Stealth Science Fiction Movies Two: Electric Boogaloo (Will That Joke Ever Get Old? Never!): SF Movies That People Don’t Think of Immediately as SF Movies Because There Aren’t Any Kilbots or Xenomorphs or Wormholes or… [PART TWO of THREE]

Ivan in the Infinity Room:
science fiction has taken over real life. 

This concept of mine was covered more in-depth last time, but in a nutshell, there is a notion in film appreciation that hasn’t been identified, or at least labeled and codified yet, what I call the
Stealth Science Fiction Film.

Some flicks, the minute you eyeball ’em, you know they’re sci-fi. Alien planets, or monsters, or intergalactic space federations. It’s obvious, whether the flick is high-brow (Arrival) or low-brow (Galaxy of Terror).

Others, not so much… It has to be pointed out that they are science fiction…. Last time, I noted how certain movies strongly avoided the SF label, as that was considered by the “cognoscenti” to be juvenile or indicative of base frivolity, and if you were making a serious dramatic film and wanted to be taken sincerely, letting your movie get called sci-fi might not actually help.

Last time we looked at these Stealth Sci-Fi Flicks:

—Earthquake (1974)
—Dr. No (1962)
—The President’s Analyst (1967)
—The China Syndrome (1979)
—Seconds (1966)

Today, it will be a much more eclectic group, dealing less with the technocratic status quo and its disruptions—and how those disruptions are dealt with by agents of/within those systems (as all of the last entry’s film dealt with to some extent),

This is what Consensus Reality
is all about...

and more with lonely outsiders and how they must deal with the pressures from The Normals and their damnable, vicious Consensus Reality….

Each of this entry’s films is a stand-out, and all are quite political in their own ways. They are all worth seeing if you still haven’t yet.

The movies on today’s list haven’t avoided the SF label so much, as, if anything, they have been mislabeled, or simply overlooked as to belonging to the genre.

In alphabetical order:

—Carrie (1976)
—The Man in the White Suit (1951)
—Punishment Park (1971)
—Repo Man (1984)

*[Yeah, yeah, yeah… SPOILERS, dude.]*

Stealth Science Fiction Movies: SF Movies That People Don’t Think of Immediately as SF Movies Because There Aren’t Aliens or Flying Saucers or Robots or…[PART ONE of THREE]

 

Covering:

—Earthquake (1974)

—Dr. No (1962)

—The President’s Analyst (1967)

—The China Syndrome (1979)

—Seconds (1966)

A concept in film critiquing that I have not noticed as being identified, or at least labeled and codified yet, is what I call the Stealth Science Fiction Film.

If it brings to mind the Stealth fighter and bomber planes of the USAF, good: Those aircraft can sneak up on you without you ever knowing it, and seem to derive more from science fiction than plain old aerodynamics.

These are the films that when they are, say, mentioned in a conversation, don’t immediately leap to mind as science fiction (or “sci-fi” or “SF”).

Comedy, As Black & Cold As Space (a look back at the novelization of “Dark Star” (1974))

 

Dark Star by Alan Dean Foster, adapted from a script by Dan O’Bannon & John Carpenter

First printing/Ballantine Books: October 1974 ($1.25)
Third printing/Del Rey-Ballantine: October 1978 ($1.75)

The intelligentsia have always sneered at mass-market paperback novelizations of popular Hollywood movies (and even more when those read-‘n’-toss books routinely ended up on the NY Times bestseller lists), and perhaps understandably so.

But the novelizations (or box-office tie-in/reprints)—

Star Wars, Logan’s Run, Alien, First Blood, The Black Hole, I Am Legend (The Omega Man), 2001: A Space Odyssey, Make Room! Make Room! (Soylent Green), Jaws (and its sequels), The Island, not to mention Planet of the Apes, the 1970s Battlestar: Galactica, or Star Trek tie-ins—

These (along with comic books) were what really got me interested in reading when I was a kid, so I don’t look down my nose at them. What? You think I found out about Heart of Darkness through one of my teachers? Ha! Apocalypse Now pointed me in the direction of Joseph Conrad (and back in the day, the book fair paperback Heart of Darkness had a sticker affixed to it proclaiming paternity of the film).

These movie/TV tie-ins helped me, and I recognize that—and I am absolutely certain, this sort of media cross-pollination can assist students—I have seen it happen in my own classrooms!

And, So…
(about five or six years before I ever got around to seeing the film itself—
and then it was a 16mm projection in a side-room at a Star Trek convention) probably the first movie novelization I read was Alan Dean Foster’s adaptation of Carpenter & O’Bannon’s cult classic, the black comedy Dark Star.

LEGALIZE COSPLAY NOW!!! (a spoof)

On the Legalization of Cosplay in the United States and How That Would Positively Impact Crime Rates in North America

INTRODUCTION

The legalization of cosplay would reduce crime by smashing an existing status quo where billions of taxpayer dollars are spent and thousands of lives ruined in the pursuit of an unobtainable objective.

