TAW AT THE MOVIES
Forbidden Planet (1956)
This is the film that no Sci-Fi fan should be without. It stars Walter Pidgeon, Leslie Nielson and
Anne Francis, all serious box office in their day. This is the pre-Naked Gun Nielson,
back when he was a matinee idol and not the 'don't call me Shirley' guy from
Airplane.
Loosely based on Shakespeare's Tempest, this is the story of
the good ship C57D sent to find out why a distant scientific colony has gone
silent. Yup, I know, that's an old trope. Well, this is where that old trope
started, in cinema at least.
It's all very earnestly acted, in a way that modern tastes
may find somewhat melodramatic, but stick with it if only for Robbie the Robot.
He's not the first cinematic robot, that was in the amazing Metropolis, but
he's the first robot in film to follow Asimov's three laws of robotics. Robbie
provides much of the comedy in the film and was an amazing special effect in
his day. In fact, the film was nominated for the special; effects Oscar and
unaccountably lost out to the Ten Commandments. I guess the academy was more
impressed with the parting of the Red Sea than the monsters from the Id.
Forbidden Planet is
probably the finest expression of Golden Age Sci-Fi in film. All the elements
that made up that phase of science fiction is there; the science is as hard as
they could make it (they use personal inertial damper beams to survive the
heavy acceleration and deceleration of a space ship), the humans meanwhile are
as human as they could be, getting drunk and scared. The Golden Age was all
about the collision of high tech and low human behaviour and impulses, and that
is what we have here.
Why should TAW watch this movie? Well, apart from the fact
that this is an undeniable classic, this is a film about pride. Pride in ones abilities, pushed to the point
of hubris. It's a film about understanding
that the world, nay the universe, does not revolve around you.
Humility is an important part of TAW. This is a film about
what happens when humility is forgotten and ultimately regained. A lesson no
leader should ever forget.
~LT COL Rinko [BC 1]