70s – The Rise of Science Fiction
After the United States’ successful moon landing in 1969, space was on everyone’s mind. What were once fantasies of space travel and interplanetary creatures now seemed like a not-too-distant reality. The cultural impact of the Apollo moon landing was felt across the globe, and for many, it felt like the beginning of a new era.
Almost immediately, the impact of the moon landing could be seen in pop culture. Science fiction films, which at the time were mostly hokey stories with cheap costumes and painted sets, were now seeing a boom in interest. Movie studios quickly picked up on this growing interest in sci-fi, and began pouring money into these films like never before. Paired with the recent developments in special effects, the science fiction films from the 70s lead an entire generation to dream big and to never stare at the stars in the same way again.
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
By the mid 70s, Stephen Spielberg was Hollywood’s hottest new director. Coasting off the massive success of his terrifying shark film Jaws, Spielberg was finally able to find funding for the passion-project movie, for which he had written the script for nearly 5 years earlier. This film, named Close Encounters of the Third Kind, was a science fiction film with a completely different angle that what audiences had been used to. There were no far-fetched human technologies or green bug-eyed aliens to be seen. Instead, the main characters of the film were set in a very typical 1970s suburb, where nothing unusual would ever be expected. This might sound like a typical set-up from our modern perspective, but by 70s standards Close Encounters was a bold departure from the genre’s conventions.
The movie told the story of an American man from rural Indiana who comes across evidence of extra-terrestrial life after spotting a UFO in the night sky. The film does an excellent job of depicting all the fear and paranoia that would occur in such unconventional circumstances, as well as the overreaction and occasional denial of the citizens involved. The normalcy of the movie’s setting made the supernatural elements more relatable and terrifying than ever before, and cemented Spielberg’s reputation as one of the best directors in the business.
What can be said about Star Wars that hasn’t already been said a thousand times before? The cultural phenomenon caused by this movie has yet to be matched by any other franchise. Today it is difficult to separate the first Star Wars movie from the massive franchise it has spawned, but what this first film accomplished was nothing short of extraordinary. The massive fan base garnered by this movie was no coincidence; Star Wars was truly a film unlike anything audiences had ever seen. But what’s most interesting about Star Wars was how completely unprepared the film’s cast and crew were for the massive success and praise that their movie was about to receive.
Written and directed by George Lucas, a young California director with a knack for biting off more than he could chew, very few people in the cast and crew of Star Wars had much faith in the movie. Mark Hamill, who played the leading role of Luke Skywalker, has gone on record saying that he believed that the movie was going to be a complete disaster. He felt that the costumes and special effects were phenomenal, but that the corny story and childish dialogue would cause audiences to laugh. He did not feel like this film would be taken seriously at all, but instead fall under the realm of ‘guilty pleasures’. Even more surprising, actor Alec Guinness (who played the role of Obi-Wan Kenobi) described the film as “fairytale rubbish”. The Success of Star Wars was a complete surprise to everyone, and went on to completely change the face of cinema as a whole.
Arriving right at the end of the decade, Ridley Scott’s Alien took a lot of the themes of exploration and discovery from the other sci-fi films of the 70s, and completely flipped the genre on its head. As opposed to the light-hearted fun of movies like Star Wars, no one in their right mind would ever dream of exploring space after viewing the horrors of Alien.
The plot of Alien follows the crew of a human commercial spacecraft as it investigates a mysterious signal on a derelict asteroid. What follows is a horrific tale that follows the conventions of a typical slasher film, as mystery monster kills off its victims one by one. Only this time, the humans are stuck in the most claustrophobic of locations; the narrow, tight quarters of a spaceship in the dead of space. Alien also features a badass female protagonist, Ripley, played by Sigourney Weaver. Woman in leading roles for such action-oriented films were somewhat of a rarity, and unfortunately the trend set by Alien didn’t carry over into the testosterone-fueled action movies of the 80s.
