OK, Chad and Rob have gotten into the act, so I might as well. What are the ten greatest science fiction movies of all time?
Remember, I’m the blogger. I make the decisions.
10. The Fifth Element — sure, it’s over the top, but that just means it cleared a high bar (and Milla Jovovich is an excellent addition to any Periodic Table).
9. Metropolis — at least as recently restored, it’s deep, complicated, character-driven and visually hardcore.
8. Forbidden Planet — Monsters! Monsters from the id! Nobody can be trusted, except maybe Robbie the Robot, ’cause he’s programmed with the Three Laws.
7. Brazil — there’s a reason paperwork labeled “Form 27B-6” suddenly started appearing in the MIT Student Services Center a few years ago.
6. Ghost in the Shell — the perfect mixture of philosophy and explosions.
5. The Day the Earth Stood Still — Klaatu barada nikto. ‘Nuff said.
4. Blade Runner — you don’t know how many times this past winter Eric and I came back from a Chinese-food lunch through the cold and the rain, intoning to each other, “A new life awaits you in the off-world colonies. . . .” Harvard Square really needs little carts where wizened men sell sushi and noodles, and occasionally Edward James Olmos appears over your shoulder to say, “Lófaszt! Nehogy már! Te vagy a Blade, Blade Runner!”
3. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan — “Khaaaaan!”
2. Dr. Strangelove — “You can’t fight in here, this is the War Room!”
1. 2001: A Space Odyssey — the scene where HAL kills the hibernating astronauts freaked me out so much when I was a kid that I had to run out of the house and hide in the back yard. But I always came back (and, for some reason, I really wanted to try the sandwiches that Heywood Floyd and his friends eat on the Moon shuttle-bus).
I almost put René Laloux’s Gandahar (a.k.a. Light Years) on the list, but couldn’t quite figure out where to place it. Its visual imagination is as good as or better than his earlier La Planète Sauvage (Fantastic Planet), and the more fluid style of animation works wonders. Plus, you’ve got Isaac Asimov at the top of his form doing the English translation.
In the department of Movies I’m Almost Embarrassed To Admit I Like, Tron has to be way up there. Beneath layers and layers of corn and whole geological strata of cheese, it just clicks. It’s a movie about yesterday’s future, about the 1990s of the ’80s, and a message speaking of what computers should be more than about what they are. And, dude, light cycles. How freakin’ awesome are those?
Blake,
(Sorry to continue this thread across posts.)
I think I was agreeing with you—I think “mind” versus “brain” is a good distinction to have, and most of my effort went into saying that you can use those words w/o advocating “dualism” of the Cartesian or Egnorant (heh) kind. I did say the bit about the terms being loaded with popular preconceptions, but that’s simply the situation one often faces when explaining something tricky to a general audience—I wasn’t trying to pooh-pooh the cause of improving popular understanding of the mind and brain.
I have a unique habit of spending countless words on the hairsplitting details of a topic without ever stating the conclusions I was driving at. I just meant:
1) unlike Mr. G, I don’t think someone has to be a dualist if they talk about “mind” and “brain.” “Mind” and “brain” can also simply be two different (and both useful) ways to talk about people.
2) as often happens, your reader may not come in already knowing how you want to use the terms “mind” and “brain.” That’s the sort of situation one encounters all the time writing about science, and not an insurmountable problem.
I fully agree with your comment about “I’ve fallen in love” being more useful than a directly physical statement about the brain. As far as I can tell I agree with you all around. I look forward to your next post, which should be a lot more interesting than this comment, which is more like me sitting here making wind into the Internet. :)
In happier news, OpenGL lightcycle game!
as often happens, your reader may not come in already knowing how you want to use the terms “mind†and “brain.†That’s the sort of situation one encounters all the time writing about science, and not an insurmountable problem.
Agreed on all counts. Foolish me — I figured that saying “the mind is a product of the brain” in my very first sentence would indicate what I thought!
My sarcasm-meter can’t tell if that was making fun of me or of Mr G., but either way I wasn’t trying to attack. The thread had seemingly veered into whether, in the abstract, a mind/brain distinction is a useful thing or not. The bit about preconceptions seemed relevant, tho’ my original comment probably should’ve mentioned how you addressed them. Not dogging on your post.
Just to clarify: I wasn’t making fun of you, and I think your comments have been good ones.
Ten is so difficult to narrow down, so like my Top Ten of all movies, much boils down to some emotional element upon seeing the movie. That’s a decent list – some I should revisit like The Fifth Element – I seem to only remember the “flying cars” buzzing around the city. Metropolis I have on VHS, and it’s significant, but I wouldn’t put it on my list. I’d knock off Strangelove and Star Trek too. I’d add Alien, and some people put Road Warrior on the sci-fi list, and if that be so, it’s on my all-time Top Ten as well, though I think of it more as a dystopian action flick. Where’s the science?
One film that actually had me trying strange things in the bathtub was Altered States with William Hurt (I like the mind/brain movies (-;) Another movie that was memorable was Videodrome, but the sci-fi/horror line is nebulous.
I almost put René Laloux’s Gandahar (a.k.a. Light Years) on the list, but couldn’t quite figure out where to place it. Its visual imagination is as good as or better than his earlier La Planète Sauvage (Fantastic Planet),
I always feel like I’m the only one in the world who loves Fantastic Planet, then I go to YouTube and someone has put the whole movie on there in parts, so ~sniffle~ I’m not alone. It’s one of a kind. I’ve never seen Light Years though – for shame. Must go buy that…
I don’t know, not including the original War of the Worlds or Star Wars makes me feel guilty. It’s like not admitting that one of the biggest audience-impact movies of all time was Jaws.
Don’t worry — Phil Plait likes Jaws, so you’re safe!
:-)
The remastered and restored version of Metropolis which came out in 2002 is much better than the version I’d seen before, which is the only reason I put it on my list.
Phil has a couple of doozies on his list! My point was that Jaws had a huge impact in that it kept people at the beach closer to the berm; it also began the summer blockbuster phase. It’s music score alone was hugely memorable. Likewise War of the Worlds and Star Wars had huge impact among audiences and future sci-fi films. I also think Close Encounters of the Third Kind holds up pretty well – I saw it not long ago on TV and despite its cornballishness at times, it was an engaging movie.