Movies - Overdrawn at the Memory Bank

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	Movies - Overdrawn at the Memory Bank

Overdrawn at the Memory Bank was a 1983 television movie. It was produced by Canada's RSL Productions in Toronto. Financing was provided by WNET/PBS New York, which had hoped to create an entire science fiction series, but due to poor funding this was the last of three such productions over an eleven-year span.

The script was based on a 1976 John Varley short story. The movie is widely known for its videotaped soap opera look and its public broadcasting production style, which some critics say was its downfall, but was done to cut costs and allow digital effects to be used. The film was satirized by Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K) in 1997. Poignantly, this MST3K version's host segments add in a fake PBS pledge drive.

Plot

This film has been likened to a video hybrid between 1984
, Tron, and Brainstorm
. In a future dystopia, Aram Fingal (Raul Julia) is a lowly programmer working for Novicorp. Arts are prohibited and he is busted watching the classic film Casablanca on the computer. To rehabilitate him, the company transfers his mind ("doppels" him) into a virtual monkey. For a few minutes, Julia narrates over footage of wild animals (taken from the documentary Animals Are Beautiful People directed by Jamie Uys), while the gastronomic CEO looks on. Because of an ID card mixup, Fingal is suddenly lost into the computer's operating system. With help from Appolonia (Linda Griffiths) he is able to access a virtual Casablanca and live within it as Humphrey Bogart's character, Rick. From there he plots to bring down Novicorp's finances without being deleted.

Some consider this film an inspiration for The Matrix
, noting the similarities at the showdown between Fingal and the Chairman, Appolonia and Fingal's growing relationship, and the decision that Fingal makes at the end to oppose the corporation(s) that rule the world.

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