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If I had to choose just one it would probably be the 1927 Metropolis. It has influenced so many sci-fi films (Blade Runner, Brazil, Dark City, Brazil, etc., and then there’s the anime version) and is perhaps the earliest sci-fi feature length masterpiece. Of course it’s also a great example of German expressionist cinema along with the Cabinet of Doctor Caligari, Dr. Mabuse, Nosferatu etc. It’s withstood the test of time remarkably well. I think it’s a great film, well worth seeing (I imagine we’ve all seen bits and pieces of it at the least).
1902’s Trip to The Moon is an important much earlier sci-fi work, but it’s a short. Fun.
It’s a shame that much of the original footage was lost from Metropolis, though much has been restored in later versions (some bad editing decisions throughout the years).. There are many different versions with different running times and different soundtracks avaliable. I’d like to see the 2002 Kino restoration with the original score ( http://www.kino.com/metropolis/ ) and would love to get my hands on the Moroder version of Lang’s film.
So what are some others that you’d like to include as really influential sci-fi film or TV shows?
Without Star Wars I don’t expect we’d ever have had Battlestar Galactica, which would be a real tragedy since then we’d never have had Galactica 1980 *shudders while imaginiing the depraved life I would be leading if I hadn’t had the Super Scouts as super-duper childhood role-models*
Even worse, if possible, we would have never had the masterpiece that is Starcrash
Actually its very hard to follow Metropolis…because in terms of visual imagery its a very hard film to beat….maybe Forbidden Planet should be in here though …those shots of the Krell Machine are fantastic. Thing is, after having seen the film again on TV recently, Forbidden Planet looks amazing given it’s 50’s birthdate. The ‘bits and pieces’ – like the astrogater’s setup on the ship – are well made too and overall the film looks a long way away from other fifties offerings and indeed 60’s offerings. Looks like a lot of care went into it and scifi didn’t look this good again until 2001 came along.
Of course Forbidden Planet boasts a story line based (loosely) on the Tempest- thens there’s the twist that the ‘Alien’ is actually the human subconscience – ‘Monsters from the Id’ – is brilliant given the fifties context and subverts the whole ‘Reds under the bed’ paranoia. How influential the film has been I’m not so sure of…
I’ll leave Sidhecafe to wax lyrical about Blade Runner but in terms of influence it has to be right in there..it’s taken a long while for scifi films to escape the visual look of Blade Runner.
Then again there’s Tarkovsky’s Stalker…..the cup moving across the table… brilliant!
Don’t know how much influence it had- I just saw it 2 years ago, but the original Solaris was an amazing film.
corvina wrote:
I’ll leave Sidhecafe to wax lyrical about Blade Runner but in terms of influence it has to be right in there..it’s taken a long while for scifi films to escape the visual look of Blade Runner.
true true!!! (and yes I can be totally pegged as a “my man Phil” fan- can’t help myself 😉 )
Yes Akira!
Farenheit 451?
Brilliant but not very influential…throuble is a lot of the really good stuff is below the mainstream appeal threshold..
Those are great, great films. I consider them to be essential viewing.
I don’t know how influential, or even inspirational to filmmakers, the Fahrenheit 451 film was (I absolutely adore it), but I think the book was. There has been much talk of a new film version, btw. Not a remake of the movie I wouldn’t think, but based on the novel. I can’t express how much I like that movie. Sorry namedropping, but Julie Christie was my mothers roommate in London when they were both struggling actresses.
Tarkovksy’s Solaris is brilliant (and a very good book) that is indebted to 2001: A Space Odyssey, but I feel that it’s visual, lyrical, mystical qualities often surpass Kubrick’s film.
2001 is a technically and visually influential film. It was financially successful, and was a critical success. It brought prestige to sci-fi film in a big way. I think that the fascist computer in Aphaville may have had some influence on the development of HAL in 2001.
Sidhecafe, Corvina mentioned Stalker already, it’s wonderful. If you enjoyed Tarkovsky’s Solaris and haven’t seen Stalker, then you should enjoy it.
Blade Runner has become something of a template for many films… Visually it’s directly influenced so many films, and it in turn was influenced visually by Metropolis.
I definitely think Forbidden Planet should be there. Thematically, and also because of Robbie the Robot. Excellent points, btw. Totally great post.
It’s interesting with the 50’s Cold War movies, many of them played into the paranoia/ McCarthyism of the time, like for instance, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, but several were very clever in the way they made a statement about the craziness of Cold War politics and being afraid of that which is different, like in The Day the Earth Stood Still.
Akira was very influential for sure, and later on Ghost in the Shell, in anime.
