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    Vintage sci-fi

    I'm a real sucker for vintage sci-fi films. I love old films generally, but I particularly like old sci-fi partly because of the marvellous irony you sometimes get with hindsight of the combination of the attempt to makes things futuristic with the giveaway dated period details arising from the inability of any age to really imagine its way out of contemporary technology, or indeed contemporary moral and social assumptions.

    Sometimes I like to catch up with old films that I vaguely recall seeing on telly when I was young. One such is the 1969 film "Doppelganger", aka "Journey to the Far Side of the Sun", which I watched on DVD last night:

    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064519/plotsummary?ref_=tt_ov_pl

    It's a strangely half-baked and unsatisfactory film in some ways. The unique and bizarre premise of the film (that a twin planet of Earth exists in the same orbit but always invisible behind the sun, where everything is the same as here, right down to individual people and their life trajectories, but mirror-image right to left) emerges only about two thirds of the way through, with almost no time to develop a plot around that, never mind to explore the bizarre philosophical conundrums around free will etc. which such a hypothesis inevitably generates. Always good to see Herbert Lom though (in a minor role this time).

    Edit: also, of course, an astro-physically absurdly incoherent premise. At one point a character refers to "a complete duplication of matter", at which point you think, well, yes, sort of, but "complete" only in relation to planet earth, not any other part of the solar system, eh, else we'd have noticed it before?

    #2
    Vintage sci-fi

    I love that film.

    I think there are two distinct "vintage" eras for sci-fi, the 1950s B-movie era where everything had an undercurrent of Cold War tension and the Earth (aka American) military sent out into space were unquestionably the good guys, and then the 1970s stuff where a much more world-weary view of space travel/exploration and the good intentions of governments had taken over (Silent Running, Logan's Run, the subplot to Alien).

    Comment


      #3
      Vintage sci-fi

      I recently had a great time watching the color restoration of Le Voyage Dans La Lune. It's from 1902, when people were still struggling with fundamental physical concepts. For instance, the return trip from the moon to the earth starts by pushing the rocket off a cliff on the moon. Apparently, back in those days, rockets then simply fell back to the earth.

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        #4
        Vintage sci-fi

        Not exactly sci-fi but I bought the remastered box set of The Prisoner and it's remarkable how little it's dated. Number Six mostly lives in a world of omnipresent video screens and mobile phones.

        It only really shows its age when a computer becomes a plot device and it's spinning reels of magnetic tape and punched cards.

        Comment


          #5
          Vintage sci-fi

          Wow, that's quite high on a scale of science-fuckwittedness, isn't it, versalete? But to be fair to the film-makers and their public of the day, people hadn't had much more than 200 years at the time to get to grips with Newton's system.

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            #6
            Vintage sci-fi

            No, I guess it's perfectly reasonable that people generally weren't aware about these laws of nature around that time. I also won't hold it against them that astronauts didn't need helmets on the moon.

            Instead, it's fascinating to see how people imagined what might be going on in space and on the moon, back in those days.

            Couple of stills.

            Planning the trip:


            Firing off the rocket with a huge cannon:


            The rocket has landed:


            On the moon:


            Just before departure back to earth:


            Celebrating the safe return:

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              #7
              Vintage sci-fi

              Evariste Euler Gauss wrote: Wow, that's quite high on a scale of science-fuckwittedness, isn't it, versalete? But to be fair to the film-makers and their public of the day, people hadn't had much more than 200 years at the time to get to grips with Newton's system.
              Modern film-makers are still regularly ignoring the laws of physics. Even in sci-fi, where the sound of noisy exploding spaceships can propagate in a vacuum.

              Comment


                #8
                Vintage sci-fi

                That cannon patently wouldn't work. They've not allowed for the arc in trajectory caused by the Earth's gravity.
                Schoolboy error.

                Comment


                  #9
                  Vintage sci-fi

                  I like how the French moon is covered in delicious mushrooms, to complement the cheese we all know it's made of.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Vintage sci-fi

                    hobbes wrote: That cannon patently wouldn't work. They've not allowed for the arc in trajectory caused by the Earth's gravity.
                    Schoolboy error.
                    Wouldn't it depend on the rocket's acceleration?

