Ryujin
Legend
I keep seeing this meme on multiple social media platforms and when I do, I suddenly feel much less old.
Your top 5 sci-fi movies (and why)
- Thread starter Morrus
- Start date
57 is not old.....On the one hand, I want to say that we should get away from turning yet another thread into a debate about Star Wars, and we should return to my personally preferred pedantry of arguing about what is or what is not sci-fi. On the other hand, the overwhelming focus on Star Wars in this thread is res ipsa loquitur evidence that it's science fiction. So, carry on.
And on that note:
Obi-Wan also chopped off a dude's arm in a bar fight. Obi-Wan didn't start that fight, but he sure escalated it pretty quickly. Too bad the Jedi don't have any non-lethal combat skills, or that the Force doesn't have any way of calming the emotions of the weak-minded.
Also, for perspective, Obi-Wan was 57 in A New Hope.
Truly unreal. Glad we've mostly moved past that.
Also, sorry I derailed the thread.
Maybe I'll watch Gattica, which I'm not sure I ever saw. If I have access.
The Soloist
Hero
In the 80s, most adult women 30+ looked older than they were because of the 'Nancy Reagan' fashion style. My mother 'lost' 10 years when the 90s rolled around.
Thomas Shey
Legend
I gather we're ignoring the 50's here? There's some that (though they've mostly disappeared into the rear view mirror at that point) were considered kind of important earlier.
The Soloist
Hero
Indeed, the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) anti-Communist subtext was interesting and it scared me when I saw it. Didn't want to go to sleep that night.
Thomas Shey
Legend
The very first example I was going to give, in fact (though I'm not personally fond of it). I guess it also depends on whether you're talking about movies that had a broad impact, or a strong one in SF fandom: I'm not sure how well how many were well remembered outside of the latter, but within it at least The Day the Earth Stood Still and Forbidden Planet left a pretty good shadow. That's not even getting into the ones that set the stage for every similar movie that came after like Them!
But I suppose you can make an argument that before, say, 2001, mot people perceived SF films as pulp junk to one degree or another. I'm not entirely sure how true that is, but its not an entirely unfounded argument.
The Soloist
Hero
My mother loved going to the matinee movies on weekends when she was young. She loved all those 'weird stories'. Later, when I was old enough in the 70s, we would watch late night reruns of these movies. Fun times.
2001 (1968) certainly raised the bar visually. It made space travel look believable.
Thomas Shey
Legend
I grew up watching older SF movies on Saturday afternoon TV matinees in my childhood, so I have a disproportionate fondness for them.
I think, to some extent, some of the 50's SF films looked fairly believeable to the people of the time. That's largely because their familiar palette of what they expected certain elements of film to look like was different than what we're used to (or even people in 1968 were used to). That said, its notable that only a small number of 50's era SF films were actually focused on space travel (and to be clear, some that were were cheesy as all get out), and part of it was the understanding that doing it at all right was difficult and expensive (and of course extremely speculative because we hadn't done any spaceflight yet.) That said, I suspect that movies like Rocketship X-M came across to viewers at the time as fairly believeable because it used a palette they were familiar with (even though in the rear view mirror there are all kinds of things wrong with it).
(And now you went and got me to riding one of my favorite hobbyhorses again...)
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