http://thisdistractedglobe.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/Rollerball%201975%20pic%20.jpg
The game was created to demonstrate the futility of individual effort. And the game must do its work. The Energy Corporation has done all it can, and if a champion defeats the meaning for which the game was designed, then he must lose. I hope you agree with my reasoning.
― Milton Parker, Friday, 25 January 2008 22:25 (sixteen years ago) link
I thought Alien was pretty boring, too.
-- Abbott, Friday, 25 January 2008 17:03 (5 hours ago) Link
ban Abbot
― latebloomer, Friday, 25 January 2008 22:47 (sixteen years ago) link
The great thing about a lot of these is that they couldn't have been made in any time except the 70's.
Especially Zardoz (which I would've voted for if Alien hadn't been on the poll).
― latebloomer, Friday, 25 January 2008 22:50 (sixteen years ago) link
I just watched Invasion of the Bodysnatchers this morning. I had sort of forgotten how unironically creepy it is. Solid A movie.
-- remy bean, Friday, January 25, 2008 8:15 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Link
"it's a rat turd."
that movie rules.
― latebloomer, Friday, 25 January 2008 23:00 (sixteen years ago) link
God Told Me To is weird
― latebloomer, Friday, 25 January 2008 23:01 (sixteen years ago) link
http://www.aullidos.com/imagenes/articulos/larrycohen/larrycohen-12.jpg
God Told Me To is incredible. If you haven't seen it, don't even look up a single additional word on it, it's one of the most baffling and intense films of the 70's. The genre-flips and plot turns are so bizarre that even just listing it as a science fiction film is a kind of a spoiler.
― Milton Parker, Friday, 25 January 2008 23:38 (sixteen years ago) link
in any case, the gun is good, the penis is evil
http://www.dennishollingsworth.us/archives/images/Zardoz040205.jpg
http://pharyngula.org/images/zardoz_damnhippies.jpg
http://img169.imageshack.us/img169/4481/zardoz1api4.jpg
― Milton Parker, Friday, 25 January 2008 23:39 (sixteen years ago) link
I voted for Solaris but I feel bad for not voting Silent Running, and if I'd seen that film since I was an adult I think I might've. It seems like the purest SF film up there to me, or at least the closest to the experience of reading SF.
― Noodle Vague, Friday, 25 January 2008 23:42 (sixteen years ago) link
I don't think "Alien" is bad, just boring. Almost the entire reason I love "Meet Joe Black" is because it is daringly boring (other part: excellent van accident scene). I think "Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" is boring, and it's one of my favorite movies. And my favorite books are 65% boring.
― Abbott, Saturday, 26 January 2008 00:32 (sixteen years ago) link
Alien wouldn't have any tension if it wasn't so goddamn boring! I mean, wouldn't it be boring to be on a spaceship?
― Abbott, Saturday, 26 January 2008 00:33 (sixteen years ago) link
ha, that's what DARK STAR is all about
― El Tomboto, Saturday, 26 January 2008 00:37 (sixteen years ago) link
I racked up like 35 dollars of late fees on "Dark Star" and never even watched it.
― Abbott, Saturday, 26 January 2008 00:39 (sixteen years ago) link
Ha. I read the novelization of that one and was disappointed when I finally saw the actual film.
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Saturday, 26 January 2008 00:40 (sixteen years ago) link
I think they got the idea for some of those Zardoz costumes from Pasolini's Gospel According To St. Matthew.
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Saturday, 26 January 2008 00:41 (sixteen years ago) link
I have the Playboy from when it came out that has like 8 pages of all the nudie screenshots.
― Abbott, Saturday, 26 January 2008 00:43 (sixteen years ago) link
I think I'll start the 1970s paranoia/conspiracy movie poll
― Elvis Telecom, Saturday, 26 January 2008 01:22 (sixteen years ago) link
I really need to see the Planet Of The Apes sequels. -- Matt #2, Friday, 25 January 2008 17:13
everyone should, it's the most bonkers franchise in film history. don't even get me started on conquest of the planet of the apes.
― Edward III, Saturday, 26 January 2008 04:24 (sixteen years ago) link
whose plot can be summed up thusly:
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/Conquest4.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/Conquest2.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/conquest-09.jpg
― Edward III, Saturday, 26 January 2008 04:32 (sixteen years ago) link
Same guy directed that as the original Cape Fear, I think.
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Saturday, 26 January 2008 04:35 (sixteen years ago) link
As good as "Beneath..." is, "Conquest" is my fave Apes movie, for the utter dementedness of it, the spittle-flickingness of the baddie, and the seemingly endless ape riot climax. One of a kind, for sure.
A worthy film to add to this list would be Altman's "Quintet". Beautiful and hopeless, that one.
― Sparkle Motion, Sunday, 27 January 2008 07:01 (sixteen years ago) link
Has A Clockwork Orange really fallen so far out of grace that no one even mentions it? Or is it just not "science fictiony" enough?
― nickn, Sunday, 27 January 2008 08:21 (sixteen years ago) link
I almost voted A Clockwork Orange in the absence of Star Wars, but Invasion of the Body Snatchers caught my eye. I never really think of it as sci-fi, but really it can't be described as anything else, where a fair few of these verge on horror.
― melton mowbray, Sunday, 27 January 2008 13:49 (sixteen years ago) link
You guys, Damnation Alley! George Peppard, Jan-Michael Vincent, and a bunch of giant radioactive scorpions!
― Rock Hardy, Sunday, 27 January 2008 14:32 (sixteen years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.