Then there are the influential films that started off the B-movie monster sub-genre cycle, or the ones that really popularised VR in films like The Lawnmower Man.
Of course it’s very common to try to duplicate the success of a really popular sci-fi film with a formulaic work. Whilst many ‘populist’ filmmakers don’t so obviously emulate some of the more, dare I say it, artistic works, I imagine that many still look to those movies for some kind of inspiration. Just less direct… More inspiration than emulation…
you’re right about The Lawnmower Man – predated the Matrix by a long time…aweful follow up though!
Then there was Tron which somehow stands the test of time – sort of slots in alongside films like (dare I say it) Logans Run, which seem to become far better the older they get! Logan you’re right . This kind of film sort of fits into 50’s B movie genre – pulpy yes, but often excellent scifi all the same.
B movies have to include films like Westworld (Yul Bryner’s Cowboy cyborg was brilliant) and Rollerball kind of belong here. Films like this never had the gloss/finance of the big things like 2001 but are influential nevertheless. Rollerball prefigures films like Strange Days and The Running Man — ah yes Arnie Movies – The Terminator – sorry the mind was just running away there…
How about influential TV series/shows?
Absolutely, Corvina.
And as for what I consider to be the most obviously influential sci-fi series: Star Trek! It popularised so many sci-fi concepts that we see again and again in shows (especially in the subsequent Star Trek series ;)) like, for instance, the parallel universe/ alternate realities. The premise and themes have been emulated so much.
Other early influential ones include Lost in Space and Doctor Who…
Much later, the popular X-Files (which seems influenced by the Outer Limits, The Invaders and probably the Twilight Zone, The Prisoner to an extent, and conspiracy shows like Kolchak: The Night Stalker) led to similar shows like (Chris Carter’s) Millenium, and Odyssey 5.
I’d like to include Gerry Anderson’s supermarionation shows like Thunderbirds, Fireball XL5, Stingray, Captain Scarlet etc., but I don’t know if such puppetry was employed, or was popular, in sci-fi shows produced by other people.
Yes! But I thought I’d let you say it! Star Trek – this show when aired in the UK was the pivotal point in a battlefield between myself and my cousins’ girlfriend – She’d want to watch Dr Who on BBC and I wanted to watch the ‘new show’ Star Trek which was on the other channel! Back then Star Trek seemed so esoteric..I’m talking of the original series – some brilliant episodes. Never really graduated to TNG, Patrick Stewart was good but the show somehow didn’t tackle the same philosophical issues – don’t get me wrong it was good but….Now believe it or not I actually think ‘Enterprise’ is very good show, but it seems to be singularly unliked. Ah well…I’ll tackle this in a later post…
Ah Fireball What can I say as a little kid I loved Fireball XL5 – by far my favourite Gerry Anderson series… that Steve Zodiac! mmmmm! I fell in love with a puppet!
In terms of influential shows I think Lexx has been very influential – I think that Russell T Davies has watched the show a lot because much of the new Dr Who seems to have come from there. Farscape too – seems to be based on the Lexx format – same type of dysfunctional crew – even the characters seem to be (albiet less extreme) composite ‘analogues’ of Lexxian character traits.
Must dash the last episode of Dr Who is on in a few minutes…forty years on…not much has changed, although I suppose I am a prodigal daughter. I just don’t have to haggle with family members over the TV channel these days!
But the most iunfluential as far as I can see HAS to be Robert Wise’s The Day the Earth Stood Still. (1951). A major classic, with an eerie music score by filmdom’s great composer, Bernard Herrmann (Psycho, Taxi Driver). It was wonderfully well produced and gave sci fi the same credibility as Star Wars and 2001 years later.
I don’t think that the following are as influential as they are important, both little seen Russian films and a French/Czeck effort; Stalker, Kin Dza Dza and Fantastic Planet (NOTHING like Forbidden Planet).
Stalker is an eerie disturburbing film that at first viewing seems too atmospheric and slow moving, yet of all the films I can remember watching in the last 10 years, Stalker seems the most memorable – weird huh!?
Kin Dza Dza is one of the first examples of retro sci fi I can remember seeing, it was blasted as rubbish by most of the russian critics when it came out in 1986 (all except for a few school children and a well known scientist). Now, just about every Russian will have seen it at least once and all seem to love it to bits. It’s comedic and artistic style are wonderful. Both are considered Cult CLassics (especially Stalker).
KOOO!
Also |Fantastic Planet is worth a watch – it’ll certainly influence the hell outa ya! It’s a French/Czech film that nearly didn’t get made during the cold war because it was considered to politically incorrect. It’s certainly one of the most trippy sci fi films you’ll ever see.
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