Science Fiction Genre

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Science Fiction Genre
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Typical Characteristics

• Science Fiction Films are a version of fantasy
  films. They are usually scientific, visionary,
  comic-strip-like, and imaginative - complete with
  heroes, distant planets, impossible quests,
  improbable settings, fantastic places, great dark
  and shadowy villains, futuristic technology,
  unknown and inexplicable forces, the dangerous
  nature of knowledge ('some things Man is not
  meant to know'), and extraordinary monsters
  ('things or creatures from space'), either
  created by misguided mad scientists or by nuclear
  havoc.

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Sci-fi tales have a prophetic nature (they often
attempt to figure out or depict the future) and
are often set in a future time.
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• Commonly, sci-fi films express society's anxiety
  about technology and how to forecast and control
  the impact of technological and environmental
  change on contemporary society.

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Science fiction often expresses the potential of
technology to destroy humankind through
Armageddon-like events, or through the loss of
personal individuality
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The genre easily can overlap with horror films,
particularly when technology or alien life forms
become malevolent (e.g.Alien (1979))
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The most memorable blending of science fiction
and horror was in Universal Studios' mad
scientist-doctor/monster masterpiece from
director James Whale, Frankenstein (1931), an
adaptation of Mary Shelley's novel.
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In response to a growing interest in rocketry and
space exploration, feature-length space travel
films gained popularity in the early 1950s.
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The Film

• A Space Odyssey was based on the 1948 short story
  The Sentinel, by English science fiction author
  Arthur C. Clarke. Its screenplay was co-authored
  by Stanley Kubrick and Clarke from an expanded
  novelization . The films title was chosen
  because It was the first year of the new
  Millennium of the next century.

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• Kubrick's Science-Fiction Classic
• The most celebrated, religious, and transcendent
  of all space films up to that time, it visualized
  space travel with incredible magnificence and
  seriousness. Kubrick's respectable, influential
  film was 2001 A Space Odyssey (1968) (with
  only 40 minutes of dialogue), based on Arthur C.
  Clarke's novel, which restored legitimacy to the
  science-fiction genre.

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Music

• Kubrick planned to have Alex North (who wrote the
  score for Kubrick's Spartacus (1960)) write a
  musical score especially for the film. During
  filming, Kubrick played classical music on the
  set to create the right mood. Delighted with the
  effect, he decided to use classical music in the
  finished product. North's score has subsequently
  been released as "Alex North's 2001".

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1968

• 2001 A Space Odyssey was released in 1968,
  coincidentally, at the height of the space race
  between the USSR and the US.

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A Space Odyssey

• This is an epic film containing more spectacular
  imagery and special effects than verbal dialogue.
• The first spoken word is almost a half hour into
  the film, and theres less than 40 minutes of
  dialogue in the entire film.
• All scenes in the film have either dialogue or
  music(or silence), but never both together.

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Kubrick's film won the Oscar for Best Special
Effects in 1968.
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• After 2001's success, Hollywood produced many
  more space adventure films, including more
  serious science-fiction films, Robert Wise's Star
  Trek The Motion Picture (1979) and Robert
  Zemeckis' Contact (1997) with Jodie Foster
  examined further space journeys, contacts with
  alien life, and metaphysical questions about
  man's place in the universe.

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Stanley Kubrick
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• According to Katharina Kubrick, Stanley Kubrick
  provided the breathing heard in the spacesuits.

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The Film

• According to Douglas Trumbell, the total footage
  shot was some 200 times the final length.
• Co screenwriter Arthur Clarke said, If you
  understand 2001 completely, then we failed. They
  wanted to raise many more questions than the
  movie answered.

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To make things creepier

• Douglas Rain (the voice of HAL) never visited the
  set.

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• Much like the Wizard of Oz (1939) and Dark Side
  of the Moon, it is said that the Pink Floyd song
  Echoes from the album Meddle can be perfectly
  synchronized with the Jupiter Beyond the
  Infinite segment of the film.

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Coincidence?

• Incrementing each letter of "HAL" gives you
  "IBM". Arthur C. Clarke (co-screenwriter) claimed
  this was unintentional, and if he had noticed it
  before it was too late, he would have changed it.
  HAL stands for Heuristic ALgorithmic Computer.