Here is where to post questions or comments about sfsite

[catthom]

Well, I found your top ten lists on your website. In most part- we are in agreement, but I have to disagree about Samuel Delaney. I think Dhalgren is his best.

[admin]

I'm with you. Dhalgren is great. Too bad he became a college professor and stopped writing science fiction.

But the top ten list under discussion here is the list of sf films before Dr. Strangelove that are (maybe?) still worth watching. It's in my Babylon 5.1 column for mid-July, and I invited comments because I honestly wonder what someone born, say, after Strangelove would make of them. What, for example, would a modern moviegoer make of Things to Come or Destination Moon?

[slaven41]

I think you've got a misprint. The list actually says before 1976, but I think you mean before 1964. (If you really meant 1976, then not including 2001 violates some sort of law, doesn't it?)

I haven't seen all the movies on the list, but the ones on the list that I HAVE seen probably mostly belong there. I'd like to replace Journey to the Center of the Earth with Metropolis, however. I just laugh whenever I see Journey on TV. Part of my laughter is unfair, since we knew so little about the earth's interior in Verne's day. But even so, we DID know in Verne's day that the round trip journey these people are intending to make on foot and with ropes is 8000 miles long, and the last 4000 are straight up. (Which seems wildly implausible to me, even accounting for the weaker gravitational field as you go down.)

On the other hand, Metropolis is visually stunning, and a neat dystopia. Way ahead of its time.

--Dave

[admin]

I admit it. My fondness of Journey to the Center of the Earth is totally irrational. Metropolis is a better film. But when I watch Jouney I smile, and Metropolis bores me. What can I say. I have bad taste. Which is why I sought out feedback like yours, which I'll mention in the mid-August column.

Thanks for the date correction.

[catthom]

I agree with the inclusion of Metropolis, such an imaginative film with glorious set designs- very emblematic of German Expressionism (I teach art history, among other things).
So, now my own 2 U.S. favorites, but it would be hard for me to toss out many of those on your list:
Invaders from Mars
The Fly
Outside of the U.S.:
Atomic War Bride, a 1960 Yugoslav science fiction drama film directed by Veljko Bulajić.
The Face of Another, a 1966 Japanese film directed by Hiroshi Teshigahara


Special mention goes to the TV series, Stingray with supermarionation, my sister and I loved that show; stupid marionettes, horrible theme song and all. I'm probably the only person here who would admit to loving that show.

[admin]

First, I owe Slaven41 and apology. I said I'd mention his comment in my mid-August column, but I forgot.

I thought about including Invaders from Mars on the list, but while the first twenty minutes or so are brilliant, the rest of the film has too many borrowed cuts from footage borrowed from the army, showing tanks and so forth going from here to there. As for The Fly, it seems more in the horror genre, which I was avoiding (hence, no Frankenstein).

I haven't seen the two foreign films you mention. Are they available from Netflix?

[catthom]

I've seen them listed on Amazon, but I don't have Netflix, so no idea. They are definitely worth viewing.