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Author: Natalia Voinova Publisher: Anchor Academic Publishing (aap_verlag) ISBN: 3954895587 Category : Computers Languages : en Pages : 42
Book Description
This study will compare the USSR and the United States according to their cinematic use of science fiction in the late 1950s and 1960s in order to coincide with the period of de-Stalinisation and thaw in the USSR, and late McCarthyism in the United States. The genre provides an opportunity to express the two powers' scientific stand-off through fiction, and serves as a vehicle for the dissemination of ideas and propaganda. Post-1956 marks the time when the period of de-Stalinisation officially began and science fiction saw a carefully crafted rebirth for it served as a tool that could reflect the socialist ideal and quasi-religious faith in science that was promoted by the party. Science fiction uniquely demands for an imaginative view of the future, and therefore, corresponds with the Marxist- Leninist future-oriented ideology. For this period, the themes for American science fiction are hyperbolised monsters and invasion, and reflect the fear of the otherness of the Soviet Union, and its threat on domestic ideals. These themes are reflected in movies as 'Angry Red Planet', and 'Them!'. On the other hand, Soviet science fiction movies focus on the heroic Soviet man who frequently receives calls for help from outer space, and overcomes great trials to save those not living in utopia. This storyline is represented in 'Towards a Dream', and 'The Sky is calling'. The author gives special attention to the Soviet movie 'The Sky is calling' and the subsequent redubbed American version 'Battle beyond the Sun'. Further, she addresses alterations or plot, and subtle propaganda messages in the Soviet movies 'Planet of Storms', and the Hollywood remake 'Journey to the Prehistoric Planet'.
Author: Natalia Voinova Publisher: Anchor Academic Publishing (aap_verlag) ISBN: 3954895587 Category : Computers Languages : en Pages : 42
Book Description
This study will compare the USSR and the United States according to their cinematic use of science fiction in the late 1950s and 1960s in order to coincide with the period of de-Stalinisation and thaw in the USSR, and late McCarthyism in the United States. The genre provides an opportunity to express the two powers' scientific stand-off through fiction, and serves as a vehicle for the dissemination of ideas and propaganda. Post-1956 marks the time when the period of de-Stalinisation officially began and science fiction saw a carefully crafted rebirth for it served as a tool that could reflect the socialist ideal and quasi-religious faith in science that was promoted by the party. Science fiction uniquely demands for an imaginative view of the future, and therefore, corresponds with the Marxist- Leninist future-oriented ideology. For this period, the themes for American science fiction are hyperbolised monsters and invasion, and reflect the fear of the otherness of the Soviet Union, and its threat on domestic ideals. These themes are reflected in movies as 'Angry Red Planet', and 'Them!'. On the other hand, Soviet science fiction movies focus on the heroic Soviet man who frequently receives calls for help from outer space, and overcomes great trials to save those not living in utopia. This storyline is represented in 'Towards a Dream', and 'The Sky is calling'. The author gives special attention to the Soviet movie 'The Sky is calling' and the subsequent redubbed American version 'Battle beyond the Sun'. Further, she addresses alterations or plot, and subtle propaganda messages in the Soviet movies 'Planet of Storms', and the Hollywood remake 'Journey to the Prehistoric Planet'.
Author: Natalia Voinova Publisher: ISBN: 9783656322689 Category : Languages : en Pages : 46
Book Description
Bachelor Thesis from the year 2012 in the subject Art - History of Art, grade: 2.1, - (University College London), language: English, abstract: Science fiction is always political as it has the power to stage contemporary problems through the lens of impossible events, it imagines theoretical futures out of present issues. The essay will compare the use of science fiction in cinema in the USSR and the United States of the late 1950s and 1960s to coincide with the period of de-Stalinisation and thaw in the USSR, and late McCarthyism in the United States. The genre provides an opportunity to express the scientific stand-off between the two powers through fiction, it is also a vehicle for dissemination of ideas and propaganda. Post-1956, when the period of de-Stalinisation officially began, science fiction saw a carefully crafted rebirth as a tool to reflect the socialist ideal and quasi-religious faith in science promoted by the Party. Science fiction uniquely demands for an imaginative view of the future, which corresponds with the Marxist- Leninist future-oriented ideology. The fear of external influence from the enemy for both countries results in heavily ideological cinema, especially in the sci-fi genre as an imagined reflection of contemporary issues onto a fictional future. The themes for American science fiction of this period are hyperbolised monsters and invasion, which reflect the fear of the otherness of the Soviet Union and its threat on domestic ideals. Soviet science fiction films focus on the heroic Soviet man, who frequently receives calls for help from outer space and overcomes great trials to save those not living in utopia.
