Simple Country Physicist

The WIRED folks have put out an article [Link] entitled “Best Sci-Fi Flicks of the ’60s, ’70s, According to You”, which is fairly descriptive. About all it really seems to do is illustrate how absolutely WRONG surveys can be. The movies cited are:

1. La Jetée (1962) Missed this one somehow. No comment.
2. Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (1964) Cute. Not, most definitely, not science fiction. Just a Saturday morning trap for kids.
3. Robinson Crusoe on Mars (1964) That this one made the list is mediocrely heartening. Mars (Ares) movies are as a rule, disappointing. Movies about Mars invading Tellus are not. So how did that horrible Gene Barry shirred stercus version of The War of The Worlds not get included?
4. Quatermass and the Pit (1967) This may actually be the high point of the list. Lousy special effects but good story, good acting, all the rest. Shows you how shallow and vapid Hollywood really is.
5. The President’s Analyst (1967) Sorry, doesn’t pass the so-what test, Definitely not science fiction.
6. Barbarella What the French consider Science Fiction? Sorry. This one is famous mostly because of peeks at Jane Fonda’s anatomy. The worst part is that this movie gave her the idea she can impose her ideas on humanity.
   
7. Colossus: The Forbin Project(1970) The book was passable but Hollywood pretty well took the good out in making the movie and left the bad. Marc Anthony would have something to say at the funeral.
8. A Clockwork Orange Another one that had a book following but was a dismal failure as a movie. Very dismal, very failure.
9. The Andromeda Strain(1971) Mediocre story told by a medicore hack author in a medicore book. The movie was actually an improvement but even that doesn’t make it worthwhile.
10. The Omega Man (1971) The perfect example of taking a fair story and making it into a bad, boring, vapid movie. And the mistake has been repeated!
11. THX 1138 (1971) This may be the highlight of the list from a science fiction standpoint. Of course it was a failure because the bogs and many of the geeks just didn’t get it. So much for humans being wise.
12. Night of the Lepus(1972) The only thing noteworthy about this movie is that they actually got talented people to act in it. This is the worst kind of bad; it isn’t even bad in a funny wy like The Black Hole.
13. Westworld (1973) Neither science fiction nor particularly entertaining. Dream Park can probably be the phoenix that arose from these ashes. Makes me want to sob that Yul Brinner actually stooped to crawl on his stomach and made this thing.
14. La Planète Sauvage (The Fantastic Planet) (1973) Ah! The thrill of a French cartoon science fiction movie. The closest comparison would be Jerry Lewis doing Othello. Save your minutes of lifespan and go see the original Duck Dodgers cartoon. Much better!
15. Sleeper (1973) This one validates the old saw ‘Let Sleeping Dogs Lie.’ Makes you wonder how Woddy allen has evaded stoning for so long. Science Fiction this is not; go read When The Sleeper Wakes.
16. Dark Star (1974) Some how I missed this one, or it was so unmemorable that it occupies no neurons.
17. Flesh Gordon (1974) Modern big production porn. Gotta have a crazy locale or it isn’t believable, not that it is believable by anyone other that endocrine ridden young men. The number of women who have seen this and not collapsed in laughter is enumerable on one hand.
18. Killdozer(1975) This is not science fiction. Rather, it’s what the SyFy channel is all about. Mind trash.
19. The Stepford Wives(1975) Another one that was bad to start with and every remake has also been bad. Asimov would turn in his grave.
20. Death Race 2000(1975) This one falls in the bad = funny catagory. Definitely goes with the Santa Claus movie; probably attended by the same little boys just a bit older and looking for blood and mammaries.

from which we may see that what is attention gathering is less what is on the list than what is not on the list. We do have to face the fact that almost everything that comes out of Hollywood (or its imitators) is not science fiction even when it comes from a science fiction story or book. And almost everything that has come out as science fiction has been bad or worse. We have to acknowledge that the two genres do not mesh well. You can have good science fiction or good movie but seldom both and generally the cmpromise shows.

Still little to indicate that Forbidden Planet may not have been the best science fiction movie made, at least in this time frame.