SOLARBABIES (1986)

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *metaphysical, sociological*


I've recently mentioned that I don't think NIGHT OF THE COMET really deserves its alleged cult status. SOLARBABIES is the reverse; it's been dumped on frequently, but it actually has a little more substance.

I can understand some of the hostility. The title is risible, as is one of the opening scenes, showing the five starring teens playing skate-hockey against another team, with silly lights attached to their skates. In addition, it's understandable if some people don't like the very idea of the film's conceptual blend of "Mad Max Meets the Little Rascals." But, taken on its own terms, Alan Johnson's film has a simple, clear storytelling style, far preferable to the muddled messiness of most "Mad Max" ripoffs.

The titular Solarbabies exist in a post-apocalyptic world where water is in short supply. It's not clear what's happened to most of the world, for we only see one desert-terrain, where the people live in cobbled-together, low-tech enclaves but have legends of better times before the catastrophe. There's not much said about how the adults in the world interact with one another. The focus is on Orphanage 43, where kids-- mostly teens-- are supervised and trained by the reigning government, the "Eco-Protectorate." Apparently for no reason but exercise, the teens are trained to play games of skate-hockey. The Solarbabies-- Jason, Tug, Terra, Metron, and Rabbit-- are first seen engaging a rival team, the Scorpions, in an unsanctioned match, thus establishing the heroes as rebels against the entrenched power. One Eco-soldier named Grock (Richard Johnson) comes down hard on the defiant Solarbabies, particularly because he likes the Scorpions better.

Then a young deaf orphan named Daniel-- also mascot to the Solarbabies-- finds a glowing light-globe. The globe. apparently an alien intelligence, never speaks on-camera, but it communicates telepathically that its name is "Bodhai." This name is loosely derived from the Buddhist term for "awakening," and Bodhai has an invigorating effect on Daniel, for the globe heals his deafness. Later, when Daniel has shown the globe to his fellow orphans, they happen to express their despair at their water-deprived world, and Bodhai gives them an indoor shower.

The characters of the teen heroes are simple but engaging, and that makes it easier to take the routine plotline, in which the young people-- all male except for Terra (Jami Gertz)-- seek to protect Bodhai from the evil Eco-soldiers. As soon as Grock finds out about Bodhai, he wants nothing but to use his technology to strip the globe of its mystic secrets. So the basic equation of the film is "mysticism good, technology bad," but the sincerity of the young performers sells it well enough.

Both the metaphysical and sociological themes of SOLARBABIES are underdeveloped, but the conclusion-- in which Bodhai leaves the teens but imparts some of its soul-power to them-- is a fair extension of the MAD MAX themes of cosmic renewal.