BLOGGER ARCHIVE - MONTHLY FILM SERIES
NOVEMBER 2024 - 70s Science Fiction
Monthly Film Series: 1970’s Science Fiction
Originally when I think of Science Fiction from the 1970s I think of early(ish) films of the genre; building blocks of where we are today. I think of contemporaries citing many of these films as influential and foundational and that’s why I decided to tackle this one this month. I also think of bad special effects and abstractly hilarious and creative plot concepts which overall is entertaining enough to keep me motivated through the month. I only watched 6 films this month; but I still think I might have learned a bit about the genre in the process. I liked most of them; I didn’t like one of them. All the ones I liked, I felt were pushing the envelope and going for something that no one had ever seen before which I think could be at the heart of what makes science fiction that. I define science fiction as (generally) futuristic imaginings of far away times and worlds largely different from our own. I think of A New Hope from 1977; I could have watched this and I thought about it, but I decided to use this time for movies I hadn’t seen at least 3 times. My favorite film this cycle was probably Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) directed by Phillip Kaufman. I’m a bit biased becuase the film is local to where I grew up and I stay thinking that San Francisco is the greatest movie backdrop off all time (Vertigio, Bullit, The Byrds, The Rock with Cage and Connery…Shall I go on?) This just adds to the many 10/10s. Sutherland charisma drips like the ooze from the body pods; but this doesn’t quite save him in the end from the Aliens trying to trick humanity into submission by stealing the bodies of friends and families and impersonating them. The ending is kinda terrifying and got me bad. This might be worth a rewatch and is a reminder of how fucking cool the 70s was. The film I was most suprised of from the go-around might have been Fantastic Planet (1973). Its a french film and was very abstract; someone put a lot of effort into creating a whole other world; not only through the story but also visually due to its animation style. This raises the question to me whether I think human stories must always be about humans in some way; even the most strangest and weirdest stories always relate to the human experience/the hero’s journey. I think this might be becuase we really can’t detach ourselves from it being human writers ourselves. What I like about Sci-Fi in general is it seems that this genre of story might be the one that tries the hardest from detaching from that idea and thus going for something that we haven’t ever seen before which, at its core, is one of the foundational concepts in creating anything. What I take away from the 1970s version of science fiction is that science fiction was still in its early days. Pre-computer effects. Its a genre frozen in time that pays homage to the creative roots of this genre and movies as a whole. It makes me want to go back and watch the earliest of the early.
Shoutout Rollerball (1975).
