|
As we approach the end of this Best Ever series the original
intentions behind the choices of what defines a best ever
science fiction movie come more sharply into focus.
With the BSFA’s fiftieth birthday year now upon us this
list was mainly intended as an affectionate look back through
the reels of science fiction cinema rather than a fully researched
and comprehensive compendium of all science fictional releases.
Choosing the best films of each decade is a fun way to spend
some time. Sometimes the choices have been obvious and the
classics still shine, whereas other choices have been more
personal, or selections have been made based not just on the
film itself but its continuing appeal, relevance or influence
on other filmmakers and the science fiction genre, both for
better and for worse. It’s always a mistake to ignore
your heritage, and while perhaps the genre as a whole may
well have been better off with slightly less B-Movie blunders,
surely these are as iconic an image of science fictional history
as any; and it is history that concerns us here.
The guiding thought behind our choice of movies has been to
create the ultimate idealised DVD collection that when brought
together will prove beyond doubt that science fiction is a
major creative and commercial force in cinema as well as a
genre where the quality of ideas can linger on long after
the special effects have grown stale and the technology of
the future has been surpassed or never managed to materialise.
In selecting the best movies of the 1960s we have chosen to
review our criteria slightly, adjusting for the fact that
while gems still shine over the years it is sometimes harder
to be objective over those films that were perhaps much more
of their time.
So for this, the penultimate list, our choices have been based
not only on the original impact and quality of the films but
also their enduring resonance over time.
|
1969,
and a young
David Cronenberg was laying the groundwork for his controversial
cinematic career. While nowadays both Crimes of
the Future and Stereo show all the signs
of an overly earnest student director, they still offer
a tantalising glimpse of things to come and form an
essential part in charting the development of Cronenberg’s
singular vision.
|
1968 is a triumphant
year for cinematic science fiction, and while we’ve
already tentatively suggested 1982 as perhaps the
single best year for movies, this is definitely
the other main contender. Not only was this the
year of 2001: A Space Odyssey, which alone
should mark this is a singular cinematic year, but
it is also the year of Barbarella, which
proved that sf cinema could still be fun and, hey,
sometimes even sexy, as well as the year of perhaps
the BEST EVER! ending in science fiction. We are,
of course, referring to Planet of the Apes,
a movie so continuingly influential that it can
still be enjoyed decades and generations later when
its desolate twist ending has been well and truly
revealed across the breadth of popular culture and
even Martian slime spores are probably quoting Chuck
Heston’s immortal end line. Repeat
after us: “Damn you! God damn you all to hell!” |
|
|
1967
and You Only Live Twice rocketed James Bond back
on to the screen. While always really a techno-thriller
rather than out and out sf, this particular Bond adventure
is notable for a space-based plot that sensibly kept Bond
himself on Earth (pay attention Moonraker), its
elaborate volcano lair and finally Little Nellie, the
helicopter in a suitcase. |
 1966
managed the tricky double-header of a highly successful
adaptation of a genre classic, Fahrenheit 451,
and the rather more pulpy and implausible Fantastic
Voyage. However both are movies that play up the
strengths of science fiction, whether for social commentary
or the sheer sense of wonder of piloting a miniature submarine
around inside a human body. Proof that genre can both
have its cake and eat it, and all before quantum mechanics
made that kind of trick all too easy. |
|
1965 is mainly
notable for Alphaville. A self-consciously
artistic interpretation of key science fiction tropes
that relied on the imagination of the viewer to create
its apparently interstellar backdrop and thus ensuring
the human brain received due recognition as the most
effective special effects engine then in existence –
a canny parallel given the plot’s featuring of
an emotionless rogue computer intelligence.
|
1964 was a year
of both firsts and lasts in which we managed to leave
our planet behind and become The First Men in the
Moon only to then witness the end of the human
race through the eyes of The Last Man on Earth.
Science fiction has always been a genre of extremes,
pushing the boundaries of human experience and expectation
as the highlights of this year clearly show. |
1963 saw iconic auteur
Alfred Hitchcock venture into the world of environmental
horror, ignoring the usual atomic theme for having nature
take its revenge and replacing it with a more surreal
and ultimately unexplained cause. The Birds
sits most comfortably in the realm of horror thrillers
but is still of interest to science fiction cinema for
its themes of nature toppling the fragile human position
at the top of the food chain.
|
|
1962
is the year of the iconic short film La Jetée,
the strangely haunting and poetic time travel film composed
almost entirely of still frames. Not only was this film
the direct influence for the later modern classic Twelve
Monkeys, it was also a resonant illustration of the
ideas being put forward by writers like J.G. Ballard and
the science fictional New Wave. In some ways this film
plays like a lost fragment from some parallel universe
where the realm of inner space eclipsed space opera as
the key image of science fiction in popular culture, and
it is perhaps all the more valuable for that. |
 1961
should be remembered most for The Day the Earth Caught
Fire, a surprisingly intelligent imagining of the
Earth loosing its natural orbit and plunging us all straight
towards the Sun. Most memorable for its iconic end scene
of newspaper men producing two headlines – ‘The
Earth is Saved’ and ‘The Earth is Doomed’
– while awaiting the news of a last ditch nuclear
gambit to reposition the Earth in a stable orbit once
again. This film is a classic example of science fiction’s
ability to articulate mankind’s fragile position
within the universe, and also his enduring ingenuity and
will to survive. |
1960 also showcased
mankind’s technical ingenuity but also showed that
where his will to survive is strong, he is still ultimately
a creature under the sway of evolutionary pressures and
consequences. The Time Machine projected our
inventor Victorian hero forward into a far future world
where the Earth was relatively unchanged but mankind itself
had failed to withstand the test of time. This remains
a classic version of H.G. Wells’ original classic
story. |
|
