Cloning is an issue that has recently been part of many stories in today’s society. Once thought of as nothing more than science fiction a few decades ago, it is now science fact. Dolly the sheep was the first followed by a slew of other animals. Human organs have even been grown on the backs of lab rats and scientists claim that though stem cells they can even clone human organs and they could actually clone human embryos, and humans themselves. However ethics and governments have gotten involved in our society to come up with legislation that bans the cloning of humans. Jerry Was A Man is a film that not only does point out the benefits that clones might provide in the future, but also paints an ugly ethical picture of the problems that can arise from doing so.
Jerry Was A Man stars Anne Heche (Psycho 1998) as a wealthy women who is in the market with her husband to buy a unique animal as a pet. The owner of the cloning corporation; Malcolm McDowell (A Clockwork Orange) tries to sell them everything from a extra long Doxin and a miniature full grown elephant that can write. They do get the Elephant, but a certain human clone who’s to be destroyed and turned into dog food catches the eye of Mrs. Vogel (Heche) and she insists that McDowell’s character sell her the clone. He refuses but agrees to lease the anthropoid to her for a year. His name is Jerry, and he was created to simply help destroy land mines for the army. All he knows is how to walk the field when told too, however Jerry is different from all the other anthropoids that are of the same format as himself. Jerry can think for himself and he shows signs that he can learn new things. Mrs. Vogel then begins to feel for him as her lease on him comes to an end. With her money and power she begins a campaign against the cloning company that goes to trial, as she tries to prove that Jerry is a man.
This is the episode that I enjoyed the most out of the four screeners that were sent to me. The script was written and directed by Michael Tolkin (The Player, The Rapture) and is based on the short story by Robert A. Heinlein. The script is great and very well written and researched. Not only was the story very well written by the dialogue as well. As it’s already known I’m a big fan of films that touch on subjects that reflect issues in today’s society. Cloning is a big one, and the script really touched on how ugly the future of cloning could be.
The acting in the film was pretty decent. Heche and McDowell gave some great performances, however it’s actor Jason Diablo whom plays Jerry who’s performance steals the show. Playing the character of Jerry seems like it was a hard part, talking almost like a robot, and having to keep your speech to one word answers while trying to remember the lines that Jerry had. He does not speak like a human in a sense that we speak in a continued flow. My hat’s off to Jason in a fine performance.
The production value is really good for this episode , and I’m willing to bet that this episode had the highest budget out of all the other episodes in the series. The make-up effects and the CGI were great, and looked just as good as they do in the movies. The set design was amazing and the fill had such great visual effects and the costume design was very impressive.
Overall, Jerry Was A Man is the best episode I’ve seen to date. The series consists of six episodes and so far I’ve seen four, so the series looks promising. Jerry Was A Man is an episode that touches on some ethical issues with cloning, and showers some light and darkness on the subject. I highly recommend that any fan of the Sci-fi genre sit down on August 18th at 10p.m. and watch this episode. A true gem to the science fiction genre.
– Horror Bob
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