The Illustrated Man

"Don't dare stare at the illustrated man."

Mar 26 1969 M/PG 1h 43m
Drama, Fantasy, Horror

A man who has a body almost completely covered in tattoos is searching for the woman who cursed him with the "skin illustrations". Each tattoo reveals a bizarre story, which is experienced by staring at the scene depicted. When the illustrated man meets a fellow tramp on the road a strange voyage begins.

Plot

The Illustrated Man is classic Bradbury, a collection of eighteen startling visions of humankind's destiny, unfolding across a canvas of decorated skin, visions as keen as the tattooist's needle and as colorful as the inks that indelibly stain the body. The images, ideas, sounds and scents that abound in this phantasmagoric sideshow are provocative and powerful: the mournful cries of celestial travelers cast out cruelly into a vast space of stars and blackness, the sight of gray dust settling over a forgotten outpost on a road that leads nowhere, the pungent odor of Jupiter on a returning father's clothing. Here living cities take their vengeance, technology awakens the most primal natural instincts, Martian invasions are foiled by the good life and the glad hand, and dreams are carried aloft in junkyard rockets.

Written by

Ray Bradbury, Howard B. Kreitsek

Directed by

Jack Smight

Production Countries

United States of America

Production Companies

SKM

Languages

English

Awards

1 nomination

Scores
# of Votes
3,681
Average Rating
5.8 out of 10
Metascore
NA
Popularity
NA