Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by Scott on February 14, 2000 at 07:47:17:

In Reply to: A Statistical Comparsion: Scott & AH's Top 50's Sci-Fi Lists posted by AudioHead on February 12, 2000 at 08:33:55:

I don't know from statistics, I just know what I like......

Interesting to consider what it is exactly that makes for a great science fiction movie. What elements do these movies have in common that allows them to stand the test of time? How does a SF film like Forbidden Planet become a "classic", just as Casablanca and Gone with the Wind are considered classics?

Here's something to think about.... early on in the War of the Worlds, the preacher approaches the Martian War Machines with bible in hand and is promply burned down..... indicating that man's belief in god was limited to our own little planet... a shocking concept for mid-50's audiences. Or consider the scene in The Time Machine, in which the Time Traveler is entombed in rock after an atomic blast. The Time Travel narrates his feelings: "....darkness.... darkness lasting for centuries. I wondered if there was still a world above in which man could live..... there, alone in the dark, I prayed.... and still the centuries rolled on..... (until at last) I put my trust in time and waited". Pretty shocking dialogue, which would be fairly unpalatable if presented in any other form than SF.

Food for thought.

>>>"The Day The Earth Stood Still" -- (I wonder how many voters realize the film and the original story are starkly different<<<

...Or that the artwork used to illustrate Harry Harrison's story when it appeared in Amazing Stories was later recycled as a cover for a Queen album?