#1 of the Top Five Stand Alone Sci Fi Movies

Well, here we are! We've finally reached our #1 choice for our Top Five Stand Alone Sci-Fi Films! Shaun Anderson from The Celluloid Highway and I (The Film Connoisseur) each did our top five lists separetly and we came up with the five choices you've seen all through out the week. While getting these posts ready I realized that we had chosen the same #1 movie, Blade Runner. I think a lot of you will agree Blade Runner more than deserves its #1 spot. So basically, what you'll see below is our respective comments on this science fiction classic. I want to thank Shaun from The Celluloid Highway for collaborating with me on this countdown, its been great, and we will most likely do it again soon. Be on the look out for that! But for now, enjoy our #1 choice for Top Five Stand Alone Sci-Fi Films!

The Celluloid Highway's #1 Pic - BLADE RUNNER (Ridley Scott, USA, 1982)

The resurrection of Blade Runner from misinterpreted box office flop to one of the most important films made (in any genre) of the last thirty years is a testament to the durability of director Ridley Scott’s post-modern approach. The screenplay (which went through multiple drafts) by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples was based on the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Phillip K. Dick. A challenging and bleak vision of a dystopian future in which artificiality and paranoia reign supreme. It wasn’t until British director Ridley Scott (fresh from the success of Alien (1979)) joined the project that the true visual scope of the production began to take shape - a scope that caused the producers nightmares and saw them desperately attempt to raise the large budget required. A budget which eventually came in at $28,000,000. Harrison Ford was cast against type as the morose and depressed Deckard, the Blade Runner (cops specializing in the retirement of replicant androids) of the title. Part of the films commercial failure is surely to do with the ambiguities and complexities of the Deckard character, who is by no means a conventional hero and by the films conclusion comes across as craven and cowardly. The acting plaudits go to the brilliant Dutchman Rutger Hauer who gives a subtle and nuanced performance as the lead replicant Roy Batty and invests in him more humanity and emotion than the human’s who seek his destruction. Batty seeks order in a chaotic universe, refuses to work as a slave on the outer planets, and seeks explanation from his ‘father’ Dr. Eldon Tyrell (Joe Turkel). He is a figure of radicalism whose destruction is required to maintain the status quo. The metaphysical battle between Batty and Deckard is brought to life in a polluted and overcrowded Los Angeles. An ethnic melting pot in which artificial animals are sold on the black market (an aspect of the novel which is almost entirely removed from the film.) A neon lit landscape in which adverts loom large over the populace like dominating sentinels. The film mixes the hard boiled detective element of film noir, with the iconography of science-fiction, and the result is a dark and grungy cyberpunk vision of the future which is married seamlessly to the beautiful music of Vangelis.

The Film Connoisseur's #1 pic - BLADE RUNNER (Ridley Scott, USA, 1982)

What hasn’t been said about this grand dame of a movie? I don’t know. I guess I can go a bit into the interpretations I personally give to the film and why I consider it to be one of the top science fiction films of all time. It was tough having to pick one, but I think Blade Runner more than deserves it. Blade Runner comes to us from legendary director Ridley Scott, one of the most important contemporary directors living today. What I personally love about his films is how no matter how fantastic or outlandish the setting of a film might be, Ridley Scott brings it to cinematic life in the most credible fashion possible. I mean honestly, one look at the landscape in Blade Runner and no matter how many special effects are involved, I am instantly transported to that world. The world of Blade Runner is one I constantly visit for various reasons. The first is of course that it is an excellent science fiction film! The futuristic yet decayed city landscapes. The flying cars, the murderous renegade androids! We have all the necessary elements for a satisfying sci-fi tale. And what a tale it is. I especially enjoy how the rebellious androids are after their creator, asking him to extend their lives! To me, this is the core of the film. Roy Batty, the leader of the murderous androids known as replicants is a being unwilling to accept his mortality. So what does he do? He walks right to the doorsteps of his creator and begs for more life! In this way, the film reveals to us what its really about. Life, death, and how we need to make the most of it now, while we are here. Its a film that speaks of mans frustrations with death. Why must our journey through life end? Why cant our lives continue forever? The movie commments on how life is a priceless thing we should never take for granted. The poetic words that Roy Batty says while he is disappearing (“I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe…”) makes me wonder if I am living my life to the fullest before I fade away as well. Deckard sums it up best for me: “All he’d wanted were the same answers the rest of us want. Where did I come from? Where am I going? How long have I got?” An interesting thing about this movie is that its based on a novel by Philip K. Dick called "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?". I read it, and the interesting part is that the movie couldn’t be any more different from the novel! They are two very different takes on the same premise. Both films have flying cars, murderous androids, but the book goes more into a religion called 'Mercerism' if you can believe it. Highly recommend you read the book, it’s a whole other trip! But kudos to Ridley Scott for creating a masterpiece that’s unique even though its very different than its source material.  This is a remarkable science fiction film, addressing one of the oldest questions that has haunted humanity: why do we die?