― ILX System, Thursday, 31 January 2008 00:01 (sixteen years ago) link
I have seen all these movies and there's no way I can choose betwixt em
― m coleman, Thursday, 31 January 2008 00:07 (sixteen years ago) link
friend Grux is dubbing me a VHS copy of 'The Final Programme'. my vote already went to 'Phase IV' but it's an emotional vote, there's too much quality on this list for a qualitative one
― Milton Parker, Thursday, 31 January 2008 00:55 (sixteen years ago) link
I know how certain decades go through fashionable revisits every decade or so, but man, the 70s still seems to have some of the best movies as far as ... bizarre, weird, and raw goes. Sci-fi, the occult, conspiracies, post-apocalyptic hells, viruses, dark but stylish urban hells (early 80s can also count there). all the good stuff. Why that decade over others?
― burt_stanton, Thursday, 31 January 2008 01:01 (sixteen years ago) link
Anybody else here see the TV-movie version of Sturgeon's Killdozer? I barely have a memory of it.
― Rock Hardy, Thursday, 31 January 2008 01:16 (sixteen years ago) link
I saw it but I think I remember about as much as you do.
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Thursday, 31 January 2008 01:18 (sixteen years ago) link
So much goodness. Tarkovsky vs. Kubrick, plus Alien, Rollerball, and Mad Max; etc. Special love for Zardoz and Logan's Run.
These, I haven't seen (below). Any recommendations? Any I shouldn't bother with?
The Terminal Man Colossus: The Forbin Project Silent Running Slaughterhouse-Five Invasion of The Body Snatchers (Is this anything like the 50's version?) A Boy and His Dog Soylent Green God Told Me To Phase IV The Man Who Fell To Earth Demon Seed The Island of Dr. Moreau Future World Death Watch Parts: The Clonus Horror
― Fluffy Bear Hearts Rainbows, Thursday, 31 January 2008 01:21 (sixteen years ago) link
Why would you want to miss any of those?
― Sparkle Motion, Thursday, 31 January 2008 03:04 (sixteen years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.
― ILX System, Friday, 1 February 2008 00:01 (sixteen years ago) link
The only image I can find of the low-budget Australian 'totalitarian government and prisoners are hunted for sport' flick Turkey Shoot is of the co-ed shower scene (which Starship Troopers later riffed on). Also notable is that it features Mad Max's boss as one of the bad dudes who gets his hands chopped off with a machette.
― S-, Friday, 1 February 2008 01:38 (sixteen years ago) link
No wait, here we go:
http://www.robbscelebs.co.uk/noops417_18/turkey_shoot0012.jpg
― S-, Friday, 1 February 2008 01:40 (sixteen years ago) link
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/25/Fantastic_Planet_2.jpg
― Oilyrags, Friday, 1 February 2008 04:35 (sixteen years ago) link
I'm honestly kinda surprised Alien won.
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 1 February 2008 04:36 (sixteen years ago) link
neither science-fiction, nor good
― Dr Morbius, Friday, 1 February 2008 14:12 (sixteen years ago) link
Worst tagline ever.
― Noodle Vague, Friday, 1 February 2008 14:14 (sixteen years ago) link
With Star Wars missing, I'll have to go for Mad Max followed by Zardoz.
― Nate Carson, Saturday, 2 February 2008 02:13 (sixteen years ago) link
phase iv
so good
― Edward III, Tuesday, 12 February 2008 05:57 (sixteen years ago) link
giant radioactive scorpions!
whoa? really? I had wondered if Fallout had nicked the radscorpions from somewhere else or not...
― kingfish, Tuesday, 12 February 2008 07:09 (sixteen years ago) link
Silent Running 2
lol hippies
― DavidM, Tuesday, 12 February 2008 15:18 (sixteen years ago) link
I fell asleep during Stalker - what are you people thinking. do not get the tarkovsky love (I hated Solaris too, and am a huge Lem fan)
― Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 12 February 2008 19:06 (sixteen years ago) link
you just don't have Soviet rhythms.
― Dr Morbius, Tuesday, 12 February 2008 19:09 (sixteen years ago) link
but I like lots of other Russian stuff!
― Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 12 February 2008 19:09 (sixteen years ago) link
well, I think his masterpiece is The Mirror, not sf, but what is it you loathe about him?
― Dr Morbius, Tuesday, 12 February 2008 19:11 (sixteen years ago) link
I don't loathe him exactly I just don't get what's so great. Solaris and Stalker both look quite nice but the glacial pacing and stone-faced characters = zzzzzzzzzz
― Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 12 February 2008 19:13 (sixteen years ago) link
A symphony of naps!
― Kerm, Tuesday, 12 February 2008 19:24 (sixteen years ago) link
I love glacial pacing and stone-faced characters, but I know I'm in a minority there.
― Noodle Vague, Tuesday, 12 February 2008 19:38 (sixteen years ago) link
just rented: Quintet by Robert Altman, 1979. internet is covered with snarky bad reviews and frequent mentions of Zardoz. Can Not Wait.
Cast:Paul Newman (Essex), Fernando Rey (Grigor), Bibi Andersson (Ambrosia), Vittorio Gassman (St Christopher)
Plot: It is the future and the world has undergone another Ice Age. The seal hunter Essex comes out of the wilderness to visit his brother, bringing with him his wife Vivia who is one of the first women to become pregnant in a long time. In the decaying city, the bored populace spend their time playing the enigmatic dice game Quintet. Essex is invited to join one round but while he is away getting wood for the fire, Vivia and the others are killed in a bomb blast. As Essex tries to stay alive, he seeks to understand the nature of Quintet in which people’s lives are forfeit when they lose.
― Milton Parker, Tuesday, 12 February 2008 19:47 (sixteen years ago) link