A few months back I read an article about people at NASA listing their favorite science fiction movies. Surprisingly, there were 3 that I hadn’t seen. To Netflix! I just watched the first movie, Metropolis. An 85 year old, two and half hour long silent movie. The story is about a super city divided into the elite who live above and the workers who live in an underground city. The son of the head of the city falls in love with a woman, who is a prophet telling the workers that the day will come where there is a mediator between the two classes.
The special effects were not a problem. Something about the black and white made everything blend together really well. I had the near palpable sense of watching something from another time and another world.
It was hard to pay attention due to the length, but the film was also absorbing and in a way peculiar to it being a silent film. The background music conveyed a lot of emotional power combined with the exaggerated physical acting of the actors.
This silent film was more of “moving picture” than a “talkie” movie.
I don’t know if I will be watching many more silent films, but I recommend that everyone see at least one. It is a very different experience.
I have that on DVD! I still need to watch it though, heh…
The DVD I rented was special. It said that the original version of the movie had a lot of footage censored out after release. Since film back then was crappy and since nobody took care of movies back then after the money was made, many copies of the movie were lost. By scouring the globe, all sorts of technicians put a good copy back together, including much of the original censored footage and then digitized it.
As a closeted sci-fi fan, I may have to check this out. It’s tough to find really good sci-fi, although I agree with some of the comments that Blade Runner and The Matrix are up there as top picks. No one mentioned Inception, which I thought was great…
Christie, come out of the closet :). I was surprised that 2001 A Space Odyssey didn’t make it to their favorites list. I agree with you about the other films. I need to watch Inception for a second time. There was just too much for me to take in during only one viewing.
And……by “The Matrix” I hope you mean only the original. The sequels just went from bad to worse, though the original deserves to be thought of as a classic 🙂