#2 of the Top Five Stand Alone Sci-Fi Movies

This blog post is part of a Top Five Stand Alone Sci-Fi Movies countdown that I collaborated on with Shaun Anderson from The Celluloid Highway, if you get a chance, visit his blog and check it out. Dont forget to return tomorrow for our #1 choices in the countdown!

The Celluloid Highways #2 Pick - THEM! (Gordon Douglas, USA, 1954)

In the 1950’s American science-fiction films fell into two distinct camps. The first saw alien creatures (be it blobs, monoliths, or flying saucers) penetrating our airspace and laying siege to the planet (or the country that stood in for the planet - America). The second saw creatures that were residents of the Earth (sometimes primordial throwbacks or dinosaurs) suffering freakish mutations and taking advantage of their new found condition to create chaos. Them! chronicles the attempts of the military and the scientific experts (unusually for a 50’s sci-fi film working in perfect harmony) to destroy an army of giant ants. The film opens in the desert landscape of New Mexico (a desert setting was very common for 50’s sci-fi - see Tarantula (1955), It came from Outer Space (1955) and numerous others) amid the mysterious death of an FBI agent. This just happens to be the inhospitable location the US military has chosen in the past to test Atomic bombs. The hunger of the ants for sugar has led to them being adventurous and pretty soon the experts from Washington (the local community never knows how to deal with the threat in these films) is on hand to reassure the idiot masses. In this film the military defers to the scientific expert Dr. Medford (Edmund Gwenn) as he tries to come up with a way to defeat a rapacious enemy that is soon on the march toward Los Angeles. This is one of the films that is often held up as functioning as a metaphor for the communist threat - the hive instinct of the ants doubling for the conformity of the Soviet Unions brand of socialism. But this is also a superb monster movie with some excellent action set pieces. The finale in the sewers of L.A. is taut and suspenseful, and the black and white cinematography by Sidney Hickox is a delight. The ants of course are unconvincing and daft, but retain a charm that present day CGI lacks. This is a film that both celebrates consensus and community, reinforces the importance of Washington as a reliable institution in the face of an invading force (one that is already present - thus confirming the paranoia around communist infiltrators ) celebrates the knowledge of scientific experts…but also challenges and criticizes atomic testing. Quite simply one of the most important (and fun) sci-fi films of all time.

The Film Connoisseur's #2 pick - CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND (Steven Spielberg, USA, 1977)

This one holds a special place in my heart because it was one of the first films I ever saw in a theater. My parents took me to see it when I was a baby, so I’ve always had this kind of special connection to it. Since then, I’ve watched Close Encounters of the Third Kind on countless occasions and it still remains one of my favorite science fiction films ever. Why? Well, it kind of feels real at times. The way everything unfolds in the story just feels true. The family we meet in the film feels like a real middle class struggling family. Richard Dreyfus plays the goofball dad that we feel pity for, but at the same time, we are rooting for him to discover the awesome truth! And speaking of the truth, this film was actually channeling all those anxieties that people were feeling during the 70's. I like that whole angle in the film where we see how the governments lie to the people about a decease that’s killing the animals, just so they can evacuate a whole area. Spielberg commenting on how the governments manipulate the masses through lies, because believe it or not, there was a whole "swine flu" scare during '79 as well, and people were running like crazy putting on this 'vaccine' that would 'protect' them from this killer virus. Many called bullshit on that one. In the film we  find out that this decease was a lie, the air is fine, and that it was all part of the “story” that they tell the general population just to get them to do what they want them to. The alien encounters are both terrifying and awe inspiring. And Spielberg simply knows how to play with our emotions when directing a film. He knows how to play with peoples fears about aliens, about the unknown. The visual effects still hold up incredibly well, even after all these years. The scenes where we finally see the alien mother ship is one of the most amazing movie moments on any film. After this film came out, UFO sightings were through the roof! Spielberg rooted himself firmly in the minds of his audience, so much so that he got people seeing UFO’s left and right during the 70s! Spielberg captured that feeling of terror of the unknown, but also of amazement and adventure. A true sci-fi classic that will undoubtedly live on through the ages.

