I’ve got a friend coming over in a couple days and we decided we were in the mood to watch some old fashioned sci-fi. Or, something newer would work as well. I’d like to find something with a leftist bent, but I’m unsure where to start, or what’s out there. I’ve never been a big movie buff.
Suggestions?
A few of my favourite classics. In chronogical order:
Metropolis (1927). Fritz Lang’s silent film about an exploited working class. It’s basically the birth of serious sci-fi filmmaking. I’m not sure I’d call the politics explicitly leftist in a modern context, but it’s certainly not right-wing.
Forbidden Planet (1956). A sci-fi adaptation of Shakespeare’s “The Tempest”. This movie heavily influenced the original Star Trek TV series, to the point where it’s obvious that Gene Roddenberry was straight-up copying concepts from it. Leslie Nielsen (yes, that Leslie Nielsen) plays an extremely serious James-Kirk-esque starship captain ordered to investigate the crash of a science vessel on a remote uninhabited planet 20 years prior. After contacting the only survivor of the crash, the captain is faced with a deeper mystery: why does that survivor refuse to leave the planet he crashed on, and why does he so badly want the captain to leave immediately?
The Creation of the Humanoids (1962). An obscure little gem about the consequences of artificial intelligence and robotics. It’s performed more like a stage play than a movie. Don’t expect action scenes, do expect lots of dialog.
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). Legendarily slow-paced but a true classic. Parodied and referenced in pop culture to the point where it might not surprise you at all. But if you haven’t seen it in full from start to finish it’s well worth doing so. A minor plot point is that the USSR and USA are allies, peacefully collaborating on space exploration. The only Soviets in the movie are a group of radio astronomers that one of the American main characters amiably chats with on a civilian space station that’s jointly operated by the USA and USSR. Not explicitly leftist but definitely not reactionary. Oh, and if you partake of cannabis from time to time, this is definitely a movie to watch after partaking. With a top-up during the intermission.
Beyond the Black Rainbow (2010). Set in the 1980s, a girl whose name can be shortened to “El” is being held captive in a psychic research facility. She’s being confined there by a creepy father-figure who has dark designs on her, and also on her telepathic and telekinetic abilities. (And if that sounds suspiciously familiar, just compare production dates.) Slow-paced, it’s an interesting blend of old-style and new-style filmmaking techniques.
Solaris (Tarkovsky, 1972). Easily one of the best movies I’ve ever seen. It’s available for free on YouTube with subtitles in English and a few other languages. Silent Running (Trumbull, 1972). This movie inspired the original set of Mystery Science Theater 3000. It’s not a masterpiece but it made me really emotional. The Fly (Neumann, 1958). A classic in sci-fi horror. There’s a 1986 remake by Cronenberg, but I can’t vouch for it as I haven’t seen that version yet. Asteroid City (Anderson, 2023). Very Wes Anderson. Made my eyes hurt when I saw it in the theater. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick, 1968). A visually stunning classic featuring evil robots. M3GAN (Johnstone, 2022). A horror story with a sci-fi premise. I like when robots get to be completely selfish.
I like when robots get to be completely selfish.
Have you seen “Eva” from 2011? If not, go in blind, I think you’ll like this one.
The Thing, 1982 version, is one of my favorites
THE GUN IS GOOD THE PENIS IS EVIL
Silent Running.
