Saturday, March 26, 2016

"Look Out Honey, 'Cause I'm Using Technology!" (Part 1 of 2)

Here's a fun book and guide: Douglas Brode's Fantastic Planets, Forbidden Zones, and Lost Continents: The 100 Greatest Science-Fiction Films (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2015). By doubling and tripling up some rankings and providing no fewer than ten appendixes, Brode squeezes in a lot more than a hundred films. I love it!

I have been very glad to read in here about many more than the usual suspects. Brode explores several science fiction movies that have seriously stuck with me from an early age, such as: 

Colossus: The Forbin Project  (1970)
La Planète sauvage / Fantastic Planet (1973)
Invaders from Mars (1953)
Robinson Crusoe on Mars (1964)

Also happy to see Andre Tarkovsky's Solaris
Солярис / Solyaris (1972), a more recent favorite.
Just Imagine (1930)
Was surprised to see some I've overlooked or hadn't known about, all of which look intriguing, such as:

a 1956 version of 1984
The Last Man on Earth (1964)
The Satan Bug (1965)
Just Imagine (1930)
Capricorn One (1977) with O.J. Simpson as an astronaut landing on Mars (or is he?)
Frau Im Mond / Woman in the Moon (1929)

If you've seen any of these, what do you think?

In terms of science fiction turned reality, I could hardly believe my ears when I first heard the new Audi advertisements spotlighting Iggy & The Stooges' way-ahead-of-its time "Search & Destroy"(1973, remixed in 1997).  And here we are now. Can you grok?

Today's Rune: Flow. 

3 comments:

the walking man said...

I wonder if science drives fiction or science fiction drives scientists and engineers to move for the once unimaginable. It seems Alan Turing (Imitation Game)was singularly driven by nothing other than his own will.

Charles Gramlich said...

I've seen most of these. Robinson Crusoe on Mars is a particularly enjoyable one. Collossus, the precursor to Skynet! Good stuff

Barbara Bruederlin said...

I had a tough time getting through Solaris, to be honest, but I love the image you posted from Just Imagine.