Today, science fiction scenes that are almost beyond belief are happening constantly.
Posted on 02/11/2014 3:21:29 PM PST by Usagi_yo
It's a cold day here in the South, snowing, raining and freezing. So it was a good day to curl up with my Basset Hound and watch some old sci-fi movies. They're dated, but still relevant for today's world.
Soylent Green. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070723/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
1973 movie set in 2022 with Charlton Heston and Edward G. Robinson (his last appearance). The world is overpopulated, polluted, suffering from global warming, short on food and many people are homeless. Charlton Heston plays a detective trying to solve a murder case of an "Important" person. Important being code word for rich elite quasi government business man.
Rollerball. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073631/?ref_=fn_al_tt_2
1975 movie set in 2018 with James Caan and John Houseman. The world has evolved into one big global corporate melange. Large global City/States sponsor Rollerball teams. Rollerball is introduced as an innocent seeming game with about as much violence as today's NFL football. James Caan is a player. A good, perhaps too good of a player. John Houseman plays a go between between the game and the corporation full intent on seeing Johnathan fail as an individual -- the slightly submerged theme of the movie.
On the Beach
1959 movie set in 1963 with Gregory Peck, Fred Astaire, Ava Gardner, Anthony Perkins. Gregory Peck is a commander of a U.S nuclear submarine who's looking for safe harborage some weeks/months after loosing her nuclear missles in a nuclear conflagration with USSR. They eventually find a safe port in Australia and meet some survivors.
All 3 fine movies to see again if you haven't and to definitely see them if you've never. Just keep the understanding that these movies are dated.
What gets me are the sci-fi movies that really predicted the future or some part of it.
The President’s Analyst. A huge dollop of political and social satire, that even underplays today’s situation.
Scanners. What if the next, approved or illegal wonder drug is far worse than Thalidomide?
I always thought THEY LIVE was an underrated film. It fits in great with the favorite Freeper term “sheeple”. It starts out and maintains subtle hints for a good while before becoming an action film and has an excellent score of a few blues cords.
Today, science fiction scenes that are almost beyond belief are happening constantly.
One thing about The Day the Earth Stood Still, (well there’s more than one but it was made in the 50’s after all), was the fact that if the Alien Race could just shut off all the Electricity, they wouldn’t need to destroy Earth to protect the other Planets.
Forgive the run on sentence. LOL
Michael Rennie (sic?) will always be the only Klatu, just as James Mason will always be the only Captain Nemo.
Anything with Rachel Ward in it is worth watching. Will look for it on Netflix.
THEY LIVE, and we’re the only ones wearing the Sunglasses.
Another really good one everyone has forgotten is
The Mind Stealers with Christopher Walken. The only thing lacking from todays tech would be a remote activated trigger
from some pharmaceutical giants smart phone app.
May I suggest “The Bedford Incident”?
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Also, “The Final Countdown” w Kirk Douglass
Modern day USS Nimitz ‘crosses’ a time warp and ends up in the Pacific on Dec 5 (or so) 41....
Available on Netflix
On the Beach was one of the few books I decided to stop reading partway through. The inevitability of the outcome was too depressing.
Best 1950s sci fi? War of the Worlds and Forbidden Planet.
On the Beach was one of the few books I decided to stop reading partway through. The inevitability of the outcome was too depressing.
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I managed to finish it but don’t think the movie could give the book justice....
much like “Catch 22” - I couldn’t stand the movie but book was great....
Guess in both of them just too much going on for a movie to capture the true spirit of the writer...
There was a book, I forget the title, where some friends go to a castle and survive a global nuclear war and have to survive and start anew there. I never finished it either.
“The Final Countdown”
A wonderful movie.
And in the same vein - “The Philadelphia Experiment: (1984)
I saw Saturn 3 in the theater as a child... and Hector scared me to death. I had not seen the movie since then... but came across the whole film online for free and watched it again... creeps me out still... and I was just laughing because there were so many elements that were ripped off from Alien.
Which Alien I saw in the theater as a young child as well... and that creature was what “chased me home” when I was running at top speed to get back to my house from the neighbor’s at night.
For the purpose of the thread... Alien was a ground breaking Sci-Fi horror film... and sooooo many other films draw elements from it...plot devices, how to build suspense... design elements... the female protagonist... It was truly a pivotal film.
TO that particular list I would add “Logan’s Run”
Logan’s Run was OK, and whatever flaws it had were greatly redeemed by Jenny Agutter!
Ah James Arness. Good 50s movie. So was the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers and james Arness in Them.
"But there weren't any N----s in it....I said, "White people ain't planning for us to be here." - Richard Pryor.
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