                    Alright, it's not a very sensible trajectory for firing a rocket, but it's not impossible.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Vintage sci-fi

                      Evariste Euler Gauss wrote: I'm a real sucker for vintage sci-fi films. I love old films generally, but I particularly like old sci-fi partly because of the marvellous irony you sometimes get with hindsight of the combination of the attempt to makes things futuristic with the giveaway dated period details arising from the inability of any age to really imagine its way out of contemporary technology, or indeed contemporary moral and social assumptions.

                      Sometimes I like to catch up with old films that I vaguely recall seeing on telly when I was young. One such is the 1969 film "Doppelganger", aka "Journey to the Far Side of the Sun", which I watched on DVD last night:

                      http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064519/plotsummary?ref_=tt_ov_pl

                      It's a strangely half-baked and unsatisfactory film in some ways. The unique and bizarre premise of the film (that a twin planet of Earth exists in the same orbit but always invisible behind the sun, where everything is the same as here, right down to individual people and their life trajectories, but mirror-image right to left) emerges only about two thirds of the way through, with almost no time to develop a plot around that, never mind to explore the bizarre philosophical conundrums around free will etc. which such a hypothesis inevitably generates. Always good to see Herbert Lom though (in a minor role this time).

                      Edit: also, of course, an astro-physically absurdly incoherent premise. At one point a character refers to "a complete duplication of matter", at which point you think, well, yes, sort of, but "complete" only in relation to planet earth, not any other part of the solar system, eh, else we'd have noticed it before?
                      And from the same stable - the episode of Thunderbirds set in the old tunnels of the London Underground - rendered obsolete when the monorail was devloped, yet the Met still summoned help by blowing into police whistles. (Surely walkie-talkies had already made an appearance by 1965?)

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Vintage sci-fi

                        Alien is mostly very successful at portraying how humdrum (well, up until you find an alien, that is) flying a big mining ship around would be - all industrial bits and essentially being the equivalent of an oil tanker in space - but it always seems jarring when Ripley sits down to the computer and the BBC-computer-style interface boots up.

                        Oh and they used the wrong spelling/word 'insure'. Always annoying. Ensure!

                        The Twilight Zone has a few space-based episodes which reflect the fact that no-one had any idea what was up in space, and what would happen to people when they went there. And they confidently predicted, it seemed, that by the mid-90's we'd be up and about the galaxy in flying saucers ourselves.

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Vintage sci-fi

                          Oh and they used the wrong spelling/word 'insure'. Always annoying. Ensure
                          But maybe they were accurately conveying the sort of grammatical errors likely to be made by technical staff aboard a tanker..?

                          Every year I try to enthuse (or inthuse?) my 1st year film students with clips of Méliès. It never works.

                          I hoped Hugo might help change that, but hardly any saw it.

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Vintage sci-fi

                            Neat thread. Oddly, I started having a jonesing for Twilight Zone episodes just yesterday and picked up two DVDs at my library last night. Such a thoroughly good show, even the dud episodes.

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Vintage sci-fi

                              I now have a very strong urge to go home and watch Westworld.

                              Comment


                                #16
                                Vintage sci-fi

                                Felicity, I guess so wrote:
                                Oh and they used the wrong spelling/word 'insure'. Always annoying. Ensure
                                But maybe they were accurately conveying the sort of grammatical errors likely to be made by technical staff aboard a tanker..?
                                It was a company directive, though. From the suits! But I'll take your reasoning as it'll help me get through that scene from here on in. The awful badly-edited cut involving Ash's head is unforgiveable though.

                                WOM - you can find a lot of TZ episodes on youtube if you need a quick fix. I'd agree with you on most fronts re: how good it is, although the odd 'wacky' episode they'd do was a bit genuinely crap (that Cavendar one, for example)

                                Comment


                                  #17
                                  Vintage sci-fi

                                  Toby Gymshorts wrote: I now have a very strong urge to go home and watch Westworld.
                                  Whereas for me it's Forbidden Planet.

                                  Comment


                                    #18
                                    Vintage sci-fi

                                    The Quatermass flix for me, especially Quatermass and the Pit. The TV show scared the bejeebers out of me as a kid, and the frisson carried over, somewhat, to the movie version. I think it was the combination of the mundane — tube stations, pubs, etc. — archaeology, and large rustling locust-like aliens that got to me.

