There have been waves of interest in science creating pockets of popular movies over the years. Typically a lot of really good movies are made, and then some less good ones, and then none are made for a while and then a new one kicks off the trend again.
One such era where sci-fi was popular is the fifties, during Hollywood's celebration of the optimism of post-war commercial expansion. I quite like
Forbidden Planet (1956), for instance, because it tries to address the known limitations of of interstellar travel. (With the excellent baritone of Walter Pidgeon, dispensing sententious wisdom to Leslie Nielson, in a pre-comic leading role.) The film has borrowed from Shakespeare (specifically,
The Tempest, though not the dialogue, of course!).
Some of the issues it notes include travelling faster than human bodies can tolerate; I particularly liked the fact that the crew had limited resources, so when exploring the remote planet, the lead engineer is forced to deconstruct the ship* to build a communicator powerful enough to transmit to Earth. The film also does well to familiarize the audience with the new 20th-century science of psychology.
]—o O o—[
A lot of the movies mentioned have been made from books that I read first, before watching;
Starship Troopers is based on Robert Heinlein's two-part serial that was then published as a book in 1959 (winning the Hugo Award, 1960).
To quote the wiki:
The story is set in a future society ruled by a world government dominated by a military elite, … and draws parallels between the conflict between humans and the Bugs, and the Cold War. … Starship Troopers also critiques U.S. society of the 1950s, argues that a lack of discipline had led to a moral decline, and advocates corporal and capital punishment. …
Writing in his 1980 volume Expanded Universe, Heinlein would say that the publication of a newspaper advertisement placed by the National Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy on April 5, 1958, calling for a unilateral suspension of nuclear weapons testing by the United States sparked his desire to write Starship Troopers. …
The rights of a full citizen, to vote and hold public office, are not universally guaranteed, but must be earned through Federal Service. Those who do not perform this service, which usually takes the form of military service, retain the rights of free speech and assembly, but cannot vote or hold public office. … Important government jobs are reserved for federal service veterans. … A 1997 review in Salon categorized it as a "philosophical novel". … Some contend that the novel maintains a sense of irony that allows readers to draw their own conclusions; others argue that Heinlein is sermonizing throughout the book, and that its purpose is to expound Heinlein's militaristic philosophy. …
Because it is a
philosophical novel, necessarily the concepts lose a little in the translation to the silver screen. (There's less show and more tell, so the film either becomes too wordy or lacks nuance.)
Interestingly, Heinlein wrote it while he was finishing
Stranger in a Strange Land, which (AFAIK) has not been made into a film.
In 2012, the US Library of Congress named it one of 88 "Books that Shaped America". If you haven't read this book, specifically, or any Heinlein, then I recommend starting with it. :)
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* Trivia: The ship is called
C57-D, which is referenced by Josh Whedon in
Serenity, ship having that name. So if you like Whedon's work, then you'll probably like what he likes, and he likes this film.
edit: loose spelling lost (^_^)
