The old school sci-fi recommendation thread

liveISlife · Post by **liveISlife** » Fri Aug 22, 2008 12:54 am

Hey thx for all the recommendations everyone!

oblique strategies · Post by **oblique strategies** » Fri Aug 22, 2008 1:15 am

liveISlife wrote:Hey thx for all the recommendations everyone!

"Happy to be of service."

pilgrimomega · Post by **pilgrimomega** » Fri Aug 22, 2008 1:30 am

A ton of great movies and influences listed here, many of which I share.

Some of you guys have good taste!

<and some have great taste!!!>

liveISlife · Post by **liveISlife** » Fri Aug 22, 2008 2:06 am

oblique strategies wrote:
liveISlife wrote:Hey thx for all the recommendations everyone!
"Happy to be of service."

Good looking out man. You sure did go out of your way to list the good stuff and I appreciate it my friend

oblique strategies · Post by **oblique strategies** » Fri Aug 22, 2008 2:19 am

Well, as must be readily apparent, I am a fanatic!

Glad you started the thread so I could gleefully go off the deep end.

pulsoc · Post by **pulsoc** » Fri Aug 22, 2008 2:43 am

Do Blade Runner and Total Recall count as old school? Or are you talking more 40'3 50's?

mikemc · Post by **mikemc** » Fri Aug 22, 2008 2:50 am

'The Blob' is an essential must see.
'Green Slime', the hit that never was.
'Them', giant ants in desert from nuclear test
'Giant Shrews', giant shrews.
Anything with a huge tarantula.
Anything dir by Ed Wood.
Anything dir by Roger Corman.
Flash Gordon, DVDs at dollar store.
Space Ghost, Fireball XL5, Thunderbirds (original)
so much is lost... the one where they land on Mars and mysteriously disappear... the one where they go into space to catch an asteroid, and the spaceship gets blown up...
ANY and ALL of the 'Outer Limits'

arachnaut · Post by **arachnaut** » Fri Aug 22, 2008 4:28 am

arachnaut · Post by **arachnaut** » Fri Aug 22, 2008 4:33 am

Pitch Black · Post by **Pitch Black** » Fri Aug 22, 2008 4:37 am

Hardware Wars

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7p96aiE32k

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UVVBctvylU

Saw this as a short with (I think) "The Adventures of the Wilderness Family"

oblique strategies · Post by **oblique strategies** » Fri Aug 22, 2008 5:20 am

pulsoc wrote:Do Blade Runner and Total Recall count as old school? Or are you talking more 40'3 50's?

For me these two are pretty recent. I don't really consider anything old school past about 1969. I sort of use the 70's as a break point. I do this for a lot of reasons. The monster movies pretty much died out after the 60's began, so there's only scattered sci-fi monster movies after that. Monsters (in a sci-fi context), came roaring back into fashion with flicks like Alien, & the remakes of The Fly & The Thing (goooood stuff by the way).

Each age has it's anxieties which become articulated in one form or another in films -especially horror & sci-fi films which have a fantastic & speculative nature that allows for anything to take place. Thus, anxiety can be writ large! Like the giant ants in 'Them!'

Mainly I was referring to 50's movies because the original post was about 'Forbidden Planet' 1956. This set me of a rampage about the joys of 1950's sci-fi movies. I was contrasting the early 50's (serious, A-Budget, major studios) vs. the later 50's (outlandish, monster driven, teenagers, B-Z budgets, independent productions). I love them both!

The 40's were a bit of a mire for both horror & sci-fi. The 1930's heyday of the horror film was over, the cycle was decaying from serious endeavors to comedy (Abbot Costello, etc.). Things were shifting aaway from teh supernatural & towards science fiction. There were a lot of poverty row mad scientist films with either Bela Lugosi or Boris Karloff in them, but these were usually poor films in all regards. The only shining light was Val Lewton who pretty much saved studio RKO with his series of literate & marvelously ambiguous horror films. He also pretty much ushered in Film Noir with out really knowing it!

PS: Speaking of Film Noir, Blade Runner is an all time fave, absolutely magnificent work.

liveISlife · Post by **liveISlife** » Fri Aug 29, 2008 2:48 am

i just watched The Day the Earth Stood Still. So great. I love the sounds. The ending was auwsum. I think I'm turning into one of these sci-fi enthusiasts.

bgc · Post by **bgc** » Fri Aug 29, 2008 4:23 am

liveISlife wrote:I think I'm turning into one of these sci-fi enthusiasts...

Science Fiction really is where it is at.

knotkranky · Post by **knotkranky** » Fri Aug 29, 2008 5:21 am

I saw "Silent Running" in.. I think 1974, it was double billed with "Billy Jack" which is not a sci fi but had a great titty scene for an 13 year old. They were huge and floppy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-evrxXEfAzo < silent running

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v325wdgoFH4 < billy jack. non titty scene.

smartass303 · Post by **smartass303** » Fri Aug 29, 2008 9:04 am

Im totally into TV series...

Dr. Who from BBC (70ees)

and

The Tripods also BBC (80ees)

Kickass stuff,

303