                                    Comment


                                      #19
                                      Vintage sci-fi

                                      via vicaria wrote: WOM - you can find a lot of TZ episodes on youtube if you need a quick fix. I'd agree with you on most fronts re: how good it is, although the odd 'wacky' episode they'd do was a bit genuinely crap (that Cavendar one, for example)
                                      Oh, thanks. I never thought to look there. I'm always pleasantly surprised at who pops up acting in them. Shatner, obviously, but Sterling Holloway and William Demerest in the TZ What's In The Box? episode from last night.

                                      Comment


                                        #20
                                        Vintage sci-fi

                                        Quatermass and the Pit

                                        Funny, just rewatched that myself a night or two ago -- seeing it in colo[u]r as an adult is unfortunately much less scary than as a child in B/W though. Also noticed an example of the "never-aging immortal periodically taking on a new identity" trope related to it: i'm convinced that the actor portraying Dr. Roney ("James Donald") is the same person -- age, haircut, accent, everything -- as Basil Exposition in the Austin Powers series ("Michael York").

                                        Comment


                                          #21
                                          Vintage sci-fi

                                          I think that if I were ever ridiculously wealthy, I'd own a bar/club that just played surf-guitar music and rockabilly and had projectors putting old sci-fi, horror, and surf films on the walls.

                                          Of course, our grand opening would have to feature Man or Astro-Man? In case anyone is unfamiliar, they play kinda surf-guitar rock and their whole schtick is about old cheezy sci-fi. They always have clips of it playing behind them and on their records.

                                          I love The Twilight Zone. I think it and The Simpsons are the greatest TV programs ever by some distance. It's not hard to see old TZ episodes. They're on Netflix, the SyFy network and online.

                                          Often when I see old media - with married people in separate beds or athletes advertising smoking for good health, etc. - I temporarily forget that people in the 50s and 60s were not, in fact, all incredibly naive and stupid. The Twilight Zone helps to correct that view. I guess by framing the stories in sci-fi and fantasy contexts, Sterling was able to portray real anxieties and angst without the censors noticing that it was really dark. Gene Roddenberry had a similar idea.

                                          For old-timey sci-fi goodness, you can't beat Mystery Science Theater 3000. That never should have gone off the air. It should have it's own 24/7 channel.

                                          Other than the FTL drive (which I think may be possible somehow, but we have no idea yet) the updated Battlestar Galactica series was fairly realistic about how real space battles would go. Lasers are not really practical as weapons compared to nukes or high velocity ballistic weapons. Also, they have to operate without any kind of internet or networked computers to prevent the Cylons from infiltrating.

                                          Comment


                                            #22
                                            Vintage sci-fi

                                            In the 70s the BBC had a season of sci-fi movies on Wednesday nights, which was a schoolboy's feast (dessert was Soccer Special on Radio 2, so I still automatically link the two - UEFA Cup and scary aliens, supply your own gags).

                                            Anyway, the menu included:

                                            Them
                                            Incredible Shrinking Man
                                            Time Machine
                                            Day the Earth Stood Still
                                            First men on the moon
                                            - this was my all-time favourite, back when I hadn't lived much time.

                                            And the above mentioned Forbidden Planet, maybe.

                                            Some I haven't seen since, and I probably shouldn't. I'm happier mocking the remakes.

                                            Comment


                                              #23
                                              Vintage sci-fi

                                              Reed John wrote: I think that if I were ever ridiculously wealthy, I'd own a bar/club that just played surf-guitar music and rockabilly and had projectors putting old sci-fi, horror, and surf films on the walls.
                                              Sounds like the Fab Cafe in Leeds. Also notable for being the only club in the city during my university years that sold these behind the bar:

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                                                #24
                                                Vintage sci-fi

                                                YES!!

                                                http://www.fabcafe.co.uk/

                                                But I'm going to go for a bit more emphasis on the rock n' roll. I don't know where I'm going to find surf guitar and rockabilly bands to play every night - especially not around here - so I might have to do this in LA or somewhere like that.

                                                Comment


                                                  #25
                                                  Vintage sci-fi

                                                  Space Raiders represented everything good about crisps--cheap, flavoursome and completely artificial.

                                                  None of this sea-salt with balsamic vinegar, three-quid for a bag rubbish.

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