Government resources that could be better utilized elsewhere—including our nation’s local police departments—are misspent trying to control and/or eradicate an activity the majority of Americans want legalized: In October 2013, for the first time since Gallup began asking the question in 1969, more Americans (58% of those polled) favored legalization of cosplay.

My New Favorite Movie: 2006’s “Aachi & Ssipak”

If you are in any way, shape or form a fan of weirdness, then you owe it to yourself to see 2006’s Aachi & Ssipak—

Hilarious, action-packed animation from Korea as punk hoodlums battle government killer-cyborgs, the mutant Diaper Gang and porn-obsessed gangsters to make it in a future where poop is money!

Coming soon to a theater near you! (If you live anywhere near Brooklyn, that is…)

LIE #17: Space Oddity (a look at DVD MIA “Saturn 3”)

[Sci-Fi June continues with a retroactive Cinema of Weirdness entry]

Saturn 3 (1980; Stanley Donen; screenplay by Martin Amis, from a story by John Barry) is the “Farrah Fawcett vs. horny robot in space” flick that most people do not have fond memories of—and perhaps rightly so.

But time has been very kind to Saturn 3, thankfully, and it deserves another look with fresh eyes, because the film is really more like a tawdry, hothouse remake of Forbidden Planet, if reimagined for Heavy Metal magazine.

And in a genre now over-stuffed with bullshit Joseph Campbell-esque “hero’s quests,” that is a breath of fresh air.

LIE #16: At the "Killer Mountain" of Madness

Killer Mountain (2011; Sheldon Wilson) is a sci-fi/horror/thriller that keeps upping the ante as it rolls along at a steady pace, and is much, much better than its generic/unspecific title and Syfy Original Movie cable-TV pedigree (and accompanying mediocre CGI) would indicate.

To put things into a broader sci-fi/horror B-movie context, Killer Mountain is a monster movie that would fit in fine in a fantasy film fest that also included

Attack of the Crab Monsters, The Crawling Eye, Journey to the Center of the Earth (1958), and the Martian sand-shark episode of The Outer Limits.

It may not be High Art, or shockingly original, but the best kind of cheap thrill: an engrossing entertainment.

LIE #15: Cops Versus Ants (1954’s “Them!”)

Them! (1954;Gordon Douglas) takes a potentially harebrained starting-off point, and by playing it as sane and sober as possible, ends up creating a classic film, and one of the best giant monster movies to come out of the 1950s, as well as an exceptional “cop flick.”

LIE #14: Hero Zero (an appreciation of Godzilla movie, “Monster Zero”)

Monster Zero (a.k.a. Godzilla vs. Monster Zero; Invasion of the Astro-Monster; 1965; Ishiro Honda; special visual effects by Eiji Tsurubaya) is a dopey movie that’s awesome.

A kid’s favorite—

If you like giant monsters, flying saucers and the swingin’ 60s, check out Monster Zero (my preferred title of the many this movie seems to have).

All the best Godzilla movies are mash-ups (more on that theory in a moment), and Monster Zero is a combo of Toho’s popular space battle/alien invasion movies (like The Mysterions), kaiju (men in monster suits), and Japanese New Wave detective flicks, like Go to Hell, Bastards.

Really!

LIE #13: Why Use Animation to Be Mundane? (a negative review of “A Scanner Darkly”)

A Scanner Darkly (2006; Richard Linklater) is an interesting failure.

It deserves praise for being the most faithful cinematic adaptation of a Philip K. Dick novel, but for me, the problem is its animation: Man, I can’t stand to look at this thing.

LIE #11: Nuke Me Slowly (a review of “The China Syndrome”)

The China Syndrome (1979; James Bridges) is the type of film I include on science fiction lists to remind people that it’s not always about spaceships, the future or robots—

That there’s no reason a fictional film about a real piece of scientific technology like nuclear reactors couldn’t also be in this all-embracing genre—especially when the film in question is about that science going awry.

LIE #9: Back in the day, MAD magazine called it “Rollerbrawl”

[Sci-Fi Month at LERNER INTERNATIONAL continues, rolling into the future!]

Rollerball (1975; Norman Jewison) is perhaps the reason the fast-forward button was invented.

The sequences on the Rollerball track are perfect, and beautiful to watch as sport and cinematography work together making kinetic art—an action movie lover’s dream.

LIE #8: Kronos, My Favorite Robot! (& the start of “Sci-Fi June”)

[This is the first installment of LERNER INTERNATIONAL’s “Sc-Fi June” month-long celebration of science fiction—with much more on its way! Thanks!]

Kronos (1957; Kurt Neumann)

When I was a kid—oh, who am I kidding? I still do it: I doodle the giant robot from the 1957 film Kronos obsessively. (example above)

Not that I don’t think the flick’s a snoozer on the whole, but

Kronos is my favorite robot from the movies. Sure, sure, sure, other robots are better, cooler, more agile, smarter, have a fascinating personality, can get drunk, look like a hot chick, speak 8,000 languages, be more awesome, fire .50-calibre rounds out of their butt—whatever. I’m sticking with the Big K.