Before I get started, I'd like to thank everyone who's viewed my blog for the 2,000 views I've gotten in the past 1/2 year. So thanks for that!
Now, I'd like to explain how I'm going to do this next installment here. I was originally planning to do a list of my top 20 sci-fi films... and I realized I couldn't push it down to 20. Then I decided to separate it into sub-genres. The problem there was that so many of these films have overlapping genres. Therefore, I'm going to do a continuing series of posts on my favorite science fiction films without them being in any order of greatness or limited to a specific number. So this will be a continuing series that I do from time to time. This also means I won't get burned out on a specific genre as I did with horror films back in October. I still plan to do a set of posts on my favorite Christmas films/specials come December, however.
So without further ado, here's the first of my discussions on specific science fiction films...
When Worlds Collide - (1951)
There was a time when science fiction sold. And it sold well. This trend lasted from the late 1920s on until we went to the moon in 1969. After that, science fiction pretty much died until 1977 and George Lucas brought it back. Sure, there was science fiction in the early 70s, but it was very dark and cynical with films like Logan's Run, Silent Running, the Planet of the Apes films, and Soylent Green. Dystopias abounded. But in the 1950s was when science fiction was at it's strongest. From giant animals or beasts caused by nuclear radiation to traveling to other worlds... Our hope and gung-ho attitude about science and space had not yet produced the sad results we got when we sent our probes to mars and noticed it was nothing more than a dead rock or went to the moon and didn't know what to do when we got there. No, we knew little about our solar system at the time. Mars could have an atmosphere or hold a long-dead civilization. Maybe the moon had some importance we didn't know about yet. We couldn't possibly be alone out here. Alas, science and discovery hit us where it hurts. We would be alone for the forseeable future. There was no long lost civilization. We couldn't go to Mars. There's nothing out there in the immediate vicinity. With those sad discoveries, we lost our interest in space. We've shrunk NASA's budget to miniscule proportions. We don't want to know any more depressing facts.
Travel back to 1933. Science fiction was Buck Rogers, John Carter, and other pulp creations. Then Philip Wylie and Edwin Balmer wrote a very successful book about our world being collided with by a rogue planet and sideswiped by another before that. It was called When Worlds Collide. It would influence the creation of two new comic book characters, Superman and Flash Gordon. The book being a huge success, it would only be a matter of time until it was made into a film. Enter George Pal.
George Pal was a film producer who had made the very popular science fiction film Destination Moon in 1950. That was the first film that showed the dangers and trials of space travel in a time when space fever was beginning to engulf the world. It also won an award for Best Special Effects at the Academy Awards that year, and was one of the first sci-fi films shot in color. To follow that success up, he chose When Worlds Collide. Not only was it a cracking good science fiction story, but it was also a doomsday film. It's about a scientist who discovers that two rogue planets are on a collision course with Earth. The first one, Zyra, will merely pass dangerously close to earth. Enough to cause tidal waves, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, etc. due to it's gravitational pull. (Flimsy science, I'm sure, but it's all in good fun.) The second planet, Bellus, is on a true collision path and will destroy our planet. Well, the rest of the scientific community scoffs at this idea and the world once again puts it's head up it's butt refusing to fund attempts at a "space ark" which will launch and piggyback onto Zyra before Bellus hits the earth with some people on board to restart the human race on their new home. Okay, the story may be silly and unbelievable, but you have to understand... This was the early 1950s. We knew little about rocket capabilities, the movement of planets, space, or anything like that. Also, there's a bit more to the story than what I told, but I don't want to give away some of the more moral and ethical dilemmas present.
George Pal was a very visual man. He would go on to produce War of the Worlds right after this film, which has become known as one of the most quintessential science fiction films ever made. He knew he would need to have the film shot in color, have an epic scale with lots of danger, and that he'd need astounding visual effects. And he got all three. The film would go on to win Best Visual Effects for 1951. In fact, George Pal films won the award 3 times in just 5 years! George Pal was Roland Emmerich before Roland Emmerich or Dean Devlin were even around! He was destroying the world before even Irwin Allen was doing his stuff in the 1960s and 70s! It's such a shame the man isn't remembered as he should be.
When Worlds Collide isn't as well known anymore, sadly. Perhaps this is due to it's less well known director in comparison to War of the Worlds' Byron Haskin who had already done Disney's Treasure Island. In comparison, Rudolph Mate, director of When Worlds Collide was mainly known for cheap film noirs like D.O.A and The Dark Past. In fact, he's better known for his cinematography work than his directoral work. He did cinematography for such films as Foreign Correspondent, Passion of Joan of Arc, To Be or Not To Be, and Vampyr. (All those are in the Criterion Collection, by the way.)
I'm sorry if I've made the film sound like a cheesy 1950s science fiction film. I mean it is all those things, but it's also not something to really make fun of. The film isn't all that stilted as the lower budget science fiction of the time routinely was. This was a big budget film done by a major studio that gave it a wide fanfared release. It was a huge moneymaker. In fact, I find it possibly less cheesy than some of the 1970s disaster films that I love so much. And the ending surprised me greatly. You think that in a 1950s film they wouldn't dare actually have the planet hit the Earth and kill everyone... But they do. (Sorry for the spoiler, but the movie IS over 60 years old.) Still, the film ends on a message of hope and perseverance anyway. I highly recommend those that loved Roland Emmerich's 2012 to watch the film, as it's got a lot of the same ideas in it. In fact, this one makes more sense, though that isn't saying much.
The film can be streamed for free in HD if you have Amazon Prime, and is also available on DVD for cheap. See this sadly forgotten film if you can. I like it better than War of the Worlds. I mean how can you not like a film that depicts a rocket being launched like a roller coaster?!
Ingenious!
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