1 / 24

Atomic Cinema

1950s science fiction film

mbudd
Download Presentation

Atomic Cinema

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. History of Science Fiction Film Cold War Post-Atomic Cinema

  2. The Golden Age • The Golden Age of science fiction (1930s-1940s) • Celebrates the world of patriarchal technological modernity • Focus on the mechanical, and how machines would change the world • Technology is the essence and basis for characterization, plot is subsidiary • Alien contact (1950s) • Concern with what is out there • Gives rise to BEM (bug-eyed-monsters)

  3. Things to Come (1936) • Things to Come (1936) from the screenplay by H.G. Wells and based on his novel The Shape of Thingsto Come. This is the first great sound picture in the field and the first film to show a utopian future that includes the promise of space flight.

  4. Atomic Cinema • An estimated 500 feature films and shorts that can be classified science fiction were made between 1948 and 1962. • Science fiction really became a popular cinematic genre after the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. This event prompted a rash of after-the-bomb and alien invasion films. 

  5. Science Fiction short stories turned into films • 1950sDestination Moon(1950), is a pseudo-documentary based on Robert A. Heinlein's juvenile novel Rocketship Galileo. • The Thing (1951), based on John W. Campbell's short story "Who Goes There?," features James Arness as a fearsome, defrosted alien entity; the film was remade in 1982.

  6. The Atomic Age ofScience Fiction Film In response to a growing interest in rocketry and space exploration, feature-length space travel films gained popularity in the early 1950s, pioneered by two 1950 films: • Rocketship X-M (1950) • Destination Moon (1950). The technicolor science fiction film was historically important - it 'invented' the realistic look of spacesuits, rocketships (skillfully-produced models), and the lunar surface. It was an Academy Award winner

  7. 1950- Invasion Science Fiction • Reflects America’s Cold War Concerns: • Invasion by aliens a mirror of the Cold War anxieties - communist spies & nuclear annihilation.

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

  9. 1950s SCIENCE FICTION Science fiction also frequently expressed the potential of technology to destroy humankind through Armaggedon-like events, wars between worlds, Earth-imperiling encounters or disasters • The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951) • When Worlds Collide (1951) • The War of the Worlds (1953)

  10. US films about space invaders in the 50s • The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951), was a counter-revolutionary film about the madness of Cold War politics; it had an anti-nuclear war message and ultimatum ("Klaatubaradanikto") brought to Washington D.C. by a gentle, benevolent, and philanthropic Christ-like alien/emissary named Klaatu • The entire film was a precursor to Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) and E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)

  11. US films about space invaders in the 50s • The definitive Martian alien-invasion film, copied repeatedly afterwards, was producer George Pal's and director Byron Haskin's film version of H. G. Wells' 1898 story The War of the Worlds (1953) • Aliens invaded in manta ray-like spaceships with cobra-like probes and zapped objects with green disintegration rays to destroy 1950s Los Angeles • Remade as a spectacular Steven Spielberg-directed War of the Worlds (2005), an updated version with disaster film elements, about sinister attacking aliens from the perspective of divorced father Ray Ferrier (Tom Cruise) with two children in the New York area -- with haunting recollections of the 9/11 nightmare

  12. US films about space invaders in the 50s • The film noir-ish science fiction classic, Universal's 3-D widescreen It Came From Outer Space (1953) with stereo sound • It was an anti-conformist, anti-McCarthy message in its unique tale of benign aliens that crash-landed on Earth in the Arizona desert near a small town

  13. Other AlienInvader Classics • parasitic alien seed pods threatened to duplicate and transplant themselves as emotionless human clones in a hostile takeover of the small California town of Santa Mira, in Don Siegel's suspenseful and brilliant film Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) • It was a perfect post-McCarthy era film from a story by sci-fi writer Jack Finney about the threat of Communist infiltration and dehumanizing brainwashing

  14. 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 • Monsters were the direct result of man's interference with nature

  15. Low-budget 50s films about horrors of the Atomic Age: • The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms (1953), with spectacular effects and stop-motion animation by FX expert Ray Harryhausen • It was a precursor to the 1954 Gojira or Godzilla monster

  16. Low-budget 50s films about horrors of the Atomic Age: • Tarantula (1955) • The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957) • The Fly (1958) • And director David Cronenberg's great remake The Fly (1986) years later, with Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis

  17. Big budget 50s films: • One intelligent, lavishly-expensive science fiction film was MGM's Forbidden Planet (1956) • It told the story of a journey by astronauts of United Planets Cruiser C57D (led by commanding officer Leslie Nielsen in one of his earliest roles) to a distant planet named Altair-IV • The studio-bound film inspired the look of many future films and works, notably TV's Star Trek – Included Robbie the Robot

  18. Science Fiction film types developed in the 1950s • Apocalyptic • Dystopian • Alien encounters • Monsters and Mutants

  19. Apocalyptic Film • Apocalyptic film is a sub-genre of Science-Fiction film. The plot revolves around an impending disaster. Within this genre, the disaster is usually an alien invasion, a nuclear war, a pandemic, or a natural disaster. The development of technology plays a large role in these films and often serves as the source of conflict.  While many films in this sub-genre center around the disaster, many focus on the post-apocalyptic state of the world. • Example: War of the Worlds

  20. Dystopian Film • Dystopian film is a sub-genre of Science-Fiction film that focuses on the upset state of the world. These films take place in the future and feature a world that is overrun with violence, oppression, and disease. In other words, a Dystopian film explores what it would look like to achieve the opposite of a Utopian society. • This sub-genre often holds the same themes and characteristics of a post-apocalyptic film. Generally, the common themes within Dystopian films include dehumanization, the repression of individuality, and uniformity at the cost of human rights. • Example 1984

  21. Alien encounters • Alien film is perhaps the most prominent themed sub-genre in Science-Fiction film. These films can explore the existence of aliens, alien invasions, and alien abduction. Often, these movies include some sort of government conspiracy or cover-up. A common theme in this sub-genre is the coexistence between human beings and aliens. • Examples: The Day the Earth Stood Still

  22. Monsters and Mutants • Monsters and Mutants is a sub-genre with a long tradition within Science-Fiction film. Unlike horror films, this sub-genre contains a monster or mutant that derives from a scientific explanation or origin. These films can contain a scientific experiment or accident that produces the said monster. In many Science-Fiction films, these mutants can be created from technology and take the form of robots and technologically advanced beings. • Examples: Godzilla, The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms

  23. Questions • Why are the 1950s referred to as the decade of Atomic cinema? • Explain the reasons for the increasing popularity of feature-length space travel films in the early 1950s. Describe some examples. • What kinds of fears and anxieties were reflected in 1950s Alien invader films? • Identify the ways that mutant and monster films were related to the Atomic age. • Were Aliens always bad? Describe & discuss any examples of films where visitors from other worlds are portrayed as benign.

More Related