Science Fiction Genre

Typical Characteristics

• Science Fiction Films are a version of fantasy films. They are usually scientific, visionary, comic-strip-like, and imaginative - complete with heroes, distant planets, impossible quests, improbable settings, fantastic places, great dark and shadowy villains, futuristic technology, unknown and inexplicable forces, the dangerous nature of knowledge ('some things Man is not meant to know'), and extraordinary monsters ('things or creatures from space'), either created by misguided mad scientists or by nuclear havoc.

Sci-fi tales have a prophetic nature (they often attempt to figure out or

depict the future) and are often set in a future time.

• Commonly, sci-fi films express society's anxiety about technology and how to forecast and control the impact of technological and environmental change on contemporary society.

Science fiction often expresses the potential of technology to destroy humankind through Armageddon-like events, or through the loss of personal individuality

The genre easily can overlap with horror films, particularly when technology or alien life forms become malevolent (e.g.Alien

(1979))

The most memorable blending of science fiction and horror was in Universal Studios' mad scientist-doctor/monster masterpiece from

director James Whale, Frankenstein (1931), an

adaptation of Mary Shelley's novel.

In response to a growing interest in rocketry and space

exploration, feature-length space travel films gained popularity in

the early 1950s.

• A Space Odyssey was based on the 1948 short story The Sentinel, by English science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke. It’s screenplay was co-authored by Stanley Kubrick and Clarke from an expanded novelization . The film’s title was chosen because It was the first year of the new Millennium of the next century.

The Film

Kubrick's Science-Fiction Classic:

The most celebrated, religious, and transcendent of all space films up to that time, it visualized space travel with incredible magnificence and seriousness. Kubrick's respectable, influential film was 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) (with only 40 minutes of dialogue), based on Arthur C. Clarke's novel, which restored legitimacy to the science-fiction genre.

Music

• Kubrick planned to have Alex North (who wrote the score for Kubrick's Spartacus (1960)) write a musical score especially for the film. During filming, Kubrick played classical music on the set to create the right mood. Delighted with the effect, he decided to use classical music in the finished product. North's score has subsequently been released as "Alex North's 2001".

1968

• “2001: A Space Odyssey” was released in 1968, coincidentally, at the height of the space race between the USSR and the US.

A Space Odyssey• This is an epic film containing more

spectacular imagery and special effects than verbal dialogue.

• The first spoken word is almost a half hour into the film, and there’s less than 40 minutes of dialogue in the entire film.

• All scenes in the film have either dialogue or music(or silence), but never both together.

Kubrick's film won the Oscar for Best Special Effects in

1968.

• After 2001's success, Hollywood produced many more space adventure films, including more serious science-fiction films, Robert Wise's Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) and Robert Zemeckis' Contact (1997) with Jodie Foster examined further space journeys, contacts with alien life, and metaphysical questions about man's place in the universe.

Stanley Kubrick

According to Katharina Kubrick, Stanley Kubrick provided the breathing heard in the spacesuits.

The Film• According to Douglas Trumbell, the total

footage shot was some 200 times the final length.

• Co screenwriter Arthur Clarke said, “If you understand 2001 completely, then we failed.” They wanted to raise many more questions than the movie answered.

To make things creepier…

• Douglas Rain (the voice of HAL) never visited the set.

Much like the Wizard of Oz (1939) and “Dark Side of the Moon”, it is said that the Pink Floyd song “Echoes” from the album Meddle can be perfectly synchronized with the “Jupiter & Beyond the Infinite” segment of the film.

Coincidence?• Incrementing each letter of

"HAL" gives you "IBM". Arthur C. Clarke (co-screenwriter) claimed this was unintentional, and if he had noticed it before it was too late, he would have changed it. HAL stands for Heuristic ALgorithmic Computer.