My Top 25 Movies of All Time - #11
By Ken Parker
So many TV shows, novels and movies
helped my interest in Sci-Fi grow throughout my childhood and into
adulthood. The following is one of those movies that captured my
imagination, being one of the earliest Sci-Fi movies I ever saw.
Years later I revisited the movie after seeing visually stunning
movies such as Star Wars, Close Encounters of the Third
Kind and 2001: A Space Odyssey and was amazed at how
incredible the effects and sets were in this movie, A movie that came
out more than 10 years earlier than the earliest of those films.
14 - Forbidden Planet – 1956
IMDB Story Summary -
When
Adams and his crew are sent to investigate the silence from a planet
inhabited by scientists, he finds all but two have died. Dr. Morbius
and his daughter Altaira have somehow survived a hideous monster
which roams the planet. Unknown to Adams, Morbius has made a
discovery, and has no intention of sharing it (or his daughter!) with
anyone.Written
by Rob
Hartill
This movie reminds me of watching Saturday afternoon movies as a kid.
The lure of playing outside was strong but the sounds and visuals of
flying saucers and scary monsters kept me inside more often than not.
I also remember in my High School and college years sitting down in
front of the TV at midnight to watch some of these classics and in
the haze of early morning sleepiness, fended off with soda and
chocolate cupcakes, I would experience these movies with a non drug
affected open mind.
Forbidden Planet matches this type a movie to a T. One of my
favorite types of Sci-Fi is space exploration and for once the plot
did not revolve around Earth. The flying saucer does not come from an
alien planet but instead, comes from Earth and actually visits the
alien planet. Earthlings, to an extent are invading the planet. In
the end it is the alien technology and the human mind trying to use
it that endangers our protagonists. Flipping this imagery around
must have been a refreshing twist to get away from the confines of
Earth. Couple this with another twist in that all the aliens have
been long gone for centuries and yet something is still alive killing
the crew and you have a great formula for excitement.
If this film as any weaknesses it may be some of the acting and dated
concepts. The crew, with their tongues hanging out over the
beautiful Altara, is sort of embarrassing to watch these days.
Straight man Leslie Neilsen can be hard to accept as the leader of
the mission especially because all of his comedy work since. His
performance is good until he pairs up with the stunning Anne Francis
and the writing falters, magnifying the dated feelings toward 'dames'
and so forth. This plot line is important for it fuels Morbius's
sub-conscious creature into attacking but the dated relationships are
more awkward now than years ago and sort of stand out as bad acting
at times.
Still, Forbidden Planet deals with the human mind and the
dangers of allowing technology to get beyond our control. It also
deals with the coming of age of a young woman and the loss of
innocence. We are also introduced to Robby, the Robot which shows us
the good part of scientific advancement as well as giving us a
glimpse at the Asimov rules of robotics.
To really sell the fact that this movie takes place on an alien
planet, the producers spent money on elaborate sets and convincing
matte paintings and effects. Bringing in a Disney animator to punch
up the final touches and giving us a terrifying monster, the creators
of the film ultimately succeed in this classic film that will go on
to influence many other films and TV series. No other influence was
more apparent and credited than for Star Trek. Many of the
visuals and story would lay the ground work for Star Trek a
few years later. This in of itself makes Forbidden Planet
very important and now fondly looked upon by many.
A couple of notes, I recently just purchased the blu-ray ($7.99) and
watched the movie. I found it to still be excellent but did drop it
down a couple of spots only because something else moved up and this
film had those silly and clunky 'boy meets girl, boy falls in love
with girl and boy lasers girl's tiger because it attacked her'
moments. I also enjoyed the deleted scenes which included some
pretty good material.
I have seen this film probably 8-10 times
I first saw this on a Saturday afternoon on TV
I have the Blu-ray
Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forbidden_Planet
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