{"id":1703,"date":"2009-04-16T17:43:24","date_gmt":"2009-04-16T23:43:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/?p=1703"},"modified":"2009-04-16T17:43:24","modified_gmt":"2009-04-16T23:43:24","slug":"alphabet_of_obscure_science_fi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/2009\/04\/16\/alphabet_of_obscure_science_fi\/","title":{"rendered":"Alphabet of Obscure Science Fiction Classics Meme"},"content":{"rendered":"

I am working on something a bit more substantive, but for now I couldn’t resist grabbing the “Alphabet of Obscure Science Fiction Classics” Meme from SF Signal<\/a>. Here are the rules:<\/p>\n

\n“You know the drill. Copy the list and make titles for movies you’ve seen appear in bold.”\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And now for the list, with my boldings and a few comments:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Alphaville<\/i> [1965]
    \nI know     a New Wave band<\/a> back in the ’80s took their name from this movie, but beyond that…<\/p>\n
  2. Brainstorm<\/i> [1983]<\/b>
    \nNatalie Wood’s infamous last film, and arguably a precursor to the some of the “post-human”\/singularity ideas that are currently in vogue in print SF, as it involves a machine that can record a person’s experiences in all their sensory detail and then play them back for another person so faithfully that it feels as if they<\/i> are having those experiences. I’ve not seen this in decades, but I remember it being a pretty good movie — somebody ends up recording their own death experience as they’re having a heart attack, and there is much drama over what to do with that record — with some really interesting visuals when the device is in use. I remember one particular scene where an older gentleman is compulsively playing a recording of someone having sex over and over, with the implication that virtual-reality porn is going to be a big addiction problem. And kind of icky. A lot of interesting ideas in this movie.<\/p>\n
  3. Charly<\/i> [1968]<\/b>
    \nA film version of the classic short story “Flowers for Algernon,” starring Cliff Robertson as a mentally handicapped man who becomes a super-genius through an experimental surgery, only to have it all slip away from him again. I saw it in college and thought it was heart-breaking.<\/p>\n
  4. Destination Moon<\/i> [1950]<\/b>
    \nNearly 20 years before the actual first moon landing, sci-fi grandmaster Robert Heinlein wrote a movie that depicted the first landing with a high degree of accuracy, as least according to what was known at that time. Haven’t seen this one since middle school, probably, but I recall it as taut and realistic, considering when it was made.<\/p>\n
  5. Enemy Mine<\/i> [1985]<\/b>
    \nOne of the lesser-known movies from that Golden Age of SF cinema I mentioned     the other day<\/a>, and that’s a shame because this low-budget space opera boasts some fabulous performances by Dennis Quaid and Louis Gossett, Jr., as a human and a reptilian alien forced to put aside their differences and learn to co-exist so they can survive after being stranded in a hostile environment. Also notable for being one of the few SF films to discuss religion in any substantial way.<\/p>\n
  6. Frau im Mond<\/i> [1929]
    \nHaven’t heard of this one.<\/p>\n
  7. Gold<\/i> [1934]
    \nOr this one.<\/p>\n
  8. Harrison Bergeron<\/i> [1995]
    \nI haven’t seen it, but I know of it… Sean Astin plays the title character in an adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut’s short story.<\/p>\n
  9. The Incredible Shrinking Man<\/i> [1957]<\/b>
    \nI just saw this for the first time about a year ago and thought it was very good. Many of the special effects hold up fairly well (and some do not — you just have to overlook the bad ones), and the story is effective and moving, with a really mind-bending denouement.<\/p>\n
  10. Just Imagine<\/i> [1930]
    \nKnow of it, haven’t seen it. From what I understand, it’s similar to the better-known Things to Come<\/i>.<\/p>\n
  11. Krakatit<\/i> [1947]
    \nHaven’t heard of it.<\/p>\n
  12. Lifeforce<\/i> [1985]<\/b>
    \nI’m pretty sure I’ve seen this — I know the premise, and I have a copy of the novel it was based on somewhere in the basement — but honestly I don’t know if I’ve actually<\/i> seen it or just think I have. I’m going to say “yes,” and put it in the Netflix queue to refresh my memory…<\/p>\n
  13. The Man in the White Suit<\/i> [1951]<\/b>
    \nA delightful and very British movie about a gentle, naive man (played by a pre-Obi Wan Alec Guinness) who invents an indestructible fabric and throws the entire textile industry into a panic. I saw this years ago on that Big Money Movie<\/i> show I’ve     discussed before<\/a>, and the premise has always stayed with me, along with an overall taste of sweetness. I need to see this again.<\/p>\n
  14. Night of the Comet<\/i> [1984]
    \nOne of the few cult films of the ’80s I’ve somehow missed… again, I know what it is, but haven’t actually seen it.<\/p>\n
  15. On Your Mark<\/i> [1995]
    \nHaven’t heard of it.<\/p>\n
  16. Panic in Year Zero!<\/i> [1962]
    \nI know the title, but not much else about this one.<\/p>\n
  17. Quatermass and the Pit<\/i> [1968, a.k.a. Five Million Years to Earth<\/i>]
    \nA Ray Harryhausen classic, but not one I’ve seen. It’s in my Netflix queue.<\/p>\n
  18. Robinson Crusoe on Mars<\/i> [1964]
    \nAnother I think<\/i> I’ve seen, but I’m less sure of this than Lifeforce<\/i>, so I’ll leave it unbolded.<\/p>\n
  19. Soylent Green<\/i> [1973]<\/b>
    \nCan this one really be considered obscure, given all the references we hear to the infamous final scene? Or is it just     that one line<\/a> that people know, and nobody’s actually seen the movie? In any event, I’ve<\/i> seen it.<\/p>\n
  20. Them!<\/i> [1954]<\/b>
    \nMy dad has told me this is one of the few movies that ever really scared him, and I can understand why. It’s still pretty creepy in places. It also has the distinction of containing the most     Wilhelm scream<\/a>s of any movie I’ve ever seen.<\/p>\n
  21. The Ultimate Warrior<\/i> [1975]
    \nDon’t know this one.<\/p>\n
  22. Village of the Damned<\/i> [1960]
    \nI need to see this one.<\/p>\n
  23. The War Game<\/i> [1965]
    \nHaven’t heard of it.<\/p>\n
  24. X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes<\/i> [1963]<\/b>
    \nA nifty thriller from B-movie god Roger Corman, about a guy who uses experimental eye drops to give himself X-ray vision only to lose control of the effect. I understand this one is on the remake list… naturally.<\/p>\n
  25. Yosei Gorasu<\/i> [1962]
    \nHaven’t heard of it.<\/p>\n
  26. Zardoz<\/i> [1974]
    \nAh, the flick that Sean Connery wishes everyone would forget, I’m sure. The problem is, once you’ve seen the     outrageous publicity still<\/a>, you can never<\/i> forget… Zardoz<\/i><\/a>! It’s in the Netflix queue, waiting for a night when I’ve got a fresh bottle of whiskey at the ready.<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I am working on something a bit more substantive, but for now I couldn’t resist grabbing the “Alphabet of Obscure Science Fiction Classics” Meme from SF Signal. Here are the rules: “You know the drill. Copy the list and make titles for movies you’ve seen appear in bold.” And now for the list, with my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-film-studies","category-memes-and-quizzes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1703\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}