Jose here.Just yesterday I was talking with a few friends about the quick pace with which technological advancements are making our wildest dreams come true.
The ubiquitous-ness of the iPad obviously got our attention and I couldn't help but remember the fact that some similar devices appeared in Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey which had Dr. David Bowman (Keir Dullea) carry around flat screen TV-like thingamajigs which he used for different purposes.
Coincidentally, or not, today the film celebrates its forty second birthday. It opened in Washington D.C. to polarizing reviews and a 160-minute edit which Kubrick cut for the general release just four days later.
Ever since, the film has gained enough prestige to land in practically every list of the greatest movies of all time and has become highly influential (Oscar, as usual, was reluctant to embrace it fully and it didn't get a Best Picture nod).
But back to the technology thing, 2001 was praised not only for its actual scientific accuracy but also for "predicting" things to come (Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke where working at their best Jules Verne mode) and technically inventing what the Visual Effects Oscar category would be all about in decades to come.
Some of the things it suggests are perhaps a bit too insane or years away from becoming feasible; this might be good though because as much as I'd like to murder my computer on a daily basis, it still hasn't developed reciprocal feelings towards me like the infamous HAL 9000 did.
But how about you? What's the one thing in a sci-fi movie that you would just love to see come true?
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11 comments:
Young men obsessed with classical music records ala A Clockwork Orange. That, or head explodey powers ala Scanners.
"this might be good though because as much as I'd like to murder my computer on a daily basis, it still hasn't developed reciprocal feelings towards me like the infamous HAL 9000 did."
LOL. so so true Jose.
On the way home tonight i walked by the apple store and was imagining tomorrow morning's line.
so glad i won't be waiting in it.
I'd second Scanners if I wasn't so afraid of the real-life consequences. I mean, can you imagine that kind of power getting into the hands of someone like Sarah Palin?
Tron would be nice, though.
I wouldn't want anything from a sci-fi film to become reality. Most are just so nightmarish. Blade Runner, Alien, Predator, Terminator 1 and 2, Solaris, 2001, Brazil, A Clockwork Orange. Great sci-fi is a compendium of human nightmare. Star Wars? 5 was great. The rest of the series is saccharine for the genre. (There's a reason Pixar hasn't veered too far out of scientific reality. The closest they got was The Incredibles, which stopped Syndrome's tech, saving the future.
You know what I would love to see you make a post about? The most controversial performances ever; ones that are love it or hate it, (i.e. Faye Dunaway in 'Mommie Dearest', Shelley Duvall in 'The Shining') and the reputation surrounding them.
To Beau: Or confusions about what acting is and how the categories should be defined. People often mistake acting as just delivery, and the Oscar confuses people into thinking: Big star = lead. Vaudeville is acting too, and, frankly, I think Bruce Campbell, not Denzel, deserved that prize The Year Pacino Won. In my mind, Campbell's close to deserving two prizes for that same role, but Richard E. Grant's Withnail was just slightly better in '87.
as for the question of which sci-fi idea do we want to see come true?
I personally love flying cars in movies. and though i know it's totally spooky i love the idea of "replicants" of both animal and human variety as in Blade Runner.
I didn't mention mine either...hmm I guess it wouldn't be too much to ask for computers that didn't crash right?
If I was being more fantastical though I'd love for cute little robots to obsess about preserving ancient film musicals.
I didn't mention mine either...hmm I guess it wouldn't be too much to ask for computers that didn't crash right?
If I was being more fantastical though I'd love for cute little robots to obsess about preserving ancient film musicals.
All these years of seeing Back to The Future and I still want a time machine to be in a DeLorean if it were possible.
that sex-partner-beam-machine in Logan's Run!!!
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