• Home
  • Film Classes
  • Short Films
    • Love is a function of Death
    • usa.DT
    • Banality of Evil
    • 2 Yahoos and a bottle of Rum
    • The Here Between
    • Pale Side of Darkness
    • The Restroom
    • MetA-Romantic
  • Photography
    • 21 Final Candidates for the 7 Wonders of the World >
      • Pyramids of Giza
      • Chichen Itza
      • Machu Picchu
      • Roman Colosseum
      • Neuschwanstein Castle
      • Statue of Liberty
      • Stonehenge
      • Hagia Sophia
      • Acropolis
      • Eiffel Tower
      • Alhambra
      • Christ Redeemer
    • 7 Natural Wonders of the World >
      • Paricutin Volcano
      • Grand Canyon
      • Northern Lights
      • The Harbor of Rio de Janeiro
      • Iguazu Falls
    • Natural Wonders of the U.S.A >
      • The Wave
      • The Racetrack
      • Yellowstone
      • Slot Canyons and more
      • Arches National Park
      • Bryce Canyon
      • Carlsbad Caverns
      • Badlands National Park
      • Canyonlands
    • Abandoned Places
    • Nature +
    • Faces
    • Interesting Places in USA
    • Interesting Places in Europe
  • Film Blog
    • Film Theory >
      • Women in Film Noir
      • Why do we have movie theaters?
      • Film Noir-Movement or Genre
      • How to understand box-office figures
    • Classic Films >
      • Touch of Evil
      • Citizen Kane - Overview
      • Citizen Kane - Firing of Leland
      • Citizen Kane - Declaration of Principles
      • I Am Cuba
      • Grand Illusion
      • Numbers and Language in "A Clockwork Orange"
      • JFK
      • Tout va b!en
      • Rear Window
      • "Vertigo" versus "A Man Escaped"
      • Meaning of 2001: A Space Odyssey
      • The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
      • Network
      • Casablanca
    • Recent Films >
      • "The Matrix," freedom and Alice in Wonderland
      • Sweet and Lowdown
      • Taxi Driver
      • The Weather Underground
      • Lone Star
      • Cotton Club
      • From "Gimme Shelter" to "Spinal Tap"
      • Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
      • Requiem for a Dream
      • The Elephant Man
      • Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
      • Natural Born Killers
    • 21 Century >
      • Gravity
      • Blue is the warmest color
      • Spike Lee and the missing link in his "essential films" list
      • Kon-Tiki
      • The Place Beyond the Pines
      • Searching for Sugar Man
      • Killing them Softly
      • Silver Linings Playbook
      • Drive
      • Midnight in Paris
  • Best Films
    • The Best Films Ever Made
    • Best Noir Films
    • Best Neo-Noir Films
    • Best Comedy Films
    • Best Documentary Films
    • Best Western Films
    • Best Animation Films
    • Best Cinematography
    • Best Science-Fiction films
    • Best Screenwriters
    • Amazing Films
    • Best Film Directors
    • Best Experimental Films
    • Film Genres >
      • Gangster Films
      • Western Films
      • Science Fiction (Sci-Fi) Films
      • Woman's Film
      • Comedy Films
      • Nonfiction Films
      • Animated Films
      • Experimental Films
    • The Motion Picture Production Code
    • Film Quotes
  • Orson Welles
    • Rare pictures from "Citizen Kane"
    • Rare pictures from "The Magnificent Ambersons"
    • Rare Orson Welles pictures, awards and drawings
    • Rare pictures from "The Stranger," "Lady from Shanghai," "Hearts of Darkness," "It's all True," "Macbeth," and "Othello"
    • Rare pictures from Orson Welles Magic Show, Radio career and Theater productions
  • Cinema History
  • Contact
ilianFilm
ilianFIlm

Film Genres | Science Fiction (Sci-Fi) Films



​The typical science fiction movie has a form as predicable as a Western and is made up of elements that are classic 
as the saloon brawl, the blond schoolteacher from the East, and the gun duel on the deserted main street. 

Sci-fi films are about disaster. 
Here disaster is not viewed intensively, its always extensive. 
Thus the science fiction movie is concerned with the aesthetics of destruction , with the peculiar beauties to be found
 in wreaking havoc, making a mess. And it is in the imagery of destruction that the core of a good sci-fi movie lies. 

These movies supply extreme moral simplification - that is to say, a morally acceptable fantasy where one can give outlet to cruel 
or at least amoral feelings. In this respect these movies overlap with horror movies. 
This is the undeniable pleasure we derive from looking at freaks. The sense of superiority over the freak conjoined in varying proportions with the titillation of fear and aversion makes it possible for moral scruples to be lifted, for cruelty to be enjoyed. 

Science fiction movies are one of the purest forms of spectacle, that is, we are rarely inside anyone's feelings. 

Things, objects, machinery play a major role in these films. 

A greater range of ethical values is embodied in the decor of these movies than in the people. 
According to sci-fi movies man is naked without his artifacts. THEY stand for different values, they are potent , 
they are what get destroyed, and they are in the indispensable tools for the repulse of the alien invaders or the repair 
of the damaged environment. 

Science fiction movies are strongly moralistic. 

The standard message is the humane use of science verses the obsessional use of science. 

Alongside the hopeful fantasy of moral simplification and international unity embodied in these movies lurk 

the deepest anxieties about contemporary existence. 
I don't mean only the very real trauma of the Bomb. 

These movies can also be described as a popular mythology for the contemporary negative imagination about the impersonal. 

The other-world creatures that seek to take "us" over are an "it," not a "they." 
The planetary invaders are usually "zombie-like," if they are human in form (dressed in space suits) then they obey most rigid military discipline, and display no personal characteristics whatsoever. 
And it is this regime of emotionlessness, of impersonality, of regimentation, which they will impose on the earth if they are successful. This theme of dehumanization is maybe the most fascinating. 

The attitude of the science fiction movies toward it is mixed. 
On one hand, they deplore it as the ultimate horror. On the other hand, certain characteristics of the dehumanized invaders, 
modulated and disguised - such as the ascendancy of reason over feelings, 
the idealization of teamwork and the consensus-creating activities of science, 
a marked degree of moral simplification - are precisely traits of the savior-scientist. 

There is absolutely no social criticism, of even the most implicit kind, in the sci-fi movies. 

No criticism of the conditions of our society which create the impersonality and dehumanization 
which science fiction fantasies displace onto the influence of an alien IT.


ilianFilm

Photography
Film Canon
Contact

All materials Copyright © 2022 ilianFIlm - All rights reserved.
No commercial reproduction, adaptation, distribution or transmission of any part or parts of this website or any
information contained therein by any means whatsoever is permitted without prior written permission.



© 2022 ilianFilm.com All Rights Reserved