Sensational ‘60s Sci-Fi

Sensational ‘60s Sci-Fi

Buzz Dixon
Media

It's hard to explain context to modern audiences.

Does the Parthenon require "context?" Does Demoiselles D'Avignon? “Kind Of Blue?"

The Parthenon? Yes, to fully appreciate it you need to know the culture and purpose it was constructed for. You need to know what Demoiselles D'Avignon was responding to in order to fully grasp its importance. “Kind Of Blue” sounds great because we grew up in a post-”Kind Of Blue” world, only when you're fully versed on the history of jazz including jazz place in the history of music do you really appreciate it.

2001: A Space Odyssey offers several important contexts:

  • One of the first science fiction films in over a decade to try to present sci-fi concepts to the general mainstream adult audience, not kids or genre fans 

  • One of the first since Destination Moon in 1950 to try to portray space flight accurately 

  • One of the first real attempts to depict an encounter with a genuinely alien intelligence

  • A cultural document of the 1960s showing our hopes and fears

  • At was meant to be viewed as a widescreen roadshow release, not on TV screens

Understand that for sci-fi fans, most of what was produced after Forbidden Planet was a load of low budget crap, with only the occasional mediocre big budget A-film tossed in. Sci-fi movies earned a justifiable reputation for being juvenile trash. When MGM announced Journey To The Stars (2001's original title) as a big budget A-film by a major director, it was on par with Friz Lang doing Metropolis. While the film took several years to produce, it spurred other producers to try more serious sci-fi efforts.

Check the timetable below. Even tongue-in-cheek films like Barbarella and Wild In The Streets marked a far different sensibility than the era that preceded them.

 In a little over two years mainstream audiences were targeted with sci-fi films meant for them, not genre audiences. It felt like a firehose had been turned on, and kick started a resulting sci-fi boom that continued for several years, eventually morphing into the Close Encounters / Star Wars / Alien wave we're still riding.

 

© Buzz Dixon

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