Alternate Americas: Science Fiction Film and American Culture

Alternate Americas: Science Fiction Film and American Culture M. Keith Booker PRAEGER Alternate Americas Science Fiction Film and American Culture F M. Keith Booker Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Booker, M. Keith. Alternate Americas : science fiction film and American culture / M. Keith Booker. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0–275–98395–1 (alk. paper) 1. Science fiction films—United States—History and criticism. I. Title. PN1995.9.S26B56 2006 791.43'615—dc22 2005032303 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available. Copyright # 2006 by M. Keith Booker All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, by any process or technique, without the express written consent of the publisher. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2005032303 ISBN: 0–275–98395–1 First published in 2006 Praeger Publishers, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881 An imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. www.praeger.com Printed in the United States of America The paper used in this book complies with the Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National Information Standards Organization (Z39.48–1984). 10987654321 For Benjamin Booker Contents Introduction 1 1 F The Day the Earth Stood Still 27 2 F Forbidden Planet 43 3 F Invasion of the Body Snatchers 59 4 F 2001: A Space Odyssey 75 5 F Planet of the Apes 91 6 F Star Wars 109 7 F Close Encounters of the Third Kind 125 8 F Alien 141 9 F E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial 157 10 F Blade Runner 171 11 F The Terminator 187 12 F Robocop 203 13 F The Abyss 219 viii u Contents 14 F Independence Day 233 15 F The Matrix 247 Conclusion: Science Fiction Film and American Culture 265 Index 269 Photo essay follows chapter 7. Introduction Science fiction film is essentially as old as film itself. It was, for example, central to the work of the pioneering French filmmaker Georges Me´lie`s, who found in the genre a perfect opportunity for the exploration of his belief that the true potential of film lay not in the simple photographic representation of reality but in illusion and visual trickery. A magician by trade, Me´lie`s made dozens of films that relied centrally on what would now be referred to as special effects to create worlds of visual fantasy for his audiences. By 1902, he had made what is still his best-known film, the fourteen-minute Voyage dans la Lune (A Trip to the Moon). This work of whimsical imagination, based on a novel by Jules Verne, was a major milestone in cinema history and still has the ability to entertain and fas- cinate audiences even today. Following the work of Me´lie`s, films that might be described as science fiction quickly became a staple of the new industry, though many of these early works might equally well be described as horror films, establishing a generic uncertainty that continues to the present day. Thus, the Edison studio had, by 1910, produced the first film adaptation of Frankenstein, and, in 1920, German expressionism came to the screen with the production of Das Kabinett des Doktor Caligari (The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari), which deals with a sort of mad scientist but which, more importantly, features extreme lighting and distorted sets that effectively combine to create a mood of strangeness and horror. 2 F Alternate Americas Similar techniques were put to good use in Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (1927), in many ways the culmination of German expressionist cinema and a film that is widely regarded as the first truly great work of science fiction cinema. Metropolis involves a towering futuristic city in which the rich live in utopian luxury while legions of poor workers slave away like automa- tons beneath the surface, tending the gigantic machines that power the golden world above. The film includes numerous visions of advanced technology, the most important of which is the humanoid robot developed by the inventor Rotwang (Rudolf Klein-Rogge), which is used to im- personate the woman Maria (Brigitte Helm), spiritual leader of the workers. The ersatz Maria leads the workers in a doomed rebellion, presumably to preclude the possibility of a more genuine (and successful) revolution, though she is ultimately destroyed by the rioting workers. The real Maria is saved from the clutches of the deranged Rotwang by Freder Fredersen (Gustav Fro¨hlich), son of the city’s ruler, who then serves as a mediator between his father and the workers, heralding a new era of cooperation between the classes. Many critics have complained about the facile ending of Metropolis, which certainly makes it weak as a film about a class-based revolution, but this is a film in which image and atmosphere are far more important than plot or characterization. The special effects (especially those involved in the scene in which the metallic robot is transformed into a Maria look- alike) are quite impressive and have been widely imitated. However, the real secret to the success of Metropolis is the ability of the expressionist lighting and sets to convey effectively the feeling of a machine-dominated urban future, even if the actual details are not particularly convincing or realistic. Envisioning the future is very much the project of the British-produced Things to Come (1936), which is probably the first truly important science fiction film of the sound era. Scripted by science fiction pioneer H. G. Wells and based on his book The Shape of Things to Come (1933), this film well illustrates Wells’s belief late in his life that a utopian future was attainable, but only after the current order of civilization had been destroyed. The film is a speculative ‘‘history’’ of the future that projects the development of human civilization over the next hundred years, beginning with a thirty- year-long world war that begins in 1940 and eventually leaves civilization in ruins, largely as the result of bioweapons that trigger a deadly plague that sweeps the globe. It focuses on the city of Everytown, which begins as a Introduction F 3 London-like metropolis, but which, by the end of the war, is in decay, ruled by a warlord engaged in primitive warfare with the surrounding ‘‘Hill People.’’ The city, like the rest of civilization, is then rebuilt under the leadership of a visionary group of aviators and engineers who use technology (and superior air power) to enforce their vision of an enlightened world government. By the year 2036, Everytown is a high-tech paradise, a futuristic city of light and open spaces, almost entirely lacking in the ominous undertones that inform the city of Metropolis. The city’s leaders, however, are not content to rest on their accomplishments but now set their sights on outer space in the belief that humanity as a species must face continual challenges in order to flourish and prosper. Some in the population bitterly oppose this new project, believing that the insatiable drive for progress only threatens to undermine what is already an idyllic life for the citizens of Everytown. However, these protestors are unable to stop the initial launch in the new space program. As the film ends, they angrily look on as a rocket is fired toward the moon from a giant ‘‘space gun,’’ ushering in a new era of exploration. ‘‘All the universe or nothing!’’ cries the leader of the city’s ruling council. ‘‘Which shall it be?’’ Directed by William Cameron Menzies and produced by Alexander Korda, Things to Come was a big-budget film whose impressive scenes of a futuristic city made it in many ways the direct forerunner of later science fiction blockbusters from Star Wars to The Matrix. Its images of the urban future (and the costumes of its future citizenry) would set the style for any number of future films, just as its basic faith in technology and its vision of a humanity that could never rest until it had explored the stars would remain crucial components of science fiction in both the cinema and television for the rest of the century. Other than monster movies such as James Whale’s Frankenstein (1931), American science fiction film of the 1930s was largely confined to low- budget serials, such as those featuring Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers as the protagonists, all of which starred Buster Crabbe in the central roles. These serials were based on popular syndicated comic strips, and they definitely had a comic-strip quality to them. Produced in episodes of 15–20 minutes in length, each serial ran for 12–15 episodes that were shown weekly in theaters in an attempt to attract young audiences. By today’s standards (or even in comparison to a contemporary film such as Things to Come), the special effects of these serials were extremely crude. However, 4 F Alternate Americas to a generation of young Americans, they offered thrilling images of other planets and other times that presented an exciting alternative to a dreary Depression-era world that was drifting toward global war. American science fiction came of age as a film genre in 1950 with the release of Destination Moon, directed by Irving Pichel and produced by George Pal, who would go on to become one of the leading figures in SF (science fiction) film in the next decade, when his productions included such films as When Worlds Collide (1951), War of the Worlds (1953), Con- quest of Space (1955), and The Time Machine (1960), the last of which he also directed. The Hungarian-born Pal, who had worked as a production de- signer for Germany’s UFA Studios (makers of Metropolis) before fleeing Germany when the Nazis came to power in 1933, served as a sort of transition between the early achievement of European SF films and the later dominance of American SF films.

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