Science Fiction Interpretations

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Subject: Science Fiction Interpretations

Posted by: brm50diboll
Date: Jan 02 17

I have debated with myself starting a Virtual Blog for months. I have so little free time nowadays that I may not be able to keep it up, but I think I'll at least try. This is intended to be wide-ranging, so it wouldn't fit in the Television, Movies, or Literature boards categories and I don't want to clog up General with just my observations but here I can rant if I choose and people can choose to ignore me or engage my flawed analysis if they wish.

469 replies. On page 17 of 24 pages. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Skyflyerjen

Thank you for sharing that! My sister is a huge King fan and she really likes Joe Hill too, I'll definitely be passing that along.

The second Creepshow didn't live up to the first one, that's true. Old Chief Wood'nhead was a good story, my favorite of the trio. The Hitchhiker was simply too long... a head-scratcher when you think about it. There were no better stories to portray? And why was it so much shorter than the first one?

Seeing Leslie Neilsen as a bad guy was pretty unique. Haha, I enjoyed all of the quotes you shared, because they're so good, classic!
To this day, every Father's Day, my dad asks, "Where's my cake? It's Father's Day, Bedelia! I want my cake..."

Reply #321. Feb 07 19, 3:31 PM

UmberWunFayun

And the punchline......"I GOT my cake!"

Reply #322. Feb 08 19, 2:05 AM

brm50diboll

Father's Day was the first of the five segments in the movie (not counting the prologue and epilogue.) It was also the segment with the highest "body count". It reminded me vaguely of the Twilight Zone episode "Uncle Simon". You'd have had to seen both to see the similarities. And it featured a young Ed Harris, who has had a very long and distinguished career, although his character gets killed off fairly quickly in the segment.

Reply #323. Feb 08 19, 11:15 AM

UmberWunFayun

Several of the actors also did Twilight Zone episodes. And Ed Harris was in another Stephen King adaptation, 'Needful Things'.
I'm with you all the way, Brian, Creepshow was one of those rare perfect mixes of humour and horror, and the soundtrack was another important character, just as much as the actors, as it should be in any good horror movie.
I have the film on VHS, and even though it's now obsolete, I still keep it out of nostalgia.

Reply #324. Feb 08 19, 2:36 PM

brm50diboll

Yeah, I'm also behind the times. I have dozens of old VHSs still. Upgrading everything to DVD is both too expensive and unnecessary with available streaming services. I do have all the original Twilight Zone and Star Trek TOS episodes on DVD, though. I never got a Blu Ray player, though, so I am still way behind the times, technologically. And PlayStation II was the most recent video game console that I got. Yeah, I'm pretty much a fossil. At least I still occasionally watch new TV shows and movies. From what I read here on the Boards, there are members that write like they haven't seen a movie or TV show that came out after 1969.

Reply #325. Feb 08 19, 3:40 PM

UmberWunFayun

We don't have any games consoles, but I do have a Blu-ray player. My husband The Viking does love to buy movies. I estimate we have roughly 650 DVD's and Blu-ray discs. We also stream movies online. Between us we have a small collection of VHS tapes that we can't bear to throw away, despite no longer having a VHS machine. At least three rooms in our house have walls lined with bookshelves to hold all the movies, plus of course, my hundreds of books. One day the whole thing will just sink into the ground under the weight.

Reply #326. Feb 08 19, 4:26 PM

terraorca

I'm currently watching "The Forbidden Planet."

Anyone want to chat about that movie?

Reply #327. Mar 02 19, 12:16 PM

brm50diboll

Watched it many years ago. Can't remember which channel. I'm obviously too young to have seen it at the theater. I remember it had a young Leslie Nielsen in it and Robby the Robot. Something I read about it somewhere compared it to Shakespeare's The Tempest (one of his last plays) and "monsters from the id". But I can't remember the details.

Reply #328. Mar 02 19, 3:27 PM

terraorca

The Forbidden Planet
1956

Walter Pidgeon
Anne Francis
Leslie Nielson
Warren Stevens
Earl Holliman
Jack Kelly
Robby the Robot

A thought provoking film, with interesting special effects for the time. Comparisons to The Tempest as well as man's Id, each can be seen in the movie. Then there's the whole 'life on other planets' scenario.
I think the movie holds up well against the special effect laden films of today.

Reply #329. Mar 03 19, 11:32 PM

brm50diboll

Regarding Robby the Robot, his first appearance was in Forbidden Planet, true, but he has made several appearances in various formats over the years. In fact, in the Twilight Zone "Uncle Simon" episode that I mentioned in post #323, Robby the Robot appears in a slightly modified form. Google Robby the Robot to read more about the era of science fiction that he represents. For a long time (because the 50s and 60s is pretty much before my time), I had Robby the Robot confused with the Robot in Lost in Space, but I've gotten that straightened out, now.

