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.
Someone should remake Soylent Green. Never were such good actors wasted on such amateurish production values.
Colossus scared the crap out of me when I saw it the first time it was broadcast...now reality scares the crap out of me.
Working at a defense contractor, I came across a project named Skynet. I wondered if the configuration manager had a sense of humor or if it was intentional. It was for a sensor net.
Earth VS The Spider..MST3K Version
The Giant Spider Invasion....MST3K version.
And.
Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie.
“You’re next!”
Always loved this movie because some of it was filmed at the Lawrence Hall of Science, where I started my interest in Computer Science
Rollerball is one of the best.
When a determined man goes against the machine, he breaks it.
Forbiden Planet shades of Star Trek. I like to see a mini series done of George R. Stewart’s ‘Earth Abides’.
The mini series ‘The Stand’ is GREAT. The only King book I ever read.
It has been a while but I seem to remember Saturn 3 being a good flick. Kirk Douglas and Farah Fawcett. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn_3
I agree “Colossus: the Forbin Project” is an excellent movie
Loved Gattaca! Mass defiance of surveillance statism/corporatism.
Soylent green and rollerball, good dystopian. Not a fan of “on the beach.”
My brother came over the other day. He hadn’t seen Star Trek into darkness. Played it for him and watched it of the 4th time. Good sci fi.
Was disappointed with Promethius. Needed writing and editing.
Best 1950s sci fi? War of the Worlds and Forbidden Planet.
Best remake of War of the Worlds? Independence Day. The virus killed the monsters. Eat your heart out speilberg.
The remake of ON THE BEACH with Armand Assante, Bryan Brown and Rachel Ward was very good also. Filmed in 2000 in Australia. Not much in Script deviation from the original with Peck (IMHO).
Decent choices....
Just the other day I was thinking about watching “A Clockwork Orange” again...some thing may seem less sci-filike about that futuristic, violent thug-dominated culture, where the perps treated their victims with utter disregard.
Gads, can you imagine. I popped in a dvd of 2001 for my two 18yr old nephews who were visiting for a while, they couldn’t make it past the Blue Danube before losing interest.
I don’t want lefty Hollyweird remaking it! They already plan an anti-corporation (pro-socialist) “Animal Farm”
It requires a good read of Arthur C Clark’s novel. On its own it tends to be disjointed. Back in the 60s people took acid or smoked hash before going into the theatre.
I happened to read the novel before seeing it first. Don’t know how I would have reacted if I hadn’t. Way too much Through Time and Space. That psychedelic part probably needs some substance abuse.
BTW I saw it at least 5 times in a theater. And more on home video.
Stanley Kubrick knew how to shoot a scene but he mistreated the most important theme words from A CLOCKWORK ORANGE. The words of the prison chaplain, the prison warden, and the victimized conspirator tie the theme of the book/movie together but Kubrick let those slide off without focus and emphasis.
Anthony Burgess understood that taking something organic like an orange or a human and making it something mechanical/robotic is wrong on so many levels including Christian perspectives and proper constitutional government.
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