Decolonizing encounters of the third kind: Alternative futuring in native science fiction films

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Willi Lampert
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
The Third ◽  
Science Fiction Films ◽  
Native Science

Close Encounters: Genre and Context

2016 ◽  
pp. 17-24
Author(s):  
Jon Towlson
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
Greek Mythology ◽  
Art Cinema ◽  
Special Effects ◽  
Star Wars ◽  
The Third ◽  
Close Encounters ◽  
Human Need ◽  
Science Fiction Films

This chapter discusses the genre and context of Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977). It begins by tracing the emergence of science fiction in literature and in cinema. The chapter then looks at how film serials popularised pulp science-fiction cinema in the form of rocketships, ray guns, alien invaders, evil intergalactic emperors, and damsels in distress. One can see them as the inspiration for the likes of Star Wars and the myriad superhero blockbuster movies that continue to dominate Hollywood today. In 1968, Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey returned science fiction to its origins in Greek mythology. It is perhaps the first example of ‘transcendent’ science-fiction cinema, exploring the human need to place trust in a force larger than ourselves. In the early 1970s, science-fiction films were more overtly concerned with identity and environment, and how both were increasingly shaped or misshapen by technology. Meanwhile, post-9/11 has seen a move towards intelligent science fiction as a bankable commodity within Hollywood. Part of the genre's continuing appeal is, of course, the showcasing of state-of-the-art cinema technology within the sci-fi narrative. Special-effects technology has evolved in line with cinema's own development.

scholarly journals Fantastyka naukowa w polskim piśmiennictwie krytycznofilmowym przełomu lat pięćdziesiątych i sześćdziesiątych XX wieku

2021 ◽  
Vol 28 (37) ◽  
pp. 99-125
Author(s):  
Robert Dudziński
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Science Fiction Films ◽  
The 1950S

The article is devoted to the Polish reception of science-fiction cinema; the statements of film critics from 1956–1965 were analysed. During this period, science fiction, previously absent from the screens of Polish cinemas for ideological and censorship reasons, returned to the repertoire and became the subject of press discussions and reviews. The analysis of articles devoted to this genre and published at the time allows reconstruction of the cultural context in which science-fiction productions operated. The article consists of three main parts. In the first of these, the author describes which science fiction films were present in Polish cinemas at the turn of the 1950s and 1960s. In the second part, he analyses press statements devoted to the history and aesthetics of the genre. The subject under consideration in the third part is the reception of two productions, which at the time enjoyed the greatest interest from contemporary critics: Godzilla (Gojira, 1954, dir. Ishirō Honda) and The Silent Star (Der schweigende Stern 1960, dir. Kurt Maetzig).

Jurassic Park

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Bullock
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Steven Spielberg ◽  
The Third ◽  
Close Encounters ◽  
The World ◽  
The Impact

‘Constellations: Jurassic Park’ explores how Steven Spielberg used the film to investigate several key themes that have been important to him across his career. These themes are: nature and humankind’s relationship with it, the importance of cinematic fantasy and how it shapes our view of the world, and the impact of toxic masculinity on both men and women. The book also looks at how Spielberg blends genres across his career as a whole and Jurassic Park specifically. This is particularly true of the science fiction and horror genres, which are used in Jurassic Park to create a film that is both cathartically scary and thematically satisfying. These points are contextualised within the wider scope of Spielberg’s life and career to understand how Jurassic Park acted as bridging point between the light entertainments he had been known for up to that point (Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, for example) and the more serious filmmaking he focused on after its release (Saving Private Ryan and Lincoln).

Military Stock Footage

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steffen Hantke
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Science Fiction ◽  
Public Domain ◽  
The Public ◽  
Standard Device ◽  
The Common ◽  
Science Fiction Films ◽  
The Military

This chapter focuses on the recruitment of the audience into the “military metaphysics” that C. Wright Mills decries as a symptom of America's Cold War mentality. More specifically, it reads attempts at recruitment made by science fiction films of the period through the use of military stock footage. Pilfering the public domain for footage to be inserted into one's own film was a standard device of inexpensive filmmaking that found one of its most extreme expressions in Alfred E. Green's Invasion U.S.A. (1952). Generally dismissed as a hack job and mercilessly lampooned by Mystery Science Theater 3000, Invasion U.S.A. is a prime example of a politically engaged film using one of the common stylistic devices of 1950s low-budget filmmaking.

Energy matters

2020 ◽  
pp. 105-144
Author(s):  
Upamanyu Pablo Mukherjee
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Energy System ◽  
Indian Science ◽  
The Third ◽  
Theoretical Developments

The third chapter concentrates on how Indian science fiction met the representational challenges regarding energy during the non-aligned era. These decades were marked by chronic ‘energy crises’ in the country, involving massive shortages in food and fuel. Drawing on recent theoretical developments in Energy Humanities, the chapter suggests that much of the science fiction of the time was animated by attempts to present the pitfalls of thinking about energy exclusively in terms of resource and extraction and imagine what a non-exploitative energy-system could look like.

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