A Missing Scene:
The Computer in Welles' The Trial

March 29, 2006

The Trial was released in 1962, and a scene that must have been Welles' own invention was the one featuring a giant computer—the old-fashioned kind that read punch cards.

Josef K. is visited by his uncle and after the work day has ended, they walk upstairs to this long computer, with blinking lights to show it is working. The uncle refers to it as the "brain thing" (although the word "computer" does actually occur toward the end of this scene). He tries to convince Josef to ask the "brain thing" about his case.. but that is every bit as frustrating as asking the Advocate. If the Advocate, surrounded by candles, bespeaks the hopelessness of a spiritual answer, the computer scene extends that hopelessness to the realm of science and technology.

The computer scene, as it now stands, comes and goes quickly. But there was a longer scene cut from the film by Welles. This scene is recreated by the website Wellesnet in a clever way, providing stills from the cut scene along with the dialogue from Welles' script. It is an example of a website that recreates an experience. The image below is one picture from this sequence.

Josef K. standing in front of computer with data card. Note the widescreen format which is absent from a cheaper DVD (such as mine).

This scene brings out more clearly the inability of the computer (and therefore science) to answer human questions.

Scientist: Facts. The mathematics of probability.

Josef K.: But the questions I asked were...

Scientist: (interrupting him) I told you. All we can process for you are facts.

Josef K.: But I don't have any facts.

Scientist: Then what do you expect?...Give her moonshine and all you'll get back is silence... Oh, she can count the stars for you...

Josef K.: No thanks.

One can speculate as to why this scene was removed, which if it were still present would likely be among the best known. Perhaps it was the date.. 1962 is an extraordinarily early point for computers to be involved in this kind of moral-questioning framework. This was before 2001, A Space Odyssey (1968), and from looking at Wikipedia's list of films that made reference to computers (which does not mention The Trial), it seems still clearer that this was an innovative early use. Perhaps, too, the full computer scene, with its straight metallic lines, just seemed incongruous with the rather tortured and maze-like interiors that dominate much of the film.

This scene shows Welles working creatively to attach to The Trial a critique of the growing contemporary interest in computers and their problem solving capabilities (certainly Kafka could never have imagined such a creation). It showcases Welles in all his humanistic splendor, setting human problems and struggles above answers from religion or science.