The future is a curious thing. In many ways, it is the endless repetition of the past, only with different clothes on (simplistic, but strangely true), yet in other ways, it unfolds quite differently than anyone would have ever imagined. Ever since H.G. Wells and Jules Verne gave birth to science fiction in the 19th century, dreaming in literary form about fantastical concepts like time travel, visitors from another planet, and even traveling to the center of the earth, each generation has developed its own concepts of what one day might be possible and what the future will bring.
Science fiction filmmaking in the 20th century became emblematic of that generational daydream, each decade serving almost as a dividing marker between distinct ‘visions’ of tomorrow unique to their time.
1950's Flying Saucers vs. 1960's Science Fiction Allegories
The 1950’s exploded into B-grade, pulp madness, with ray-guns, flying saucers and alien invaders dominating in bold Technicolor, the simple, visceral allure of visualizing fantastical things onscreen often over-shadowing more intellectual concerns for story. The 1960’s meanwhile began dreaming a bigger dream, with science fiction films and television series taking man’s journey outward into the galaxy and exploring man’s place in the universe. At the same time, science fiction films in the ‘60’s began growing more sociological and reflective of then current social concerns, successfully mixing space fantasy with metaphor.
Retrospectively, these dividing eras of science fiction filmmaking each serve as unique time capsules reflecting a particular time and social sensibility. As the years go on, each era inevitably grows more and more outdated, but what tends to stand out about them and endure is the distinct visualization of that time period, a unique look and feel of envisioning the world of tomorrow that will never and can never be duplicated by any era to follow. Times change, technology changes, film audience expectations change, and perhaps most importantly, the social zeitgeist moves on to other preoccupations. Simply put, the ‘future’ unfolds differently.
Looking back, an island completely of its own in the sci-fi, evolutionary continuum is the science fiction film world of the pre-Star Wars 1970’s.
Science Fiction Gets Paranoid and Post-Nuclear in the 1970's
Before Star Wars blew open the door of mixing space fantasy with adventure by again looking outwards into space, the science fiction films of the 1970’s were predominantly insular and paranoid visions of earthbound future-worlds. In fact, before the arrival of Star Wars in 1977, and of Close Encounters of the Third Kind later that same year, it is almost surprising to note the almost complete lack of an ‘alien’ presence or of ‘space travel/exploration’ depicted in any of the 1970’s most notable science fiction films up until that point.
The predominant fascination of science fiction in this era had suddenly become where our future, earth-bound society was headed, and typically the outlook was quite grim. In one way or another, society seemed to be in conflict or in threat of meeting its end in a ‘not too distant future,’ whether by technology overtaking us, government run amok, or by man’s own doing in a post-nuclear world.
Nightmare Visions of Tomorrow
A post-nuclear earth resulted in the dysfunctional, underground civilizations represented in THX-1138 (1971) and Logan’s Run (1976), while shades of some post-disaster or crumbling civilization are evident in Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970), A Clockwork Orange (1971), The Omega Man (1971), Soylent Green (1973), and post-Star Wars, in the Australian action film Mad Max (1979).
What is unique to note, in almost all cases here, the paranoia in these films turn out to be quite justified in some terrifying truth, encapsulated perhaps most famously by Charlton Heston’s horrified realization that “Soylent Green is MADE out of PEOPLE!” The overriding theme represented in these films is that audiences should be paranoid of their government and of their society.
A Stylistic Approach of Minimalism Insinuates Futuristic Worlds
One thing that really stands out and uniquely defines science fiction of the pre-Star Wars 1970’s is the stylistic approach by which these films were made. They were often low-budgeted films which did not rely too heavily on special effects. Instead, they insinuated futuristic worlds based more on a design approach of minimalism, through clever use of set design, costumes, and through use of electronic/synthetic sounds and music, all orchestrated together to convey the atmosphere of a foreign future-world.
The fact that a film like THX-1138 successfully evokes a very strange and technological society of the future using almost entirely existing locales of the early 1970’s is really a pretty astonishing triumph of filmmaking. Special mention should be made of Walter Murch’s incredible sound design for that film, which provided a whole other level of audience experience by creating an entire, aural landscape unique to that film world (a pre-cursor to the work of Ben Burtt on George Lucas’ Star Wars).
When it comes to their use of sound and music, these films used everything from classical music, to highly experimental orchestrations, to inventing and using synthetic/electronic instruments and sounds, to even incorporating 1970’s style funk and electric guitars (and in this last instance, the main title theme of the British-produced television series Space: 1999 serves as an appropriately kitschy reminder, though that series was more of Star Trek inspired space adventure).
1960's Influence
The films of this unique sub-genre within science fiction also play as an outgrowth and continuation of the changes science fiction was going through towards the end of the 1960’s. Francois Truffuat's 1966 film version of Fahrenheit 451 would seem to be aligned thematically and stylistically with the 1970's depictions of future dystopia.
Many of the 1970's films also continued to take a highly experimental approach to filmmaking, while also incorporating sexuality and sexual themes in a much more pronounced way than their late-60’s predecessors. As a curious side-note, perhaps in keeping with their minimal, though evocative, design approach, these films also have multiple examples of turning bald women into objects of desire. How strange and futuristic!
Before Star Wars altered the landscape of science fiction filmmaking, the 1970’s were uniquely defined by a series of sci-fi films that were unified in their pre-occupations of a future dystopia, as well as unified in their minimal design approach to depict their dark, future visions.
Dimitri Aleksandrovic - Dimitri Aleksandrovic is brand new to Suite 101 and to the online writing community. A graduate of Communications from Depauw University ...
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