The 1970's Science Fiction Movie Poll

The theatrical release of ST:TMP trimmed down Douglas Trumbull's abstract effects for fear of losing the audience, so it ended up keeping all the ambitious pretentions with none of the psychedelic payoffs, then they retrenched to camp for the rest of the ST films. The scene in the director's cut where they take eight minutes to pilot to the center of V'GER's magnetic field is right up there with the Star Gate sequence he shot for 2001, it's just as Out

that's the sort of stuff I was talking about w/r/t that film. what I mainly like about it is that it's so drastically different in feel from any of the series, both in design (set design and costuming) and presentation/pacing.

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.

I thought Alien was pretty boring, too.

-- Abbott, Friday, 25 January 2008 17:03 (5 hours ago) Link

ban Abbot

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).

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.

God Told Me To is weird

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.

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

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.

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.

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?

ha, that's what DARK STAR is all about

I racked up like 35 dollars of late fees on "Dark Star" and never even watched it.

Ha. I read the novelization of that one and was disappointed when I finally saw the actual film.

I think they got the idea for some of those Zardoz costumes from Pasolini's Gospel According To St. Matthew.

I have the Playboy from when it came out that has like 8 pages of all the nudie screenshots.

I think I'll start the 1970s paranoia/conspiracy movie poll

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.

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

Same guy directed that as the original Cape Fear, I think.

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.

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?

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.

You guys, Damnation Alley! George Peppard, Jan-Michael Vincent, and a bunch of giant radioactive scorpions!

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

I have seen all these movies and there's no way I can choose betwixt em

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

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?

Anybody else here see the TV-movie version of Sturgeon's Killdozer? I barely have a memory of it.

I saw it but I think I remember about as much as you do.

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

Why would you want to miss any of those?

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

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.

No wait, here we go:

http://www.robbscelebs.co.uk/noops417_18/turkey_shoot0012.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/25/Fantastic_Planet_2.jpg

I'm honestly kinda surprised Alien won.

neither science-fiction, nor good

Worst tagline ever.

With Star Wars missing, I'll have to go for Mad Max followed by Zardoz.

phase iv

so good

giant radioactive scorpions!

whoa? really? I had wondered if Fallout had nicked the radscorpions from somewhere else or not...

Silent Running 2

lol hippies

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)

you just don't have Soviet rhythms.

but I like lots of other Russian stuff!

well, I think his masterpiece is The Mirror, not sf, but what is it you loathe about him?

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

A symphony of naps!