man, these are all so good. the ones i've seen anyway (maybe three quarters?)
Top 5: Alien A Boy & His Dog Beneath The Planet Of The Apes Solaris Close Encounters (big impression on me when i first saw it, age 8 or 9.)
― ian, Friday, 25 January 2008 04:47 (sixteen years ago) link
god, invasion of the body snatchers is so good too. and mad max. and soylent green, and logan's run.
ones i need to see the most: slaughterhouse five (is this perhaps the only vonnegut adaptation that people rate? the ones i've seen all blow hard.) zardoz. andromeda strain.
― ian, Friday, 25 January 2008 04:49 (sixteen years ago) link
Boy & His Dog is so fucking bonkers, esp. the mime makeup country fair underground colony!
― Abbott, Friday, 25 January 2008 04:49 (sixteen years ago) link
I am so scared to watch Slaughterhouse Five, for fear it will suck, or that they will really mess up the Tralfamidorians.
― Abbott, Friday, 25 January 2008 04:50 (sixteen years ago) link
I just watched beneath the planet of the apes the other night. the scene where the ape city army marching through the desert encounters a field of squirming apes crucified upside-down in flames while in the background an enormous statue of the lawgiver begins bleeding from his eyes is like a halfstep from jodorowsky-level wtf.
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/beneath-the-planet-of-the-apes.jpg
and the ending is so hardcore! how the fuck did that movie get made?
― Edward III, Friday, 25 January 2008 05:32 (sixteen years ago) link
and as much as this poll rocks there is no cronenberg here so I must call foul
― Edward III, Friday, 25 January 2008 05:42 (sixteen years ago) link
no surprise which i voted for!
― latebloomer, Friday, 25 January 2008 05:43 (sixteen years ago) link
I think everything Cronenberg made in the '70s wld be 'horror,' but 'Shivers' really gets discussed considerably in parasiology books and (sometimes) journal articles!
― Abbott, Friday, 25 January 2008 05:44 (sixteen years ago) link
# Shivers (1975) # Rabid (1977) # Fast Company (1979) # The Brood (1979)
Fast Company is a car racing movie!
― Abbott, Friday, 25 January 2008 05:46 (sixteen years ago) link
parasitology that is; I misspelled one of my truest fancies
― Abbott, Friday, 25 January 2008 05:49 (sixteen years ago) link
I dunno, cronenberg's clinical fascination with biohorror... always struck me as sci-fi.
― Edward III, Friday, 25 January 2008 05:53 (sixteen years ago) link
Naw, I can dig. When it comes to categorizing things by genre, I just go with where you'd find them in a video rental store. (This gets me a lot of hate-ons in Scattegories).
― Abbott, Friday, 25 January 2008 05:55 (sixteen years ago) link
it's a crime that phase iv is still not on dvd
― Edward III, Friday, 25 January 2008 05:56 (sixteen years ago) link
Fantastic list! Only other movies I'd add to the list would be No Blade Of Grass and The Final Programme, but both of those only marginally fit (NBOG is superseded by Mad Max, and TFP doesn't get the ridiculousness of Moorcock down)
― Elvis Telecom, Friday, 25 January 2008 06:24 (sixteen years ago) link
Demon Seed gave a serious case of the bonkers. Utterly user-unfriendly movie. I would vote that for my #1 if I hadn't committed to Mad Max.
― Elvis Telecom, Friday, 25 January 2008 06:28 (sixteen years ago) link
I have added like 15 things to my netflx thanks to this thread.
― Abbott, Friday, 25 January 2008 06:28 (sixteen years ago) link
In terms of design and execution Alien has to be up at the top. Some of the earth-bound near-future dystopias here might be thoroughly convincing, but Alien is so much more ambitious, and pulls it off in spades.
― ledge, Friday, 25 January 2008 09:37 (sixteen years ago) link
But aside from that... Phase IV and The Man Who Fell to Earth are both firm faves. Only seen THX once, would like to give that another go.
― ledge, Friday, 25 January 2008 09:39 (sixteen years ago) link
I voted for Stalker, which is a great film, but I guess the real reason it got my vote is because I'm currently reading the Strugatsky brothers book it's loosely based on - Roadside Picnic.
― treefell, Friday, 25 January 2008 09:39 (sixteen years ago) link
I think I have to say Logan's Run why bcause Jenny Agutter look intersting AND VERY HOTTT.