Author: M. Keith Booker Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA ISBN: 0313073627 Category : Literary Criticism Languages : en Pages : 206
Book Description
The 1950s are widely regarded as the golden age of American science fiction. This book surveys a wide range of major science fiction novels and films from the long 1950s--the period from 1946 to 1964--when the tensions of the Cold War were at their peak. The American science fiction novels and films of this period clearly reflect Cold War anxieties and tensions through their focus on such themes as alien invasion and nuclear holocaust. In this sense, they resemble the observations of social and cultural critics during the same period. Meanwhile, American science fiction of the long 1950s also engages its historical and political contexts through an interrogation of phenomena, such as alienation and routinization, that can be seen as consequences of the development of American capitalism during this period. This economic trend is part of the rise of the global phenomenon that Marxist theorists have called late capitalism. Thus, American science fiction during this period reflects the rise of late capitalism and participates in the beginnings of postmodernism, described by Frederic Jameson as the cultural logic of late capitalism.
Author: Melvin E. Matthews Publisher: Algora Publishing ISBN: 087586497X Category : Fiction Languages : en Pages : 178
Book Description
1950s Cold War-era monsters meet 21st-century terrorists: Matthews provides a thoughtful interpretation of sci-fi movies that examines the similarities and differences between the political environment and popular culture of two eras. This well-researched examination and appreciation of science fiction films includes behind-the-scenes tales about their production and many quotes from those who produced and starred in the films. The book will tantalize not only fans of the science fiction genre but also sociologists, film historians, and politicians. The author draws parallels between the Cold War fears of the 1950s and 60s and the constant "terrorism alerts" of the September 11th era, exploring how the politics and the psychological climate of the times influences and is reflected in this vehicle of popular culture. This book is the first of its kind, studying the pop culture genre in the wake of the September 11th tragedy. The alien invaders of the 1950s signified a Russian invasion of America, while other films of the genre such as "Invaders from Mars" depicted aliens utilizing mind control to manipulate humans to commit acts of sabotage, signifying Communist enslavement. If such a film were made now, such invaders could be seen as terrorist masterminds using human slaves to commit terrorist acts. "Them!" the 1954 atomic mutation classic, is the spiritual ancestor of the 2002 film "Eight Legged Freaks." Finally, several 1950s films depicted the end of the world at a time when Americans expected a nuclear war with Russia. Godzilla, the only 1950s-era monster to remain a "movie star" beyond that era, can be fashioned to reflect whatever issues dominate the times: nuclear war in the1950s, environmental pollution in the 1970s. Conceivably a Godzilla for the age of terrorism is soon to be released. The immediate pre-September 11th era witnessed films presenting galactic threats to mankind's existence ("Independence Day," "Armageddon," "Deep Impact"), while the early 2000s witnessed the popularity of the "Left Behind" Christian films dramatizing the Tribulation period in the Book of Revelation. It seems that whatever the era and whatever the challenges and crises confronting America, many entertainment themes remain the same, reflecting their respective times and the relevant issues. * Melvin E. Matthews, Jr. is a freelance writer and a horror movie aficionado who has been studying the genre for thirty years. In this work he shares his personal correspondence with film and television star Beverly Garland, and brings together a wealth of detail about the fun and the challenges of the costumes, stunts and special effects, as well as the actors' and producers' thoughts on the meaning behind the stories.