Reply #330. Mar 04 19, 12:10 AM

terraorca

Watched "Them" Friday evening. That was the sci-fi movie with the giant ants. They became giant, because of the nuclear testing that had been done, before the dangers of radioactivity became widely known.

Reply #331. Mar 04 19, 1:05 AM

brm50diboll

Never saw Them. Seems like it would be tailor-made for Mystery Science Theater 3000.

Reply #332. Mar 04 19, 12:36 PM

brm50diboll

Once again (seems it happens about every 20 years or so), another reboot of The Twilight Zone is coming. In addition to the original 1959-1964 series and the 1983 movie, we had the 80s version and the 00s version. Now, beginning on April 1st, the latest revival of The Twilight Zone is due to appear, the Jordan Peele version, which will be on the CBS All-Access platform. I will have to sample it. These reboots always remake classic episodes from the Original series, (when the original version was better, in my opinion), but they would do better (in my opinion) if they resisted that temptation to remake old episodes and just came up with new stories in the same vein. We shall see.

Reply #333. Mar 13 19, 10:21 PM

UmberWunFayun

I've just heard that they're making, or have already made, a reboot of the original Creepshow. I'll try to reserve judgement until I've seen it, but most people in my life know how I feel about 'reboots' and remakes. When I told my husband, he groaned, "Oh, god......" and immediately began trying to placate me with cute puppies on Instagram.

Reply #334. Mar 14 19, 3:51 AM

brm50diboll

Creepshow was based on 50s horror EC comics. In that respect, it already has been "remade" (and I'm not talking about the sequel). No, I'm talking about the HBO show Tales From The Crypt. While Tales From The Crypt does not claim a relationship to Creepshow, it did claim a relationship to EC comics, and if you compare the two, including their featured "mascots", you will see they are, in fact, related. Both are adaptations of EC comics, both are anthologies, and have similar themes.

I'm not a big fan of remakes. The original almost always is superior to the remake. But a reboot is different, especially for an anthology show. There are a potentially infinite number of new stories that can follow the theme set by anthology shows, whether it be Sci/First like The Twilight Zone, or horror like Tales From The Crypt, or Tales From The Darkside. Well written *new* stories which follow the theme are always welcome, in my opinion. Just don't keep retelling stories already told right the first time.

Reply #335. Mar 14 19, 5:18 AM

brm50diboll

Sci/Fi, not Sci/First. I thought I had that dang autocorrect disabled. Blast those updates that happen automatically without your consent.

Reply #336. Mar 14 19, 5:21 AM

UmberWunFayun

Looks like it's going to be a TV series rather than a movie anthology. All new stories, including contributions from Stephen King and Joe Hill. The first announcement I saw had a picture of the final 'cake' from Father's Day, so I guess I thought it was going to be a straight remake, but maybe it will be worth a watch after all.

Reply #337. Mar 14 19, 6:01 AM

MiraJane

"Children of the Damned" was on yesterday, the original one. I've always liked that movie and the sequel. I always end up feeling sorry for the children. I also always wish there had been another sequel where we get to see the children grow up and find out why they are here, where they came from, what is their purpose on Earth.

Sci/Fi movies reflect the historical time period in which they are made. Tensions in the world? Fear of a nuclear holocaust? Then aliens are evil, out to destroy mankind. Things are going nicely on the planet for a coupled of years? Then the aliens are nice, here to help us.

"Children of the Damned" was made in 1963. Memories of the Bay of Pigs fiasco and what caused it were fresh. The Berlin wall was still new. The war in Vietnam was getting worse. Weird children arrived with powers we didn't understand. They must be evil and must be destroyed.

Reply #338. Mar 17 19, 1:34 PM

UmberWunFayun

'Children Of The Damned' actually WAS the sequel, the original movie was 'Village Of The Damned' in 1960, which itself was adapted from the John Wyndham novel, 'The Midwich Cuckoos', which was published in 1957.
In literature classes we're taught to look for analogies and hidden or parallel meanings behind novel plots, but I think Stephen King, who was an English Lit teacher, said it best; "Sometimes a story is just a story."
The original versions of both films are brilliant, whether you read stuff into them or not. Deliciously creepy, there was no need for blood and gore. Those kids were scary enough! My favourite scene is where they're taking apart the wall inside George Sanders' head. The whole concept of that wall and what it means is absolute genius.

Reply #339. Mar 17 19, 2:31 PM

brm50diboll

Missed both of those. I was born in 1963, so maybe that's why. George Sanders was an interesting actor. I liked his performance in the 1945 (see, I do *rarely* watch old movies) version of The Picture of Dorian Gray (he did a great Lord Henry Wotton.) Late in his career, he did an episode of the original Mission: Impossible TV series and also was one of the actors that took a turn as Mr. Freeze in the 60s campy Batman show. Not to be morbid, but I believe he ended up committing suicide and left a note saying he was bored with life. (The things you see in FT's Death Becomes Them.)

Reply #340. Mar 17 19, 2:42 PM

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