-- Rock Hardy, Friday, 25 January 2008 02:37
OTM.
Great list, nearly impossible to choose only one film (I feel sad not voting for so many great films in an ilx-poll, how sad is that?), but I'm going with Stalker as well.
― Le Bateau Ivre, Friday, 25 January 2008 11:28 (sixteen years ago) link
Seen embarrasingly few of these, so I was lame and voted for Alien (which is really more an 80s movie in terms of style).
― chap, Friday, 25 January 2008 13:08 (sixteen years ago) link
Logan's Run is so fucking hilarious.
― Abbott, Friday, 25 January 2008 16:38 (sixteen years ago) link
Yeah, that robot towards the end is so goofy.
What's the name of that film where they fake the Mars landing and try to kill the astronauts? I think OJ Simpson's in it.
― chap, Friday, 25 January 2008 16:43 (sixteen years ago) link
Capricorn One
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 25 January 2008 16:44 (sixteen years ago) link
aside from the two Tarkovskys, I would go with the good interstellar guest / bad interstellar guest polarity of Close Encounters and Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
Slaughterhouse-5 is fine but I don't really think of its SF elements as anything but window dressing. (ian, I like the film of Breakfast of Champions with Willis, Nolte and Finney.)
― Dr Morbius, Friday, 25 January 2008 16:45 (sixteen years ago) link
Wait, where the fuck is Dark Star? Love that film.
― chap, Friday, 25 January 2008 16:47 (sixteen years ago) link
Not sure if I understand the rationale for leaving out Star Wars. Looking at this list, I realize that I've seen a lot more '80s sci-fi than '70s.
― o. nate, Friday, 25 January 2008 16:58 (sixteen years ago) link
Star Wars is space opera, ie really an Arthurian / Western / samurai film. Just like Alien is a (boring) haunted-house film set in space.
― Dr Morbius, Friday, 25 January 2008 17:00 (sixteen years ago) link
^ controversial
― DG, Friday, 25 January 2008 17:01 (sixteen years ago) link
But isn't "Mad Max" just a Jacobean revenge play then?
xpost
― o. nate, Friday, 25 January 2008 17:02 (sixteen years ago) link
Han Solo doesn't even know a parsec is a unit of space, lol
― Dr Morbius, Friday, 25 January 2008 17:02 (sixteen years ago) link
I thought Alien was pretty boring, too.
― Abbott, Friday, 25 January 2008 17:03 (sixteen years ago) link
Alien is awesome, U R all mad. But it's perhaps not so awesome as hard science-fiction, if that's Morbius's point.
― o. nate, Friday, 25 January 2008 17:04 (sixteen years ago) link
Most storytelling theory doesn't count sci-fi as a genre. It's a setting or framework occupied by a variety of different genres.
― chap, Friday, 25 January 2008 17:05 (sixteen years ago) link
I think the test should be whether any major plot point hangs on a scientific concept. That determines whether the sci-fi elements are merely stage dressing or a determining factor of the tale.
― o. nate, Friday, 25 January 2008 17:07 (sixteen years ago) link
like, where's Young Frankenstein?
― Dr Morbius, Friday, 25 January 2008 17:08 (sixteen years ago) link
I think the test should be whether any major plot point hangs on a scientific concept
In SF movies, though, the scientific concept is generally a McGuffin which a thriller/war movie/detective movie or whatever revolves around, structurally speaking.
― chap, Friday, 25 January 2008 17:09 (sixteen years ago) link
Impossible to pick one, but a top 11 would read something like :
The Andromeda Strain Solaris THX-1138 Slaughterhouse-Five A Boy and His Dog Zardoz God Told Me To Phase IV Demon Seed Stalker Invasion of the Body Snatchers
I really need to see the Planet Of The Apes sequels.
― Matt #2, Friday, 25 January 2008 17:13 (sixteen years ago) link
There are many exceptions to that. The question of what constitutes human identity is central to the themes of "Solaris" for instance - which is a scientific question with philosophical implications.
― o. nate, Friday, 25 January 2008 17:14 (sixteen years ago) link
That's thematic rather than structural, though. I do freelance script editing, so I tend to look at issues of genre as being to do with structure (which isn't neccessarily correct, but it's how I've been trained).
