There are a few different cuts out there, so beware: skip the special edition from 1980 and go for either the original 1977 cut or Spielberg's 1998 director's cut. The very post-Watergate vibe that authorities are always hiding something from you, the parallels to the Old Testament when the aliens eventually pitch up at Devils Tower, the hands-across-the-water attitude to outsiders when the Iron Curtain seemed like it'd never fall: it's all there if you want it. That's not something it's been into very much lately – Arrival aside – as we've been quite busy destroying our own planet in new and innovative ways.īut you can read everyman Roy Neary's descent into UFO-chasing mania in small-town Indiana after a brush with what he thinks are aliens however you like. One of the recurrent motifs of sci-fi is that, one day, humanity will progress far enough along its evolutionary track to take its place among the stars. The sense of wonder and optimism which floods through Steven Spielberg's second gigantic blockbuster is the source of its enduring power and its bittersweet aftertaste. Yes, there are some notable omissions too, but who said the future was going to be fair? We’ll admit to some recency bias in the following list and we’ve tried to spread the net wide across sci-fi’s different strands. In the technology-obsessed age we live in now, and with machine learning, robotics and environmental disaster becoming reality before our eyes, it’s amazing how many classic sci-fi movies not only stand up, but feel more relevant than ever. And there are few more compelling stories than those which tell a version of our future.
What the best sci-fi films do, though, is take a brilliant premise and create a completely realised alternate world. How many utopian sci-fi films can you think of? We’ll have to come back to you on that one.
The success of science-fiction has seen it take in countless sub-genres: the B movie horror time travel action blockbusters arthouse westerns conspiracy thrillers even the odd comedy.įor the most part, though, these films are inherently dark in tone.
0 kommentar(er)
