Watch the Skies!: Science Fiction, the 1950s and Us (2005)

Trailer

‘Stephen Spielberg’, Ridley Scott, James Cameron and George Lucas discuss the importance of science fiction films and the influence of the genre. Following the end of World War II, new kinds of enemies appeared, those that could not be seen such as the atom or the fear of the unknown such as that resulting from the cold war. Movies became metaphors for those fears and science fiction films took many forms. They include giant bugs such as the ants in Them! (1954) or inanimate object such as in The Monolith Monsters (1957). In The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957) the terror comes from everyday life – a cat, a spider – as the man gets smaller and smaller. Science fiction involving space travel required more imagination. Destination Moon (1950) and Rocketship X-M (1950) were early attempts at taking a serious look at space flight and its implications. Then there were encounters with aliens, some benign, such as Klaatu from The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) or aggressive aliens as terrorist or a danger to humankind such as in Invaders from Mars (1953) or The War of the Worlds (1953).

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Genre: Documentary