More important, the book's evolutionary angle (and the social criticism that went with it) has been jettisoned. In the book, the sun-dwelling Eloi and the cave-dwelling cannibalistic Morlocks are portrayed as the inevitable if unpleasant result of the schism between the affluent ruling class and the downtrodden workers. In the movie, mankind devolves into the Eloi and the Morlocks not because of unstoppable forces of biology and economics but because of a nuclear holocaust. The end result in the year 802,701 may seem almost the same, but there is a major difference: what has gone wrong in the movie, we are left in no doubt, can be undone. So when the Time Traveler disappears from his own era, never to return, we are not left to speculate that he may have been devoured by “the huge reptilian brutes of the Jurassic times”; instead, we know that he has gone back to the future to lift mankind back up from its dismal situation.

The film was a reasonably elaborate affair for its time, with impressive production values, including some fine special effects. (These have dated somewhat over the years, but not to the point of undermining the movie.) The Moorlock makeup is reasonably frightening (in part because their scenes are filmed mostly in underground darkness), turning them into memorable movie-monsters. And there is a decent amount of spectacle to please the eye (e.g., exploding volcanoes, nuclear bombs). The film even has a fair degree of visual poetry, as when the Eloi show the Time Traveler what's left of their books -- and they crumble into dust in his hands.

Overall, while perhaps not a masterpiece, George Pal's version of THE TIME MACHINE deserves to be considered a classic of science fiction cinema -- a piece of old-fashoined filmmaking expressing a decent amount of intellectual ambition in the context of a rousing adventure story. The story was remade in 2002, with more advanced special effects, but the 1960 film remains the definitive cinematic adaptation of the Wells book. 

THE NOVEL

The Time Machine (1895) is H.G. Wells' first major work, and it perfectly illustrates his approach to science-fiction. Whereas his approximate contemporary, Jules Verne, constructed his stories as a way of demonstrating the science of his day, Wells uses science as a springboard for his imagination, one that allowed him to examine philosophical topics in a popular format.

Consequently, despite some earnest theoretical discussion (invoking the concept of the fourth dimension as a way to justify the possibility of time travel), the titular instrument in the novel is ultimately a narrative device that allows the Time Traveler to visit the future, where he finds that humanity has devolved into two species: Above ground, the childlike Eloi lead comfortable lives of no ambition—and no need of any, as their every need is taken care of. Below ground lurk the Morlocks, the cannibals who provide for the Eloi’s needs and then devour the helpless creatures. The book even suggests that this evolutionary schism was caused by social conditions apparent in Wells time: the division between the comfortable upper class, who enjoy the fruits of modern society, and the working class whose efforts keep that society running.

The novel also introduces another element that is typical of Wells’ science fiction writing: the characters operate mostly as eyes and ears to convey the story to the reader, with little attempt made at interesting dramatic interaction or even identifiable personalities. Instead, the characters tend to be “types”: many of them, including the narrator, don’t even have names; instead, they are identified by their occupation: the Medical Man, the Psychologist, etc. (This approach would be re-used in War of the Worlds, which contains major characters identified only as “the Curate,” “the Artilleryman,” and “my brother.”)

But if Wells doesn’t concern himself with in-depth characterization, that is only because he is hunting different game. He has an idea to explore, about the possible future of the human race (and indeed of the very Earth itself), and he presents it in a vivid and exciting fashion, including wonderfully creepy passages as the Time Traveler descends into the darkened realm of the Morlocks. Even more important, for all the depressing pessimism of the story, Wells manages to evoke a wistful sense of desperately needed optimism in the beautifully written coda. The Timer Traveler, we are told, “thought but cheerlessly of the Advancement of Mankind, and saw in the growing pile of civilization only a foolish heaping that must inevitably fall…” But the unnamed narrator keeps a souvenir from the future near him, a gift given to the Time Traveler by a grateful Eloi named Weena—evidence that “even when mind and strength had gone, gratitude and a mutual tenderness still lived on in the heart of man.”