#3 of the Top Five Stand Alone Sci-Fi Movies

This blog post is part of a Top Five Stand Alone Sci-Fi Movies countdown that I collaborated on with Shaun Anderson from The Celluloid Highway, if you get a chance, visit his blog and check it out. Dont forget to return tomorrow for our #2 choices in the countdown!

The Celluloid Highways #3 pick - THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN (Jack Arnold, USA, 1957)

In the 1950’s Jack Arnold was the undisputed king of the science-fiction/horror film. His contributions to the genre included It Came from Outer Space (1953), Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954), Revenge of the Creature (1955), Tarantula (1955), The Space Children (1958), Monster on Campus (1958) and four episodes of Science Fiction Theatre (1955). But overshadowing all of these enjoyable and entertaining productions was his helming of Richard Matheson’s adaptation of his own novel The Shrinking Man. It was Arnold’s only science-fiction film to truly explore with some measure of success the philosophical and metaphysical questions of a human beings place in the pecking order of the universe. Arnold’s own principal thematic concern which was learning to tolerate and accept difference - be it physical or mental also finds its way into a film rich in depth and symbolism. The hazy and glittering cloud of dust which envelops Scott Carey (Grant Williams) whilst he is holidaying and heralds his slow shrinkage only hints that radiation or some other scientific disaster is to blame. The film is consistently vague on how and why Carey picks up this condition. This is not the primary concern of the narrative. Instead the film is concerned with Carey’s adjustment and behaviour within the framework of dull suburbia. In his interaction with forces no longer under his control (sex, money, status) and his frustrations with the failures of modern medicine to reverse the effects. The film dramatises brilliantly Freud’s concept of the uncanny. Familiar things such as a dolls house, a pet cat, a cellar, and most terrifying of all a spider (the battle of wits between Carey and the spider is masterful) become unfamiliar fragments from our worst nightmares. The monochrome photography only aids the brilliant in camera visual effects, which make wonderful use of distance and perspective. In the final scene Carey’s escape from the confines of the cellar is a metaphor for his own escape from the dull orthodoxy of suburban middle class America.

The Film Connoisseur's #3 pick - DUNE (David Lynch, USA, 1984)

David Lynch’s Dune is such a misunderstood film. From the very beginning, this film had a problematic production. The first attempt to bring Frank Herbert's gargantuan science fiction tale to the silver screen, was going to be directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky. You know, the guy responsible for such cult films as The Holy Mountain (1973) and El Topo (1970). So you can begin to imagine just how different this version might have turned out. Jodorowksy wanted Salvador Dahli to star as the Emperor of the known Universe, but problems arouse when Dali's price for his performance was unrealistcally high.  Sadly,  that film never came to be even though a lot of money had been spent in post production. But producer Dino de Laurentis wouldnt give up with Dune, he was determined to make the next sci-fi spectacular. So, the project was presented to Lynch, who accepted directing duties. Dune was not an easy one to tackle. Frank Herbert’s Novel is dense and epic. Its not something you can just shoot and film without an effort. Nope, whoever was going to accept to direct this film was accepting a daunting task. But Lynch did it. And honestly, I applaud him for it. This film does adhere very well to the novel, though when you compare the book vs. the film, Lynch’s movie feels like a fast forward version of the novel, omitting many important moments and situations. But the core of the story is there, and it is still epic in scope which is why I love the movie so much. For its 'epicness'. I love the fact that its such a lush production. This film deals with feuding royal families across the universe, so the production had to be one worthy of royalty. And it is, everything had this expensive regal look to it. There’s not an ounce of cheesiness here! Another thing that attracts me to this movie is that at its core, this film is one of rebellion against an evil empire. The Fremen are the rebels that go against the despotic “Emperor of the known Universe”, Emperor Shaddam the IV. Paul Maudib is the Christ like figure that rises to free the people, lead them and take back planet Arakis! The cast is an interesting one. Kyle MacLachlan, Brad Dourif, Virginia Madsen, Jack Nance (a David Lynch regular) and Jurgen Prochnow. In my opinion, even though Lynch publicly disowns this film (“they took it from me!”) I still love it very much. Lynch gave it that weird, spooky vibe he gives to a lot of his films. Its epic, big scale, filled with heavy themes. It has tons of political and religious intrigue, this film has a huge scope. Not to be missed.

