Audio Asylum Thread Printer

Get a view of an entire thread on one page

FAQ / News / Events

Films/DVD Asylum

Sci-fi overlap with other genres

65.219.108.11

[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] [ Thread: Display Email ] [ Films/DVD Asylum ] [ FAQ ]

In Reply to: That's 1926 for Metropolis, ... posted by Audiophilander on October 28, 2002 at 14:31:46:

I tend to agree with your perspective. I will shortly be co-writing a column on sci-fi films at another site and was not even going to mention the Mad Max stuff. My definition of sci-fi for this purpose is limited to films that are based around advances in science and technology beyond what was available at the time the film was made. Thus, while the Mad Max films take place in the future, they're not fundamentally dependent on technology that was scientifically impossible when they were made. Rather, the bizarre goings-on are just a consequence of a post-apocalyptic event.
One can also frequently run into an overlap with the horror genre when discussing science fiction films. Frankenstein has science fiction elements but was predominantly intended as a horror film. There are many other examples of films in which the sci-fi is not paramount but is instead secondary to the primary purpose of frightening the viewer. I would tend to classify most or all of these as horror films. Alien is suspenseful, scary, and occasionally gruesome, but seeing as though it heavily involves space exploration in the future, I think it can be classified as a sci-fi film if one so chooses. One could also easily describe it as "sci-fi/horror."
I'm not sure I would rank the Flash Gordon serials ahead of Star Wars, but apart from Metropolis, IMO these serials were the best science fiction put to film in the first half of the 20th century. However, they aren't "movies" per se but rather, movie serials, so technically, they should perhaps not be included on this particular list.
Todd

Follow Ups:

Sci-Fi Writer Harlan Ellison Strongly Prefers The Term.... - AudioHead 09:36:51 10/31/02 (0)
Speculative Fiction (Spec-Fi) and detests Forrest Ackerman for
coining the Sci-Fi phrase. (And now probably me too, for using it to
preface his name!) - AH
Technologies must fit the circumstance.... - Mrs. Piggy 19:27:31 10/28/02 (2)
"films that are based around advances in science and technology beyond what was available at the time the film was made"
In the mad max series..it is a futuristic world we have never experienced, based on events we have never experienced. The technologies they used are based on that which is available to them in the future, and they create a whole new style of world, different from our own.
Planet of the apes is sci-fi and they don't use any technologies that are beyond what was available at the time the film was made....futuristically primative. Also based on a freak event or occurance.
I guess it's all a matter of perspective, but I would consider any film that illustrates an alternate universe (so to speak) sci-fi. Horror comes into play when you add mystical or mental elements and horror/gore to the alternate universe theme.
Ever read the book doomsday...very good sci-fi, set in the dark ages, very interesting.
mp
- Re: Technologies must fit the circumstance.... - Lasermeister 17:36:32 10/29/02 (1)
  It's probably an academic argument, but Planet of the Apes actually involved two things that were not and still are not scientifically possible--time travel and apes evolving within a few thousand years to have essentially human intelligence. Personally, I would not consider every story of alternate universe or reality to be SF (Fatherland, for example), but I do find such tales extremely interesting.
  Todd
  - And also open to interpretation.... - Mrs. Piggy 18:31:07 10/29/02 (0)
    based on individual ideas. I find Mad max to be sci fi, because they do use all the technologies they have available to them in this futuristic fictitious world. Some could call it action and adventure, some may even call it fantasy.
    In the Time After Time, for example, The machine to propell them through time, was created in the past, with material from the past,
    but the film primarily centers on the past and present, no futuristic technologies, aside from the fictitious time machine itself.
    So I agree, there is a high level of subjectivity in the categorizing of sci-fi films.
    mp

This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:

You can not post to an archived thread.