302. Forbidden Planet (1956)
Directed By Fred M. Wilcox
Synopsis
Shakespeare's The Tempest... IN SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE!
Review
Heh. I am an absolute geek for this kind of film. The sets, the music, the special effects, it is all perfect! The mini skirts on Anne Francis are even better! Now Leslie Nielsen is a bit crap in it, but he is forgiven... particularly because you spend the whole film expecting a double entendre of the "Nice Beaver" variety.
The special effects are actually surprisingly good, they really stood the test of time. I think it is generally true of when you do stuff with models instead of animatronics or CGI, in much the same way the ships on original Star Wars are still quite passable while Jar Jar Binks has always been shit.
But you watch this for the sheer glee-factor of it all. Robbie the robot is a cultural icon, the colours are fantastic, the plot is based on the Tempest and therefore it would be hard for it to be terrible, but the little addition of psychoanalytical babble at the end just adds a little bit more of what makes this film great. I suppose you have to be a sci-fi fan to love it, but it might convert you.
Final Grade
9/10
Trivia
From Wikipedia:
Gene Roddenberry noted in his biography Star Trek Creator that Forbidden Planet was one of the inspirations for Star Trek. The Star Trek episode Requiem for Methuselah shows many similarities to Forbidden Planet, as it is also based on Shakespeare's The Tempest. The character associations are: Prospero = Mr. Flint, Miranda = Rayna Kapec, and Ariel = "M4" The Sentry Robot.
The Doctor Who serial, Planet of Evil, was consciously partly based on Forbidden Planet.
Krell is a major brand of "high-end" audio equipment.
The author Colin Wilson has likened Forbidden Planet's "monsters from the id" to claimed occult phenomena involving monsters from the subconscious, and in his novel The Philosopher's Stone, the destruction of Mu is caused similarly by subconscious monsters from the sleeping minds of the Old Ones.
In Babylon 5, one particular shot of the Great Machine of Epsilon 3 (as seen in the episode "A Voice in the Wilderness") bears a strong resemblance to the bridge through the Great Machine of the Krell in Forbidden Planet. (Babylon 5's producer has stated that this similarity was clear at the time of production but the form the shot took was due to production requirements, and was not a deliberate reference to the film.)
In the computer game Space Quest 6: The Spinal Frontier, when an invisible creature attempts to escape from a cell, it is revealed in an outline similar to the id monster
In The Blob, a poster of Forbidden Planet can be seen during the movie theater scene.
The title of the Melvins song "The Fool, the Meddling Idiot" comes from a line of dialogue in the film.
In the film Halloween, Lindsey and Tommy can be seen watching Forbidden Planet while Laurie is babysitting them.
In Jim Jarmusch's 1984 film Stranger Than Paradise the characters Willie and Éva are watching Forbidden Planet on television.
There is an alien race in Captain Kremmen known as the Krells who are possibly named after the alien civilisation in this film.
In the stage musical The Rocky Horror Show (1973), and later the film The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), the opening song entitled Science Fiction/Double Feature contains a reference to Forbidden Planet: "Anne Francis stars in Forbidden Planet."
Episode 20 of the TV Series Painkiller Jane has a similar monster of the Id appearing, shadowed under old superstitions of Gypsy curses.
Trailer:
Synopsis
Shakespeare's The Tempest... IN SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE!
Review
Heh. I am an absolute geek for this kind of film. The sets, the music, the special effects, it is all perfect! The mini skirts on Anne Francis are even better! Now Leslie Nielsen is a bit crap in it, but he is forgiven... particularly because you spend the whole film expecting a double entendre of the "Nice Beaver" variety.
The special effects are actually surprisingly good, they really stood the test of time. I think it is generally true of when you do stuff with models instead of animatronics or CGI, in much the same way the ships on original Star Wars are still quite passable while Jar Jar Binks has always been shit.
But you watch this for the sheer glee-factor of it all. Robbie the robot is a cultural icon, the colours are fantastic, the plot is based on the Tempest and therefore it would be hard for it to be terrible, but the little addition of psychoanalytical babble at the end just adds a little bit more of what makes this film great. I suppose you have to be a sci-fi fan to love it, but it might convert you.
Final Grade
9/10
Trivia
From Wikipedia:
Gene Roddenberry noted in his biography Star Trek Creator that Forbidden Planet was one of the inspirations for Star Trek. The Star Trek episode Requiem for Methuselah shows many similarities to Forbidden Planet, as it is also based on Shakespeare's The Tempest. The character associations are: Prospero = Mr. Flint, Miranda = Rayna Kapec, and Ariel = "M4" The Sentry Robot.
The Doctor Who serial, Planet of Evil, was consciously partly based on Forbidden Planet.
Krell is a major brand of "high-end" audio equipment.
The author Colin Wilson has likened Forbidden Planet's "monsters from the id" to claimed occult phenomena involving monsters from the subconscious, and in his novel The Philosopher's Stone, the destruction of Mu is caused similarly by subconscious monsters from the sleeping minds of the Old Ones.
In Babylon 5, one particular shot of the Great Machine of Epsilon 3 (as seen in the episode "A Voice in the Wilderness") bears a strong resemblance to the bridge through the Great Machine of the Krell in Forbidden Planet. (Babylon 5's producer has stated that this similarity was clear at the time of production but the form the shot took was due to production requirements, and was not a deliberate reference to the film.)
In the computer game Space Quest 6: The Spinal Frontier, when an invisible creature attempts to escape from a cell, it is revealed in an outline similar to the id monster
In The Blob, a poster of Forbidden Planet can be seen during the movie theater scene.
The title of the Melvins song "The Fool, the Meddling Idiot" comes from a line of dialogue in the film.
In the film Halloween, Lindsey and Tommy can be seen watching Forbidden Planet while Laurie is babysitting them.
In Jim Jarmusch's 1984 film Stranger Than Paradise the characters Willie and Éva are watching Forbidden Planet on television.
There is an alien race in Captain Kremmen known as the Krells who are possibly named after the alien civilisation in this film.
In the stage musical The Rocky Horror Show (1973), and later the film The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), the opening song entitled Science Fiction/Double Feature contains a reference to Forbidden Planet: "Anne Francis stars in Forbidden Planet."
Episode 20 of the TV Series Painkiller Jane has a similar monster of the Id appearing, shadowed under old superstitions of Gypsy curses.
Trailer:
posted by Francisco Silva @ 2:47 AM
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