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In Reply to: Re: I'll play.... posted by Pam on February 05, 2000 at 19:41:39:
Thanks for the feedback. See the archives, dated 10-04-99, for my thoughts
concerning Campbells story, "The Thing", and the two film adaptations.
I vaguely remember "Lifeforce" as enjoyable with good effects, especially
at the end; also enjoyed "A Boy And His Dog" with the young Don Johnson,
based on the Harlan Ellison story; I grew up as a young adolescent in the
early 60's watching "Children/Village Of The Damned"; enjoyed "Westworld"
more than the later, "Futureworld"; didn't see much of "Barbarella" at
the drive-in movie because I was preoccupied in the back seat!; "Dune" an
overproduced disappointment; "Heavy Metal" good, but needed more S&M;
"Logans Run" OK; as was "Zardoz"; enjoyed the robot in "Saturn 3"; found
"THX-1138" to be interesting at first, then tediously boring; the Original
Twilight Zone Series, The Outer Limits TV Series, The Invaders TV Series,
Dr Who Tv Series, The Avengers TV Series, among others, were staples of my early youth and manhood,
these were all modestly produced series, but featured outstanding talent.
(And what about the series with Martin Landau and Barbara Bain?)
Ok, have you seen "Liquid Sky" (1983), where the UFO lands on the main character's
penthouse patio in Manhattan? I remember standing in front of the theater
at Piedmont Mall in Atlanta GA upon initial release and deciding not to view it. Curses! Now
my curiousity has been peaked after reading two favorable reviews from two
of my main review sources, the film got a solid *** rating out of ****
from Leonard Maltin, and an excellent ***1/2 out of ***** from "The Motion
Picture Guide". To worsen matters, I can't find it at my favorite video
store! But I feel confident I will eventually track it down. Lastly,
thinking of "Zardoz", didn't Connery play a cop at a space station once?
Slava Zuckerman's low budget "Liquid Sky" is about aliens extracting a drug from humans produced during sexual activity. It really wasn't all that good or impressive. Used to show on a double bill with Rinse Dream's (Steve Sayadian) porno sci-fi film "Cafe Flesh" at the art house theaters in L.A., and did not embarass the quality of the latter. A better match might be "Lifeforce" (a great looking DVD, and the spectacular Mathilda May) or "The Hunger".
I'd like to see "Liquid Sky" out of sheer curiousity, especially the quality of the
dual-role performance of Carlisle. Have you seen "The Atomic Cafe" -
(1982)? That's another one I want to see, has a good rating at the
IMDb site. - AH
Atomic Cafe is made almost entirely of clips of old army training films, historical footage, propaganda and pop newsreel clips... most is B&W but some parts are color. It's put together really well and is both amusing and biting commentary on the idea of nuclear survivability. Having grown up at ground zero (well close to SAC anyway) in the 50's I found the bits with the "duck and cover" techniques followed by clips of the destruction from military test cameras in their mock cities particularly amusing (remember I thought crawling under my desk was pretty pointless even when I was in second grade). While the thing is totally different than most movies in that there are no main characters or plot, the juxtaposition of contrasting images and campy nostalgia was so well done that I'd rate it higher than any hollywood flick I've seen in the last decade, though it is a bit like comparing apples and watermelons (all of my friends loved it too). Both it and the 1984 release of Metropolis belong on any sci-fi lover's shelf. See also the reviews at Amazon.com
I too, a child of the 50s, grew up adjacent to a large logistics base with
a B-52 SAC bomb wing. Many nights turned into nightmares as I was abruptly
awakened by piercing airraid sirens on practice drills at the base. My
sleep-clouded mind in near panic, shivers raced up and down my spine as I
envisioned incoming missiles with nukes, a big fireball over the base and
everything incinerated, including me as I lie in the bed! Yes, I need to
see "The Atomic Cafe". - AH
Yes... Connery played sherif in Outland. Didn't see Liquid Sky either (nor do I ever remember hearing of it). Bain and Landau did that series Space 1999. Then there were all those Godzilla movies (actually like the very first B&W Gojira while most of the later ones got childlessly silly... a few of the middle ones were nice mindless popcorn filks though).I like your analysis of The Thing, though the story does also lend sort of an open-ended doubt with them wondering whether the alien had come in contact with a bird, seal or some other animal that could have made it to S. America or something so they are apprehensive of what they might find when they eventually make it home. Two other great Campbell stories are "The last/final evolution" and "Night" (especially "Night"... don't know how they could ever reproduce the sense of isolation of such a cerebrial story in a film though). The old 1920's stories, The Mightiest Machine and the Planetary Agent X (don't remember if that was the title of them... think they were done in the late 30's) would make great flicks though some of the technology is a bit outdated (gotta admire the guy for being investigated by the FBI for writing stories about atomic bombs, and even getting the elements used correct, before they even started The Manhattan Project!)
See my trivial quizzes in the archives dated 11/18/99 and 12/27/99 on
"The Thing" -1951 if you're interested. Also, see British Film Panelist
Margaret Tarrats interesting psychoanalytic interpretation of that film's
structure, derived mainly from the romantic relationship of Capt Hendry
and Nikki; can be found in "Film Genre Reader", Edited by Barry Keith
Grant, University of Texas, Austin, Chapter 19: "Monster from the Id",
Margaret Tarrat. - AH
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