DOLLMAN. A Science Fiction Tale About How Hard Life is in the United States

B-movies have one distinct advantage over the commercial film world—they don’t have to worry about social or political correctness. When watching “Dollman”, you get the sense that director Albert Pyun was completely free in his approach. He could stereotypically portray the overweight, the short, women, Latinos, and even create an entirely different vision of the United States—a country depicted as full of backwardness, poverty, and crime. All of this is set in a world that incorporates elements of science fiction, or perhaps more accurately, fantastical elements. There’s no doubt that Pyun utilized a full range of B-movie techniques that are iconic to the genre in “Dollman”. Interestingly, he also managed to deliver a moral reflection in a smarter way than many multi-million-dollar films, without excessive pathos.

“Dollman” is less known even within the niche world of VHS B-movie fans. It got somewhat lost in Albert Pyun’s filmography, along with many other titles from the ’80s and ’90s like “Radioactive Dreams“, “Alien from L.A.”, or “Brain Smasher”. I intend to remind you about it because it’s no less a title than “Knights” or “Nemesis”. The film creates a world out of elements that seemingly don’t fit together, yet surprisingly, it works. After all, who else but Pyun and writer David Pabian could come up with the idea that 10,000 light years away from Earth, there exists a planet called Arturos that looks like Mars with clouds, inhabited by beings identical to humans? They have a police force, drive cars, grapple with crime and political corruption, and even have public laundromats where obese women wash their children—who are also obese. In this grim, extraterrestrial reality, an uncompromising cop with a massive gun operates. Allegedly, no one else on the planet has a weapon like his. The authorities want to get rid of him, the criminals want to get rid of him, and even some of the police want to see him gone. Brick Bardo (Tim Thomerson) is a tragic hero, out of place in his world. His main antagonist, Sprug (Frank Collison), is also out of place—a disembodied head attached to something like a drone. During their next confrontation in a ruined urban district on Arturos, an accident occurs. Sprug escapes in a spaceship with a mysterious interdimensional bomb. Bardo, already ousted from the police and accused of murdering innocent Arturosians, chases after him. Both encounter some kind of energy barrier surrounding the planet. This is the strangest part of the story—passing through the barrier shrinks them. So, when they arrive on Earth, they are about 30 centimeters tall, with Sprug being even smaller since he’s just a head.

This shrinking, though seemingly nonsensical from a sci-fi standpoint, serves a purpose in the film’s conclusion. It becomes a metaphorical axis in “Dollman”, a film that emphasizes how deep the social divisions run among U.S. citizens. The characters land in the South Bronx, where a gang war is raging. Pyun spends a lot of time showing destroyed buildings, trash-filled streets, poorly dressed people, and muggings—the only reality of the U.S. shown in the film, and essentially the only reality on Earth. In this world, innocent people fight a losing battle for survival against criminals and exploitative politicians. The police, for all intents and purposes, don’t exist. In one meaningful scene, two officers stand idly by amidst the filth and social despair. The sets are somewhat similar to those on Arturos, dictated by budget constraints. However, there are plenty of special effects, although they might induce a smile. After all, they had to somehow combine the miniature main character with the world of giant humans. The filmmakers didn’t shy away from this tricky feat, and as a result, despite the visible cheapness of the photomontages, the story feels more real, and even funnier, when the tough cop is visibly frightened by people looking at him through the window of his equally shrunken spaceship. His massive gun no longer obliterates enemies—it works more like a magnum, which also surprises him. Viewers may also be surprised by the fate of the antagonist Sprug, and Jackie Earle Haley, in his role, proves his acting talent. He would later demonstrate many times that he is an excellent character actor, including in “Watchmen“.

The message of the film is one of equality, even if the creators bluntly call overweight people “fat.” Height doesn’t matter. Even being small, you can accomplish great things. Even when you’re at the bottom of the social ladder, you can climb up one rung, and then another, and another. You must always fight and stay honest. “Dollman”‘s message is certainly admirable, and it’s praiseworthy that the director didn’t lose sight of it during the action-packed narrative, even when employing such absurd aesthetic choices as a doll strapped to a car door.