Turner Classic Movies: Must-See Sci-fi

Research

Uno de los mejores libros de antología de clásicos de todos los tiempos de Ciencia Ficción, ilustrado con bellas fotos de esos clásicos de siempre. Y sí puedes considerar que esas 50. destacan esos filmes titanes de la pantalla Trip to the Moon de Georges Melies, Metropolis, Things to come, The day the earth stood still, War of the Worlds, The Time Machine, Planet of the Apes, 2001 a Space Odissey, A Clockwork Orange, Silent Running, THX1138, The Terminator, Matrix y hasta The Arrival entre otras. Para quedar embelesado.

Sloan De Forest’s Must-See Sci-FI: 50 movies that are out of this world is an outstanding work of cinematic history. Ms. De Forest is carving out quite a career as an author of books on various aspects of film-making. I earlier reviewed for amazon.com her superb book Dynamic Dames. In Must-See Sci-Fi she discussed 50 science-fiction films ranging from A Trip to the Moon (1902) to Arrival (2016). I have seen many of the films she covers in this book (28 of 50), although she deals with a number of films I have never seen. Some of the ones not seen I know about from having read about them, but others I did not know until I read this book. As I was reading the book, it dawned on me that in some cases I saw the films first in a theater, beginning with The Thing from Another World in 1951 and ending with Arrival in 2016. Interestingly, I remember having hidden behind my ball cap watching the 1951 movie through the holes in the top. In other cases, I saw the films at home on TV, where if I became frightened, I could crawl behind the couch. Gradually, I crawled out from behind the couch and began to act like an adult. In each of the chapters in this book, Ms. De Forest begins her discussion by including a list of credits, the film title, poster, studio, length, whether black-and-white or in color, and a capsule description of the plot, all featured on the first page. She then describes each film and provides her critical assessment of it. Several photographs of scenes from the film and other subjects are placed in each chapter. At the end of each chapter are two vignettes entitled Far-Out Facts and Mind-Blowing Moment, as well as other films for suggested viewing. I highly recommend this book to anyone who has any interest in movies, especially those that deal with fantasy (science-fiction and horror). I also wish to re-recommend Dynamic Dames.

I recently read two books back-to-back: Mr. Brode’s Fantastic Planets, Forbidden Zones, and Lost Continents, and Ms. De Forest’s Must-See Sci-Fi. In his, Mr. Brode rates “the 100 greatest science fiction films” while Ms. De Forest discusses “50 movies that are out of this world”. Both works are very good and definite reading for anyone interested in science fiction movies. Rating movies is a fool’s errand, so I’m not going to talk about why 2001: A Space Odyssey is over-rated and Fantastic Voyage is under-rated. Arguing about the merits and deficiencies of movies is one of the great pleasures of books like Mr. Brode’s. Ultimately, his book is detailed, if a bit dry with lengthy credits and cast lists. It’s also a bit of a cheat since, though he claims 100 movies under discussion, with doubling (all 3 original Star Wars movies are equally good? Really?) and fully 10 appendices with 10 movies each, he manages to discuss well over 200 movies. And yet he still manages to completely ignore Logan’s Run, which I couldn’t find at all in this book, though it should easily rank in the top 25. Still, one can’t help but admire his—almost—completeness. Ms. De Forest, on the other hand, working under the umbrella of TCM, sticks close to her 50 choices and doesn’t rank them. Her book, however, is filled with color photography, movie posters, and sidebars. (It also includes Logan’s Run and Arrival, which came out after Mr. Brode’s book.) It is a real pleasure to read and should interest even those whose knowledge of sci-fi movies is not extensive. Still, someone with knowledge of the field can’t help notice everything that’s missing here. Personally, my love of movies like Damnation Alley, The Black Hole, Omega Man, Soylent Green, Gattaca, and Minority Report seem very underserved. Let it be said, however, that it is great to have two books like these on the shelf. Once shunted strictly to genre geeks, sci-fi has become mainstream. Many people are now becoming interested in the history of these movies which is a great thing. Books like these will hopefully move many people to seeking out and watching some of these great films.

I purchased this after receiving a copy of TCM’s The Essentials: 52 Must-See Movies and Wny They Matter as a gift, and it makes for an excellent companion piece to keep by the VCR. Sloan De Forest’s writing is clear, concise and entertaining, in many cases provding some new insights and background production details on films I’ve seen literally dozens of times, and in others introducing me to films I haven’t seen. Love the selection of poster art and photos, many in full color and many of which I haven’t seen before. I’d love to see Ms. De Forest take on some other genres.