History of science fiction

The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)

Director: Robert Wise

Stars: Michael Rennie, Patricia Neal, Hugh Marlowe, Sam Jaffe

Distribution Company: 20^th Century Fox

This film is about an alien who comes to earth via a space ship and urgently needs to deliver a warning message to all the nations of the world. His attempts to get the government to help him in his task prove futile, so in the end he turns to a renowned scientist for his help in getting a chance to relay his message. He is constantly being hunted b the military and the police, meanwhile the people in the area are panicked while he is on the loose, despite him doing no harm to anyone.

Cowboy Bebop, The Movie (2001)

Director: Shinichiro Watanabe

Stars: (music) Yoko Kanno, various voice actors

Distribution: Sony Pictures Entertainment Japan

This is an animated based on an animated TV series by the name of Cowboy Bebop. The premise for the movie follows a group of bounty hunters who manage to find themselves chasing an elusive bio-terrorist who is bent on killing off life with a nano-machine virus on Halloween. Tracking down the terrorist’s identity and location prove quite difficult, and nearly get several of the group killed in the process.

An interesting note about the film’s release timing is that it came out on September 1^st, just a week and a half before an actual terrorist attack.

Other sci-fi films I have seen or seen excepts from:

1: Planet of the Apes

2: Alien

3: The Terminator

4: Dune

5: the Matrix

How is genre treated? How has it evolved?

By definition, science fiction genre can be seen as fiction dealing with made up content involving futuristic settings, science, technology, time travel and other various science rooted ideas. The 2 main films I watched in this genre are very fundamentally different in that one of them uses actual film, while the other is completely animated with CG, yet they are both of the science fiction genre for a number of reasons that cross between the artistic boundaries of their sub-genres.

In The Day the Earth Stood Still, the setting of the movie is very believable, but it is made into science fiction by the inclusion of extraterrestrial life, space travel, space ships, and futuristic technology, an example of which is the robot which accompanies the protagonist form his ship. Cowboy Bebop, The Movie  on the other hand, takes several of those aspects, but throws any hint of real life out fo the window since it is completely animated and is set in a futuristic setting in the distant future. Despite being in its own sub-genre, it still is very much science fiction for its use of future technology like space travel, high tech weaponry, and advanced technology.

What is the earliest example of a film in this genre?

Science fiction films have been around since the early days of filmmaking. The earliest dated film that is usually considered as part of this genre is Le Voyage dans la Lune, which was directed by Georges Melies  in 1902. Its fictional idea of launching a spacecraft at the moon from a cannon, alien life forms, and at the time groundbreaking special effects, helped pave the way for the basis of the science fiction genre in film.

How did the genre emerge and change over time?

I feel that the science fiction genre has changed significantly since its first inception in the early days of film, but at the same time, still holds many of the same ideas and concepts that it first did. You take for instance George Melies’ film Le Voyage dans la Lune from 1902. Looking at the film, the story of it was fairly simple, but it contained advanced technology, alien life, and other aspects that have become staples in a vast array of sci-fi movies and shows. You then move forward 50 or so years or more to the cold war era, science fiction films often then focused on alien invasions, where if you read between the lines you could see it was the stereotypes portrayal of facism and communism, yet it contained all the elements of futuristic settings, technology, time travel, etc. so I guess you could say that I don’t really think the genre has changed terribly much since its debut. Movies in this genre are still made with inspiration from early science fiction writings, just as the first films is the genre were as well.

What defines the genre? 

The definition of the science fiction genre is one of fictional nature that relates to having advanced or futuristic settings, technology, alien forms of life, and advanced science beyond what we currently have. In their time, films such as those of James bond often had sci-fi styled gadgets such as laser watches, flying or submersible vehicles, etc. Over time though, we have slowly been catching up on this technology, and as it once was considered nothing but fantasy and ideas, is slowly coming to a point where it might soon be a reality. For this reason, science fiction is often placed many years ahead of us, or in a completely different setting overall, such as an alternate timeline.

Conventions used in the genre? 

The convention used for the science fiction genre I think vary on the film, but they do all have an underlying principle and guide to them that keeps them on track with the genre or one of its sub-genres. This is more tied into the definition of the genre itself, as it is often dependent on the time and place the movie was made in and the political scene at the time. In the 1950’s, most science fiction films were focused on extraterrestrial life and alien invasions, which were used as stylized depictions of the political turmoil of the time. If you boil it down to its most basics, it comes down to having some futuristic aspect that is beyond our current reality or setting.

Famous people for this genre?

There are countless famous individuals who would qualify to be listed here, but I shall only name off a few of them. One of the first that cannot be overlooked was Georges Melies with Le Voyage dans le Lune in 1902. This was arguably the first feature length science fiction film ever created and helped to lay the very groundwork for the genre in film as a whole. You then have directors like Fritz Lang, who went on to make Metropolis, which has become iconic in the science fiction film community and is still critically acclaimed to this day for its special effects and inventive scenes. On another note, you have someone like H.G. Wells, who was never a director of films, but who’s writing and stories were the basis for numerous movies throughout the years. In more recent years, one director of note for me that comes to immediate thought is James Cameron for his work on the movie Avatar, which he is now well known for. His use of advanced CG technology and deep story help to materialize a completely fictional world in an almost lifelike quality and definitely deserves a mention here.