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Chazen Museum of Art | Sunday Cinematheque at the Chazen: Robot Jox
February 27, 2022 @ 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Stuart Gordon
ROBOT JOX
USA | 1989 | 35mm | 84 min.
Director: Stuart Gordon
Cast: Gary Graham, Anne-Marie Johnson, Paul Koslo
Decades before Pacific Rim, director Gordon and writer Joe Haldeman conjured up this futuristic action movie set in a world where war has been outlawed and replaced by gladiatorial matches between giant robots, piloted by men known as robot jockeys. The story revolves around the fight over the territory known as Alaska that comes down to a battle between American and Russian jox. “There are giant robots fighting each other with projectile-fists and crotch-saws…the stop-motion animation and model work on Robot Jox looks really cool, even now. In a way this is the original live-action Transformers movie, but with more handmade charm” (Noel Murray, The Dissolve).
ROBOT JOX
USA | 1989 | 35mm | 84 min.
Director: Stuart Gordon
Cast: Gary Graham, Anne-Marie Johnson, Paul Koslo
Decades before Pacific Rim, director Gordon and writer Joe Haldeman conjured up this futuristic action movie set in a world where war has been outlawed and replaced by gladiatorial matches between giant robots, piloted by men known as robot jockeys. The story revolves around the fight over the territory known as Alaska that comes down to a battle between American and Russian jox. “There are giant robots fighting each other with projectile-fists and crotch-saws…the stop-motion animation and model work on Robot Jox looks really cool, even now. In a way this is the original live-action Transformers movie, but with more handmade charm” (Noel Murray, The Dissolve).
At the Chazen: Stuart Gordon Retrospective, Part One
Born and raised in Chicago and educated at UW–Madison, Stuart Gordon (1947–2020) turned to movie storytelling after nearly two decades of acclaimed theatrical productions that were frequently outlandish and sometimes controversial. Gordon’s cinematic oeuvre was similarly championed for a colorful visual style, themes that celebrated working class underdogs, and stories driven by flamboyant villains who are typically authority figures abusing their power. A horror and science-fiction genre specialist, Gordon also made a few movies that are not easily categorizable. This first section of our year-long Stuart Gordon retrospective highlights three fun and futuristic sci-fi action vehicles, Fortress, Robot Jox, and Space Truckers, plus Gordon’s 2004 David Mamet adaptation, Edmond. The series will continue with more screenings at the 2022 Wisconsin Film Festival, and on the Cinematheque calendar later this year. All of the 35mm prints for this series are courtesy Wisconsin Center for Film & Theater Research.