#4 of the Top Five Stand Alone Sci-Fi Movies

The Celluloid Highways #4 pick - INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (Don Siegel, USA, 1956)

Jack Finney’s novel (serialised in Collier’s magazine) became one of the keynote American science-fiction films when it was adapted for the screen by Daniel Mainwaring and brought to visual life by journeyman director Don Siegel. Siegel was a director of outstanding generic utility, putting his hand to most genres in his long and esteemed career. This would be his only entry in the science-fiction genre, but it has proved to be among his most important and pervasive films. Its importance lies in that fact that every successive generation has taken the themes established in Siegel’s film and applied them to the socio/political concerns of the day. The Phillip Kaufman remake in 1978 for example updated the themes of the original for the post-Watergate generation, but undid itself by overstating the paranoia. Siegel’s film has a greater subtlety and builds its paranoia slowly and surely. The disturbing aspects of the tale slowly creep up on you, in a manner similar to that experienced by Dr. Miles J. Bennell (Kevin McCarthy). Bennell is initially at least the skeptical expert, a man of science and rationality who seeks logical answers to the strange changes in behavior that have been directed to his attention. Science-fiction films of the 1950’s often took the side of either the logic of science and its experts or the brute efficiency of a military response. Here both institutions are found wanting, the military being all but invisible and science being ineffectual. Instead the citizens of small town America who have been duplicated by alien beings who are able to duplicate exactly our cellular structure are able to establish a rule of thumb that deceives outsiders and leads to the hounding and eventual demise of our heroes. What truly makes this film a terrifying statement is the manner in which it dramatizes the nightmarish (but logical) extension of community and consensus - a town of faceless automatons without a single bone of radicalism in their bodies. If one film sums up the uncertainties of 1950’s American then Invasion of the Body Snatchers is it. A truly radical and in places subversive example of science-fiction.

The Film Connoisseur's #4 pick - METROPOLIS (Fritz Lang, Germany, 1927)

Fritz Lang’s masterpiece of German Expressionism is still one of my all time favorite science fiction films of all time. Metropolis is on this countdown for more then one reason. First; its production values. This film was the most expensive silent film ever made! And you see every single penny up on screen. There is genuine artistry in the way this film was brought to life. Intricate miniatures, detailed mate paintings, hundreds of extras and elaborate sets are part of the combination that brought the futuristic vistas of Metropolis to life. One look at the scene where all the workers are slaving away at the “M-Machine” lets us understand the awesomeness of the visuals that Fritz Lang conjured up with his vision. But, this films merits don’t only include technical ones. Yes it is an astonishing film to look at, and yes it has been influential on everything from Star Wars to Dark City, but one of the reasons I hold this film in such high regard is that, like any good science fiction film, this one is a mirror of society. It addresses important themes that mirror the suffering that the working class was going through during the dawning of the great depression. The films themes speak of the unification between the work force and its employers. One can’t exist without the other. In the film, Freder, the son of a wealthy business man, sees the suffering that the poor people are going through and decides to join their ranks and work side by side with them. Even though it was made in 1927, and it is a silent film, its images are too powerful to ignore or forget. It was a film that was way ahead of its time, every time I watch I wonder how the hell they shot such an amazing film in 1927, when visual effects where in diapers. The existing print of this movie has many scenes missing, but thankfully, a lot of it was recovered! It was discovered in a film vault in Buenos Aires! Kino Video (the same guys who released the existing copy of the film) is going to be releasing a new cut of this film, with 25 minutes of footage that had previously been considered lost forever! So be on the look out for that. Metropolis remains a timeless classic that every true lover of films should see at some point.

#5 Top Five Stand Alone Sci-Fi Movies

On this Top Five Stand Alone Sci-Fi Movies Countdown I worked in collaboration with fellow blogger Shaun Anderson from the excellent blog The Celluloid Highway. We decided to do this countdown and include our top five choices for best stand alone sci-fi movie. What this means is, we left out all sci-fi films that are part of a saga (like Star Wars or Star Trek) and we left out all those that have sequels, which is the ONLY reason why I left out my favorite science fiction film ever: 2001: A Space Odyssey. 

