Nation's Anxiety Causes Sci-Fi Movies!

[125gJoe]

One can read the article several ways, and interpret it in different ways.

I don't believe the point they are trying to make.
If you 'pick and choose' Sci-Fi movies, then their point shines through!

What's relevant is what the writers put forth... It's their article.

Hmmm? What? The movie "Dune" wasn't even mentioned??
It is Sci-Fi after all... ... :thud:


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[ash]

So do you just not believe that sci fi has anything to do with what is going on in our society then?

 

[Soulmanure]

I don't believe the point they are trying to make.
If you 'pick and choose' Sci-Fi movies, then their point shines through!

What's relevant is what the writers put forth... It's their article.

Hmmm? What? The movie "Dune" wasn't even mentioned??
It is Sci-Fi after all... ... :thud:

I think for this counter argument to work, you would have to prove that all sci-fi movies aren't anxiety ridden, or at the very least give a rather sizeable list of such movies. So now that you mention Dune, how is it not filled with anxiety? I thought that was one creepy, weirded out movie (didn't hurt that David Lynch was at the helm).

And how about a top ten sci fi movie list!

1. Blade Runner
2. 2001 A Space Odyssey
3. Solaris
4. Alien
5. Close Encounters
6. Road Warrior
7. Tron
8. Star Wars
9. Road Warrior
10. Terminator

p.s. I could give good reasons why each has its own anxiety issue

 

[125gJoe]

..

I think for this counter argument to work, you would have to prove that all sci-fi movies aren't anxiety ridden, or at the very least give a rather sizeable list of such movies. So now that you mention Dune, how is it not filled with anxiety? I thought that was one creepy, weirded out movie (didn't hurt that David Lynch was at the helm).

And how about a top ten sci fi movie list!

1. Blade Runner
2. 2001 A Space Odyssey
3. Solaris
4. Alien
5. Close Encounters
6. Road Warrior
7. Tron
8. Star Wars
9. Road Warrior
10. Terminator

p.s. I could give good reasons why each has its own anxiety issue

It's not the anxiety issue; but rather both - the anxiety and timeline.
There's no way to relate a nations' anxiety with Sci-Fi movie releases. Your list proves that.

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It's strange...
I was about to ask you about your thoughts on Dune.

For me, I picked up on some references about the Middle East -- can't place it exactly...

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[Soulmanure]

"It's not the anxiety issue; but rather both - the anxiety and timeline.
There's no way to relate a nations' anxiety with Sci-Fi movie releases. Your list prove that."

How so?

 

[125gJoe]

..How so?

Go back to my first post... Read the article.


:hi:

 

[mindtonic]

I think that the concept works when applied loosely. It's a just a generalization in much the same flavor as "American TV is too violent or too sexual." Obviously, not all American TV shows are graphicly violent, but generically speaking, the shoe still fits.

You could employ the same argument from that article to action / war movies. Fifty years ago, the main protagonist in these films were the Germans and Japanese, then it was the Russians, and recently, has become rogue middle eastern states and terrorists. Sure there are a lot of exceptions to the rule, but movie makers take advantage of our biases, our prejudices, and our fears to make us emotionally involved in the films we watch

 

[Soulmanure]

To be a little more articulate, how does my top ten list prove the negative point and why is it impossible to make the article's case (which, by the way, is but the flip side of your position)? We could get a list of all sci-fi movies ever made along with their production and release dates. Then we could classify them as to content (outer space exploration, invasion of planets, creepy creature, questions about the future, etc.), and then we could compare them with what is going on historically during that period. In that way, we could see if there is a chart which would show certain spikes in sci-fi production according to specific types of content in relation to historical events.

In any case, this might be an 'agree to disagree' situation. I agree with ash and the article that sci-fi movies tend to crop up and be more popular during periods of social crisis--they are ways to speak metaphorically about what is going on in the now (just as Rodennberry and, I might add, William Gibson, though he didn't make movies).

I would only add that sci-fi movies and fiction tend generally to talk about social anxieties--that seems to be their raison de etre.