Sci-Fi Cult Classics II
Last week, I wrote about my reaction to a YouTube video on the top15 Sci-Fi films that bombed but later developed a cult following. I thoroughly enjoyed revisiting movies that I loved, and discovering a couple that I missed to put on my viewing list. Taking last week’s blog further, I delved back into decades past to reconnect with movies that fascinated me and have in some way stayed with me through the years, but which modern audiences only have a little or no awareness.
1) At the top of the list, Zardov-1974: It’s rare that I come across someone who has seen this movie, which has serious themes but has a campy look. Sean Connery runs around in a red thigh-high one-piece and boots. In a post-civilization collapse, the rich have sealed themselves off in domes where potentially they can live forever while everyone else struggles to survive in the wild. To prevent the wild peoples from becoming too numerous and therefore too dangerous, those in the domes created the exterminators to cull the wild people populations. The movie is very much an allegory on the futility of immortality, class divisions and how both are ultimately dehumanized (though in different ways). Zardov’s look is often cheesy, and yet, provocative because of the serious philosophical exploration of human frailty, the lengths that people go to maintain power and control, and the cost born, by those who are controlled but also by the controllers themselves. This is a movie to make one think, and to have fun with— you will have never seen Sean Connery like this!
2) Logan’s Run 1976: This movie had modest commercial success, but it was overwhelmed by Star Wars in pop culture and quickly forgotten by most. Farrah Fawcett had a small role just before her big breakout with Charlie’s Angels. The movie is high concept with a utopian domed city of pleasure, colorful and decent spectacle for the time, but with a dark secret. At 30, everyone must go through a process of renewal called carousel where they might be renewed with additional life but in reality everyone dies. It wasn’t a financial disaster like Zardov, but it underperformed. Somewhat campy at times, it has a level of innocence missing in more modern films. The film left a lasting impression— a dystopian vision disguised as a utopia, with an unusual ritual and a desperate flight into the unknown. It’s also a commentary on how willingly we humans conform to control and how we often accept the truth of what we are told even when there is no evidence to support it.
3) Quartermass and the Pit-1967: One of my favorites— workers digging in the London underground unearth a strange metallic artifact which turns out to be a crashed Martian spacecraft. The movie veers into a kind of escalating paranoia where we discover that the violent instincts of humans were implanted by aliens— that we are a product of genetic engineering— and the unearthing of the craft exposes the city to these violent impulses, awakening normally dormant genes, causing the city to descend into chaos with only a few resistant to the rampaging mob mentality sweeping through London. Some of the imaginary made the hairs on my neck give a salute. This film is compelling because of the acting— it’s about the characters, the exploration of human evolution, though there are some pretty cool effects for the 1960s.
4) The Day the Earth Burned-1961: This sci-fi has no spaceships or aliens— instead, nuclear testing has knocked the Earth out of its orbit, and our planet begins to drift closer to the sun. Temperatures rise (an early vision of global warming), people grow desperate as cities bake, and the politicians don’t have the control they pretend. The characters drive the tension with gritty newsroom scenes as journalists race to uncover the truth (back then, it wasn’t always about the spin!). The ending is ambiguous— the viewer can take from it what they want, which I appreciate. This is a movie worth revisiting.
5) THX1138-1971: George Lucas’ debut feature film. His genius is evident though this is a bleak, sterile movie in its visuals and themes and won’t be for everyone. Individuals have names instead of numbers and sex (no fun zones in THX1138!) is banned— an Orwellian 1984 vision but with white corridors and faceless guards instead of the desolate grime of 1984 and its dark monochromatic visuals. As with Logan’s Run, at its core it explores resistance to conformity, to control but unlike Logan’s Run there is no disguised utopia. If you feel trapped within the confines of the culture, with no way out, this might be a movie that speaks to you. I do need to be in the right mood to watch this one— less to enjoy than to be challenged, to reflect and to meditate on the exercise of power that leaves nothing left for human expression. If you seek this one out, look for the director’s cut released in 2004.
6) Andromeda Strain 1971: This movie spawned an entire genre of science fiction films where an organism from deep space wipes out an entire town. There is a race against time to prevent the extinction of the human race. This film lacks the spectacle of Star Wars or even Logan’s Run, but it does have unrelenting tension. Much of it takes place in labs, and the characters are either scientists or in the military (that I’m remembering), which makes sense, but that gives it a clinical, emotionless feel that might be a turnoff for some but which I find refreshing given the modern tendency to overemote. Expect to be engaged while watching— not a movie to have running in the background.
7) Rollerball 1975: So there is theme running in these films— as a means to crush individualism, the corporate elites created a spectacle, a game, designed to be a bloodbath (think an earlier and deadlier version of reality tv). The violence is impactful and can be difficult to watch. It is a cautionary tale about corporations controlling entertainment. The cheering crowds during rollerball matches hearken back to gladiator spectacles; it’s not a stretch to imagine a version of this in our future. Because of the violence, and how real it feels, it’s one that I would want to watch during the day to avoid sleep disruption. Movies like Hunger Games can trace their lineage to films like Rollerball.
8) Seconds-1966: I saw this movie once but would like to revisit. The Company contacts an aging man (Arthur) played by Rock Hudson and offers a devil’s bargain of giving him a rebirth as a young man with a new identity and plastic surgery to alter his appearance. Arthur’s new life at first is a dream come true but it’s artificial, and all of his past relationships are left behind. The Company now owns Arthur’s life, and Arthur struggles to live in the emptiness of his manufactured life. The film seems most prophetic in terms of the modern obsession to create curated personas, plastic surgeries, and physical looks designed to look good on camera and how we so often lose our true identity in the process. It’s filmed in black-and-white with the use of shadows at times to create an unsettling, bleak vision— Arthur’s life lacks color as he chases after an illusion of happiness.
During my reflection of past Sci-Fi movies, I came across one I didn’t see, The Man Who Fell to Earth-1976 staring David Bowie, that I’ve added to my list. Rounding out a top 10, Fantastic Voyage-1966, a movie so embedded into my imagination that it didn’t seem right to include in a list of somewhat forgotten movies.
All of these movies predate Star Wars. I love Star Wars and unfortunately the movie studios largely abandoned the experimental Sci-Fi prevalent in the pre-Star Wars era. The studios started to chase after the big money and excessive creativity became a liability. With that trend decades long, we are left with remakes of various kinds and the emptiness of it all is as bleak as THX1138. So go and explore these older films! I’m looking forward to watching them again from a different perspective.