It was really tough for me to come up with a top five best stand alone sci-fi's because there are a lot of good ones. It would have been easier to do a top 10, but that would take forever so we stuck with a top five. What we will do with this countdown is Shaun and I will give our choices for top five, one every day of the week starting today, so today we will present you guys with our #5, tomorrow our #4 until we reach our #1 choices on Friday. So stick around, follow our countdown and comment! 

Dont forget to visit Shaun's blog The Celluloid Highway, its one of the best written blogs on the blogosphere, according to me. So without further ado, I present to you my dear readers our #5 starting with: 

The Celluloid Highway's pick for #5 is: DUNE (David Lynch, USA, 1984)

Cult director David Lynch suddenly found himself legitimized with Oscar nominations after his weird Victorian fable of acceptance and tolerance The Elephant Man (1980). Few would have predicted that three years later he would be helming a science-fiction monstrosity filmed on several continents with a team of hundreds of technicians, actors and studio representatives. Frank Herbert’s novel Dune (the first book in a long series) had proved too challenging a task for Chilean director Alejandro Jodorowsky, and despite his failure to get the project off the ground (which should have been a warning to anyone else) Italian super producer Dino De Laurentis and his daughter Raffaella were still willing to raise the $45,000,000 the film would cost. The result was a film doomed to commercial failure (few films would have recouped such a huge budget) and critical indifference bordering on utter confusion. Years later without the baggage of its production, promotion and eventual reception Dune emerges as a daring and thoughtful film that regularly drifts into the dark avant-garde territory explored in Lynch’s excellent debut feature Eraserhead (1977). Lynch still manages to convey a sense of urban and industrial alienation through the weirdly organic production designs of Anthony Masters and shows he is also adept at handling the conventions and expectations of the generic structure he found himself within. With a cast that includes Francesca Annis, Brad Dourif, Freddie Jones, Kyle MacLachlan (making his film debut and looking quite nervous), Virginia Madsen, Jurgen Prochnow, Max Von Sydow and a semi naked Sting, with a soundtrack by Toto (remember the hit song ‘Africa’?) and Brian Eno Dune is a truly trans-global production that has suffered continual misinterpretation. The film abounds with political allegories, thematic depth, and obscure symbolism. But ultimately it was unable to live up to the rich tapestry of imagery and epic breadth of Herbert’s source novel.

The Film Connoisseurs pick for #5 is - A.I. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (Steven Spielberg, USA, 2001)

This Spielberg film was one that Stanley Kubrick had been wanting to make for the longest time. Kubrick had been planning it and planning it for years and years, at times getting close to filming the thing, but then not. Other projects seem to always get in the way. Sadly, time went by and Kubrick passed away. As a way to honor this legendary director, Steven Spielberg decided to take all of Kubricks pre-production plans for A.I. and finally direct Kubrick's dream project. I think Kubrick would have been proud! This movie is epic. It plays with many of the themes that Kubrick loved to play with in his movies, like for example the dynamics between humans and computers. Will technology ever replace or outlive human beings? This film presents us with a world populated with androids. They pretty much look and act as human beings would. The world is divided between those humans that welcome artificial intelligence into their lives, and those who condemn it. Some see artificial intelligence as a threat to humanity and everything humans stand for. Haley Joel Osment plays David, a boy android that is brought into a family of humans to fill the void made by the hospitalization of their human son Martin, who is in a coma and looks as if he will stay that way for a while. David looks and acts like a real little boy, and the parents are happy. Problem comes when their real son suddenly wakes up from the coma and ends up returning home. Martin cannot get along with David. After a series of problems between the two boys, the mother decides to set David free into the world, so she abandons him in the middle of nowhere. From here on in, the movie is all about David searching for his creator, searching for the truth of it all. I love the symbolisms in this movie. A.I. is one of those movies that covers the life span of a character from birth to death, the only thing is that David doesn’t die. He is a robot, and as long as his battery lasts, he will continue functioning for eons. I like the fact that he is always on the search for his creator, symbolizing that search for God that we all end up going through at one point or another in our lives. In this sense, the film has elements from another one of my all time favorite science fiction films: Blade Runner. A.I. also has elements from Pinocchio, because David is looking for a way to become a real boy. Will David ever meet his God? What is the truth behind it all? Visually, this film is stunning! It has some gloriously beautiful moments and it is also touching and emotional journey, thanks to Spielberg who has always loved dwelling on the emotional resonance of things.

  Well, thats it for today. Dont forget to check back tomorrow for our #4 choice for Stand Alone Sci-Fi films. Hope you are enjoying the countdown!