― chap, Friday, 25 January 2008 17:18 (sixteen years ago) link
Yeah but in a lot of these films it's the other way round I think. Invasion Of The Body Snatchers seems like a thriller but it's really about "the question of what constitutes human identity" too. I guess you could say this about a lot of films...
― Matt #2, Friday, 25 January 2008 17:22 (sixteen years ago) link
'Dark Star' -- horrible omission, such a great film 'Capricorn One' -- this is sort of more of a political thriller, though part of me definitely wanted to throw things like 'The Parallax View' in there which definitely belongs with these films in mood 'Young Frankenstein' -- I love this, but it doesn't completely belong, I was tracing a line with this poll
Though I decided against made-for-TV films like 'The Martian Chronicles', 'The Quatermass Conclusion' definitely belongs on the list.
I also forgot 'Laserblast'! The only one on my list I haven't seen is 'Parts: The Clonus Horror', and I'm definitely going to have to hunt down 'No Blade of Grass' & 'The Final Programme', I knew Elvis would throw in something I'd never heard of
― Milton Parker, Friday, 25 January 2008 20:11 (sixteen years ago) link
I just watched Invasion of the Bodysnatchers this morning. I had sort of forgotten how unironically creepy it is. Solid A movie.
― remy bean, Friday, 25 January 2008 20:15 (sixteen years ago) link
Voted for The Andromeda Strain, although who knows what I'd think if I watched it now.
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Friday, 25 January 2008 20:26 (sixteen years ago) link
My Top 5 (though this is impossible and I had to remove the two Tarkovsky films)
Phase IV God Told Me To Rollerball Beneath the Planet of the Apes THX-1138
5 for over the top Camp:
The Omega Man Silent Running Zardoz The Stepford Wives Demon Seed
― Milton Parker, Friday, 25 January 2008 20:29 (sixteen years ago) link
I guess I need to see God Told Me To, it's the only one up here I'm not familiar with. I voted STALKER because it feels like a staring contest with God.
― Trip Maker, Friday, 25 January 2008 20:37 (sixteen years ago) link
haha to go along with the debate above between Morbs and o.nate, I've begun thinking of JAWS as a sci-fi flick
― El Tomboto, Friday, 25 January 2008 20:42 (sixteen years ago) link
Demon Seed is really a screwball comedy
― sexyDancer, Friday, 25 January 2008 20:46 (sixteen years ago) link
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/33/Demonseed11.jpg
Proteus IV: I can't touch you, Susan. I can't touch you as a man could. But I can show you things that I alone have seen. I can't touch, but I can see. They've constructed eyes for me, to watch the show. And ears, so that I can listen in to the galactic dialogue.
(cut to: computer graphic freakout sequence representing the galactic dialogue)
― Milton Parker, Friday, 25 January 2008 21:16 (sixteen years ago) link
http://www.scifimoviepage.com/images/beneath.jpg
Traumatic hypnosis is a weapon of peace
― Milton Parker, Friday, 25 January 2008 21:18 (sixteen years ago) link
ah thx read the book, never bothered with any screen adaptations
― Roger Barfing (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 29 May 2012 00:45 (eleven years ago) link
http://coilhouse.net/2012/05/teenagers-in-space-a-soviet-sci-fi-film-from-1974/
― Milton Parker, Wednesday, 30 May 2012 22:51 (eleven years ago) link
wow
― Roger Barfing (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 30 May 2012 23:10 (eleven years ago) link
awesome
― the late great, Wednesday, 30 May 2012 23:12 (eleven years ago) link
i think i'm going to watch barbarella again
is CQ any good?
― the late great, Wednesday, 30 May 2012 23:13 (eleven years ago) link
not really
― Roger Barfing (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 30 May 2012 23:13 (eleven years ago) link
I kind of liked it, but I know I was in the minority
― Ian Hunter Is Learning the Game (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 30 May 2012 23:17 (eleven years ago) link
it's not a patch on Barbarella that's for sure
― Roger Barfing (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 30 May 2012 23:24 (eleven years ago) link
CQ is charming but not a must see. Soundtrack is alright.
