Lesson #3: Science Fiction

Read the following note and complete the instructions for the Movie Genre Chart that follows.

Science Fiction Films

Science Fiction Films are a version of fantasy films. They are usually scientific, visionary, comic-strip-like, and imaginative - complete with heroes, distant planets, impossible quests, improbable settings, fantastic places, great dark and shadowy villains, futuristic technology, unknown and inexplicable forces, the dangerous nature of knowledge ('some things Man is not meant to know'), and extraordinary monsters ('things or creatures from space'), either created by misguided mad scientists or by nuclear havoc. Sci-fi tales have a prophetic nature (they often attempt to figure out or depict the future) and are often set in a future time. They are usually visualized through fanciful, imaginative settings, film production design, advanced technology gadgets (i.e., robots and spaceships), scientific developments, or by fantastic special effects.

Commonly, sci-fi films express society's anxiety about technology and how to forecast and control the impact of technological and environmental change on contemporary society. Science fiction often expresses the potential of technology to destroy humankind through Armaggedon-like events, or through the loss of personal individuality. There are often encounters with other aliens, creatures, or beings (sometimes from our deep subconscious, sometimes in space or in other dimensions) that are unearthed to fight an eternal struggle or battle (good vs. evil), played out by recognizable archetypes. Many other SF films featured fantastic journeys, set either on Earth, into outer space, or (most often) into the future.

The genre easily can overlap with horror films, particularly when technology or alien life forms become malevolent (Alien (1979)). Further, there are many examples of blurred or hybrid science fiction films that share characteristics with lots of other genres, including fantasy films (Star Wars (1977)), westerns (Outland (1980)), romances (Somewhere in Time (1980)), adventure films (The Thing From Another World (1951)), action films (Terminator 2 - Judgment Day (1991)) and comedies (Sleeper (1973)).

The Earliest Science Fiction Films:

Many early films in this genre featured similar fanciful special effects and thrilled early audiences. The pioneering science fiction film, a 14-minute ground-breaking masterpiece with 30 separate tableaus (scenes), Le Voyage Dans La Lune (A Trip to the Moon) (1902), was made by imaginative, turn-of-the-century French filmmaker/magician Georges Melies, and taken from a novel by Jules Verne. With innovative cinematic techniques (trick photography with superimposed images, dissolves and cuts), he depicted many memorable, whimsical old-fashioned images:

a modern-looking, projectile-style rocket ship blasting off into space from a cannon
a crash landing into the eye of the man in the moon
the appearance of fantastic moon inhabitants (Selenites, acrobats from the Folies Bergere) on the lunar surface
a scene in the court of the moon king
a last minute escape back to Earth

The first science fiction feature films appeared in the 1920s after the Great War, showing increasing doubts about the destructive effects of technology gone mad. One of the greatest and most innovative films ever made was a silent film set in the year 2000, German director Fritz Lang's classic, expressionistic, techno-fantasy masterpiece Metropolis (1927) - sometimes considered the Blade Runner of its time. It featured an evil scientist/magician named Rotwang, a socially-controlled futuristic city, a beautiful but sinister female robot named Maria (probably the first robot in a feature film, and later providing the inspiration for George Lucas' C3-PO in Star Wars), a stratified society, and an oppressed enslaved race of underground industrial workers. Even today, the film is acclaimed for its original, futuristic sets, mechanized society themes and a gigantic subterranean flood - it appeared to accurately project the nature of society in the year 2000. [It was re-released in 1984 with a stirring, hard-rock score featuring Giorgio Moroder's music and songs by Pat Benatar and Queen.]

Early Science-Fiction - Horror Film Blends:

The most memorable blending of science fiction and horror was in Universal Studios' mad scientist-doctor/monster masterpiece from director James Whale, Frankenstein (1931), an adaptation of Mary Shelley's novel. It was soon followed by Whale's superior sequel Bride of Frankenstein (1935), one of the best examples of the horror-SF crossover. The famed director also made the film version of an H. G. Wells novel The Invisible Man (1933) with Claude Rains - it was the classic tale of a scientist with a formula for invisibility accompanied by spectacular special effects and photographic tricks.

Alien Invader Films in the Cold War Era:

Many other sci-fi films of the 1950s portrayed the human race as victimized and at the mercy of mysterious, hostile, and unfriendly forces. Cold War politics undoubtedly contributed to suspicion and paranoia of anything "un-American." Allegorical science fiction films reflected the collective unconscious and often cynically commented upon political powers, threats and evils that surrounded us (often a metaphor for Communism), and the dangers of aliens taking over our minds and territory.

