Alternate Americas: science fiction cinema and American culture

296 Pages·2006·15.744 MB·English

by  Booker, M. Keith

Alternate Americas
Science Fiction Film and
American Culture
M. Keith Booker
mPm RWesAtpoErt, CGonnEecticRut Westport, Connecticut
London
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Booker, M. Keith.
Alternate Americas : science fiction film and American culture / M. Keith Booker.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-275-98395-1 (alk. paper)
1. Science fiction films—United States—History and criticism. I. Title.
PN1995.9.S26B56 2006
791.43'615—dc22 2005032303
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available.
Copyright .(/ 2006 by M. Keith Booker
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be
reproduced, by any process or technique, without the
express written consent of the publisher.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2005032303
ISBN: 0-275-98395-1
First published in 2006
Praeger Publishers, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881
An imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc.
www.praeger.com
Printed in the United States of America
The paper used in this book complies with the
Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National
Information Standards Organization (Z39.48-1984).
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For Benjamin Booker
This page intentionally left blank
Contents
Introduction 1
1 The Day the Uarth Stood Still 27
2 I'orbidden Planet 43
3 Invasion of the Body Snatchers 59
4 2001: A Space Odyssey 75
5 Planet of the Apes 91
6 Star Wars 109
7 Close Encounters of the Third Kind 125
8 Alien 141
9 E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial 157
10 Blade Runner 171
11 The Terminator 187
12 Robocop 203
13 The Abyss 219
viii Contents
14 Independence Day 233
15 The Matrix 247
Conclusion: Science Fiction Film and American Culture 265
Index 269
Photo essay folloii's chapter /.
Introduction
Science fiction film is essentially as old as film itself. It was, for example,
central to the work of the pioneering French filmmaker Georges Melies,
who found in the genre a perfect opportunity for the exploration of his
belief that the true potential of film lay not in the simple photographic
representation of reality but in illusion and visual trickery. A magician by
trade, Melies made dozens of films that relied centrally on what would now
be referred to as special effects to create worlds of visual fantasy for his
audiences. By 1902, he had made what is still his best-known film, the
fourteen-minute Voyage dans la Lime (A Trip to the Moon). This work of
whimsical imagination, based on a novel by Jules Verne, was a major
milestone in cinema history and still has the ability to entertain and fas
cinate audiences even today.
Following the work of Melies, films that might be described as science
fiction quickly became a staple of the new industry, though many of these
early works might equally well be described as horror films, establishing a
generic uncertainty that continues to the present day. Thus, the Edison
studio had, by 1910, produced the first film adaptation of Frankenstein, and,
in 1920, German expressionism came to the screen with the production of
Das Kabinett des Doktor Caligari (The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari), w7hich deals
with a sort of mad scientist but which, more importantly, features extreme
lighting and distorted sets that effectively combine to create a mood of
strangeness and horror.
2 • Alternate Americas
Similar techniques were put to good use in Fritz Lang's Metropolis
(1927), in many ways the culmination of German expressionist cinema and
a film that is widely regarded as the first truly great work of science fiction
cinema. Metropolis involves a towering futuristic city in which the rich live
m Utopian luxury while legions of poor workers slave away like automa
tons beneath the surface, tending the gigantic machines that power the
golden world above. The film includes numerous visions of advanced
technology, the most important of which is the humanoid robot developed
by the inventor Rotwang (Rudolf Klein-Rogge), which is used to im
personate the woman Maria (Brigitte Helm), spiritual leader of the workers.
The ersatz Maria leads the workers in a doomed rebellion, presumably
to preclude the possibility of a more genuine (and successful) revolution,
though she is ultimately destroyed by the rioting workers. The real Maria is
saved from the clutches of the deranged Rotwang by Freder Fredersen
(Gustav Frohlich), son of the city's ruler, who then serves as a mediator
between his father and the workers, heralding a new era of cooperation
between the classes.
Many critics have complained about the facile ending of Metropolis,
which certainly makes it weak as a film about a class-based revolution, but
this is a film in which image and atmosphere are far more important than
plot or characterization. The special effects (especially those involved in
the scene in which the metallic robot is transformed into a Maria look-
alike) are quite impressive and have been widely imitated. However, the
real secret to the success of Metropolis is the ability of the expressionist
lighting and sets to convey effectively the feeling of a machine-dominated
urban future, even if the actual details are not particularly convincing or
realistic.
Envisioning the future is very much the project of the British-produced
Things to Come (1936), which is probably the first truly important science
fiction film of the sound era. Scripted by science fiction pioneer H. G. Wells
and based on his book The Shape of Things to Come (1933), this film well
illustrates Wells's belief late in his life that a Utopian future was attainable,
but only after the current order of civilization had been destroyed. The film
is a speculative "history" of the future that projects the development of
human civilization over the next hundred years, beginning with a thirty-
year-long world war that begins in 1940 and eventually leaves civilization in
rums, largely as the result of bioweapons that trigger a deadly plague that
sweeps the globe. It focuses on the city of Everytown, which begins as a
Introduction • 3
London-like metropolis, but which, by the end of the war, is in decay,
ruled by a warlord engaged in primitive warfare with the surrounding "Hill
People." The city, like the rest of civilization, is then rebuilt under the
leadership of a visionary group of aviators and engineers who use tech
nology (and superior air power) to enforce their vision of an enlightened
world government.
By the year 2036, Everytown is a high-tech paradise, a futuristic city of
light and open spaces, almost entirely lacking in the ominous undertones
that inform the city of Metropolis. The city's leaders, however, are not
content to rest on their accomplishments but now set their sights on outer
space in the belief that humanity as a species must face continual challenges
in order to flourish and prosper. Some in the population bitterly oppose this
new project, believing that the insatiable drive for progress only threatens
to undermine what is already an idyllic life for the citizens of Everytown.
However, these protestors are unable to stop the initial launch in the new
space program. As the film ends, they angrily look on as a rocket is fired
toward the moon from a giant "space gun," ushering in a new era of ex
ploration. "All the universe or nothing!" cries the leader of the city's ruling
council. "Which shall it be?"
Directed by William Cameron Menzies and produced by Alexander
Korda, Things to Come was a big-budget film whose impressive scenes of a
futuristic city made it in many ways the direct forerunner of later science
fiction blockbusters from Star Wars to The Matrix. Its images of the urban
future (and the costumes of its future citizenry) would set the style for any
number of future films, just as its basic faith in technology and its vision of a
humanity that could never rest until it had explored the stars would remain
crucial components of science fiction in both the cinema and television for
the rest of the century.
Other than monster movies such as James Whale's Frankenstein (1931),
American science fiction film of the 1930s was largely confined to low-
budget serials, such as those featuring Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers as
the protagonists, all of which starred Buster Crabbe in the central roles.
These serials were based on popular syndicated comic strips, and they
definitely had a comic-strip quality to them. Produced in episodes of 15—20
minutes in length, each serial ran for 12—15 episodes that were shown
weekly in theaters in an attempt to attract young audiences. By today's
standards (or even in comparison to a contemporary film such as Things to
Come), the special effects of these serials were extremely crude. However,