Author: Steffen Hantke Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi ISBN: 1496805666 Category : Performing Arts Languages : en Pages : 252
Book Description
During the 1950s and early 1960s, the American film industry produced a distinct cycle of films situated on the boundary between horror and science fiction. Using the familiar imagery of science fiction--from alien invasions to biological mutation and space travel--the vast majority of these films subscribed to the effects and aesthetics of horror film, anticipating the dystopian turn of many science fiction films to come. Departing from projections of American technological awe and optimism, these films often evinced paranoia, unease, fear, shock, and disgust. Not only did these movies address technophobia and its psychological, social, and cultural corollaries; they also returned persistently to the military as a source of character, setting, and conflict. Commensurate with a state of perpetual mobilization, the US military comes across as an inescapable presence in American life. Regardless of their genre, Steffen Hantke argues that these films have long been understood as allegories of the Cold War. They register anxieties about two major issues of the time: atomic technologies, especially the testing and use of nuclear weapons, as well as communist aggression and/or subversion. Setting out to question, expand, and correct this critical argument, Hantke follows shifts and adjustments prompted by recent scholarly work into the technological, political, and social history of America in the 1950s. Based on this revised historical understanding, science fiction films appear in a new light as they reflect on the troubled memories of World War II, the emergence of the military-industrial complex, the postwar rewriting of the American landscape, and the relative insignificance of catastrophic nuclear war compared to America's involvement in postcolonial conflicts around the globe.
Author: Matthew Jones Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA ISBN: 1501322532 Category : Performing Arts Languages : en Pages : 241
Book Description
For the last sixty years discussion of 1950s science fiction cinema has been dominated by claims that the genre reflected US paranoia about Soviet brainwashing and the nuclear bomb. However, classic films, such as Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) and It Came from Outer Space (1953), and less familiar productions, such as It! The Terror from Beyond Space (1958), were regularly exported to countries across the world. The histories of their encounters with foreign audiences have not yet been told. Science Fiction Cinema and 1950s Britain begins this task by recounting the story of 1950s British cinema-goers and the aliens and monsters they watched on the silver screen. Drawing on extensive archival research, Matthew Jones makes an exciting and important intervention by locating American science fiction films alongside their domestic counterparts in their British contexts of release and reception. He offers a radical reassessment of the genre, demonstrating for the first time that in Britain, which was a significant market for and producer of science fiction, these films gave voice to different fears than they did in America. While Americans experienced an economic boom, low immigration and the conferring of statehood on Alaska and Hawaii, Britons worried about economic uncertainty, mass immigration and the dissolution of the Empire. Science Fiction Cinema and 1950s Britain uses these and other differences between the British and American experiences of the 1950s to tell a new history of the decade's science fiction cinema, exploring for the first time the ways in which the genre came to mean something unique to Britons.
Author: Cynthia Hendershot Publisher: Popular Press ISBN: 9780879727994 Category : Performing Arts Languages : en Pages : 184
Book Description
The various monsters that people 1950s sf - giant insects, prehistoric creatures, mutants, uncanny doubles, to name a few - serve as metaphorical embodiments of a varied and complex cultural paranoia."--BOOK JACKET. "Hendershot provides both theoretical discussion of paranoia and close readings of sf films in order to construct her argument, elucidating the various metaphors used by these films to convey a paranoiac view of a society forever altered by the atomic bomb."--BOOK JACKET.
Author: Stewart Lowe Publisher: ISBN: Category : Millennialism Languages : en Pages : 140
Book Description
The 20th century equivalents of such preparation (including secular survivalism and Ufology) commonly allude to political developments and opular anxieties. The science fiction films of the 1950s present the millennial myth as Cold War paranoia. The science fiction films discussed in the thesis: Red Planet Mars (1952) War of the Worlds (1953) The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) Invasion USA (1952) and The Earth versus the Flying Saucers (1956) also function to represent the evolution of the Puritan apocalyptic tradition from messianic to secular millennialism.