UFO sightings and reports of flying saucers or strange visitors from outer space found their way into Hollywood features as allegories of the Cold War, such as in the science-fiction film The Thing From Another World (1951). This movie was later copied by the Alien films, notably Alien (1979). More US films about space invaders in the 50s included: The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) and E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982), The Man from Planet X (1951), It Came From Outer Space (1953), Invaders from Mars (1953), The War of the Worlds (1953), This Island Earth (1955), Independence Day (1996)), Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956, 1978 and 1994), They Came From Beyond Space (1967), and The Andromeda Strain (1971).

The Mutant Creatures/Monsters Cycle:

With the threat of destructive rockets and the Atom Bomb looming in people's minds after World War II, mutant creature/monster films featured beasts that were released or atomically created from nuclear experiments or A-bomb accidents. The aberrant monsters were the direct result of man's interference with nature. There were many examples of low-budget 50s films about the horrors of the Atomic Age: The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms (1953), The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957), The Fly (1958) and(1986).

The Flood of Alien/ Monster Films:

The 'alien monster' gimmick was profitable although many of these 50s films were pure schlock. Sequels (of uneven quality) with more monstrous creatures included: Creature From the Black Lagoon (1954), It Came From Beneath The Sea (1955), The Blob (1958), a sequel Beware! the Blob (1972) (aka Son of Blob)

Time Travel Films:

A number of time travel films have been produced over the years: The Time Machine (1960), The Final Countdown (1980), Time Bandits (1981), The Terminator (1984) and Terminator 2 (1991), The Planet of the Apes series, Back to the Future (1985), (1989), and (1990), Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986), Total Recall (1990), Timecop (1994), and Star Trek: First Contact (1996).

Kubrick's Science-Fiction Classic:

But the most celebrated of all space films up to that time, visualized space travel with incredible magnificence and seriousness. Kubrick's respectable, influential film 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) (with only 40 minutes of dialogue), based on Arthur C. Clarke's novel, restored legitimacy to the science-fiction genre. The impressive film featured an incredible opening enhanced by the 'Dawn of Man' sequence, majestic views of outer space and drifting space stations, enigmatic monoliths, the breakdown of a malevolent HAL super-computer, an astronaut's journey to Jupiter (paralleling man's own growth of intelligence), a hallucinatory light show trip through space, and a cryptic ending featuring a super-being space fetus. Kubrick's film won the Oscar for Best Special Effects in 1968. After 2001's success, Dark Star (1974), Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) and Contact (1997) were all released.

The Alien Films:

Ridley Scott's effective horror/sci-fi film Alien (1979) was a combination of Jaws (1975) and Halloween (1978). Alien featured H. R. Giger's unique alien design - a dilapidated mining space vehicle Nostromo, a deadly extra-terrestrial life form stowaway, and a shocking and repulsive chest-bursting sequence involving John Hurt. Scott's film spawned other renditions in the series: Aliens (1986), Alien 3 (1992), Alien Resurrection (1997) and Alien Vs. Predator (2004),

The Planet of the Apes Series (1968-1973):

A popular, clever, mostly successful and serious five-film series of classic simian films about apes that have evolved into an intelligent society, derived from Pierre Boule's novel Monkey Planet, originated with Planet of the Apes (1968). The first film in the series depicted a post-apocalyptic, post-nuclear futuristic planet (Earth). Its advanced make-up techniques reversed the social positions of intelligent humans and brutal apes to slyly criticize racial stereotypes. It also examined the effects of technology upon humankind.

Lucas' and Spielberg's Contributions:

By the late 1970s and early 1980s, films by George Lucas and Steven Spielberg consciously paid tribute to serials of the 1930s, with hero Luke Skywalker, swooping space battles, imaginative bar creatures in Mos Eisley's Cantina, revolutionary special effects, the Millenium Falcon spacecraft, and a vast universe. Aliens could be more friendly and benevolent, evidenced by R2D2 and CP30 and Chewbacca in Star Wars fantasy space epic "trilogy". The first in this trilogy set the standard for action-propelled, special-effects science-fiction: Episode IV: A New Hope (1977), Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980), Episode VI: Return of the Jedi (1983)

In 1999, Lucas backpedaled and created the first film in the epic saga: Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999), and followed it up with a second pre-quel, Episode II: Attack of the Clones (2002) - and a third film: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005). Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) was a film filled with awe and wonder at appearances of UFO spaceships, a mother ship, and the first communication with friendly aliens with bursts of sound and light. Spielberg followed Close Encounters in the early 1980s with one of the most endearing and charming films about benign extraterrestrials ever made - E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982).

The MOVIE GENRE CHART here have the LEFT column completed before watching the movie. While watching thye movie, complete the RIGHT column with examples from the movie.

So again....use the note above on this page to complete the left column and the movie to complete the right column.