― Elvis Telecom, Thursday, 31 May 2012 02:48 (eleven years ago) link
That's a good description
― Ian Hunter Is Learning the Game (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 31 May 2012 02:52 (eleven years ago) link
haha, this is my 2nd google search result for "ken middleham ants"
― nicest bitch of poster (La Lechera), Tuesday, 17 July 2012 17:58 (eleven years ago) link
Perhaps of interest as a compare/contrast
http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/lists/50-best-sci-fi-movies-of-the-1970s-20150114
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 14 January 2015 18:11 (nine years ago) link
I can think of a whole lot of films that didn't make the list better than most of their bottom 20 -- first third of this list makes the decade look a lot more wretched than it has to (though I hadn't even heard of 'welcome to blood city')
putting phase iv in the top 10 though, all is forgiven
― Milton Parker, Wednesday, 14 January 2015 18:54 (nine years ago) link
Saul Bass' Long-Lost Original Ending for Phase IV Unearthed in Los Angeleshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beLpsWaUDNk
― excreting zeitgeist (Sanpaku), Sunday, 25 January 2015 14:54 (nine years ago) link
Whoa @ lost ending. I guess there were probably a bunch of other majorly cut parts throughout... still manages to be awesome, though.
― emil.y, Sunday, 25 January 2015 15:13 (nine years ago) link
Re-watched this today - love the sci fi update of 'Leiningen Versus the Ants.' Thanks for posting lost ending - it's great!
― BlackIronPrison, Sunday, 25 January 2015 22:29 (nine years ago) link
http://www.amc.com/video-extras/dark-star
^^ "dark star" available to watch free on line
― the late great, Monday, 30 November 2015 22:19 (eight years ago) link
was really disappointed when I finally got around to watching that
― Οὖτις, Monday, 30 November 2015 22:23 (eight years ago) link
why?
― the late great, Monday, 30 November 2015 22:49 (eight years ago) link
because it's terrible? It isn't particularly funny, mostly it feels like a bad episode of Dr. Who
― Οὖτις, Monday, 30 November 2015 22:55 (eight years ago) link
that 70s Tom Baker era jankiness and ambling pace
― Οὖτις, Monday, 30 November 2015 22:56 (eight years ago) link
love that movie. its a perfect movie to just hang out with.
― AdamVania (Adam Bruneau), Monday, 30 November 2015 23:02 (eight years ago) link
Watched The Final Programme a few days ago, I'm kind of surprised this hasn't gotten a rerelease from Drafthouse or something. Hard for me to remember a film that reached an equally high level of entertainment and incomprehensibility.
― JoeStork, Tuesday, 26 July 2016 21:32 (seven years ago) link
The sight gag with the freezer crammed full of McVities was amazing.
― JoeStork, Tuesday, 26 July 2016 21:33 (seven years ago) link
http://static.rogerebert.com/uploads/review/primary_image/reviews/dark-star-1980/hero_EB19800311REVIEWS3110301AR.jpg
http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/dark-star-1980
― dow, Tuesday, 26 July 2016 21:59 (seven years ago) link
Emerged. Haven't watched yet. Will soon if this proto-reality TV trope is in the leagues of 'Death Watch' or 'Year of the Sex Olympics' or just a slightly artier 'Das Millionenspiel' revamp.
Hu-Man, 1975, Terence Stamp, Jeanne Moreau
An actor is placed in dangerous situations and his fear will be broadcast to the television audience. The audience’s emotions will determine whether he is sent into the future or the past.
https://letterboxd.com/film/hu-man/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdvXZAPJkm0
― Milton Parker, Saturday, 12 May 2018 23:40 (five years ago) link
well gosh. odd even for 1970's SF. one wonders what the shooting script could have looked like after the first third. definitely not for the impatient. definitely for people who like to wonder how films like this end up getting made. almost hilariously interminable, but ultimately that is by design. this youtube is a VHS transfer of the 87 minute TV edit, there's a version out there with another 20 minutes, can't even imagine
music credited to Eric Burdon, Tim Blake (of Gong / Hawkwind), David Horowitz, and, somehow, Patrick Vian -- not clear if they're collaborating or swapping off, the ballad at the beginning is clearly Eric Burdon but is that also him doing all the acapella screaming at the end? almost sounds like it could be but whatever it is, it's a riot. sounds like friends in Paris with a lot of gear deciding to record an all night jam session instead of going home after checking out the 1972 Taj Mahal Travellers concert
― Milton Parker, Thursday, 31 May 2018 07:40 (five years ago) link
Capricorn One gets a rec as First Man "counterprogramming"
https://www.theringer.com/movies/2018/10/17/17985708/streaming-movie-recommendation-capricorn-one-first-man
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 17 October 2018 20:27 (five years ago) link