or resenting Monitor authority, Barbara supports it. When she meets a Monitor, she nods her head deferentially, and she refers to the Monitor leader as "Sir", telling him, "I believe in what you're doing." Barbara's meeting with the Monitors' leader becomes a confessional, in which she agrees to "recruit" Harry (a stunt pilot in the production of her film) to the Monitors' side. Although to the very end Barbara wants no harm to come to the Monitors, she eventually becomes conflicted and disillusioned by their difficulty in understanding complex human emotions like love.
Max Jordan (Avery Schreiber) – Although Max teases Harry about getting fired from the film production, it appears that Max has not done all that well with his life either. Early on, he unsuccessfully attempts to pressure Barbara to arrange a musical audition for him. Later, after SCRAG rescues Max and Harry from the riot, Max also proves to be a failure at the military training that SCRAG forces upon him. However, Max grows in maturity and courage as he works to free his brother from the Monitors, and he combines with Harry to oppose both the Monitors and SCRAG.