70's Sci-Fi Movies

There's just something about Sci-Fi dramas that were made in the 70's. They have a style about them that's lacking now. Lots of red, green and yellow lights, drab interiors, and slow-paced movies that take their own time to get through. These movies rock, and what I've been finding out over the last few months is that there are more of them than I thought.

Most of these movies have a lot in common, other than the way that most of the sets are arranged and the fact that everyone seemed to be wearing pajamas. It was in this time frame that the impact humanity was having on the environment was just beginning to be understood, and an Earth ravaged by humanity was becoming a prevalent theme. The movies are a dystopian presentation, not as a morality lesson, but because they were interesting to portray on the big screen. In Logan's Run, a man fought the system where euthanasia was the solution to overpopualtion. In Soylent Green, a man discovers that humanity is being kept alive by a weird form of cannibalism, and in THX-1138 a couple fights back against a system in which the population was computer controlled and sex and love are outlawed. In The Omega Man, a man fights to save a dying family from a biological plague that has wiped out most of humanity. In The Andromeda Strain, scientists try to save humanity from an alien virus that will ravage the planet. Silent Running is about another group of scientists trying to protect the last forest on the planet.

There is another type of Sci-Fi movie that came out in the 70's that was a little less dramatic, and more effects driven, of which Star Wars and Star Trek the Motion Picture are examples. These movies were the emergence of selling eye-candy in the theater, and while the stories of both of these movies are good, they started a trend of special effects only movies that looked good but were about as interesting as reading a phone book.

Superman the Movie and Superman II also fall into this 70's Sci-Fi category because back then, there wasn't an established Superhero genre that was separate from science fiction, and these movies played by many of the same rules as do the movies mentioned above. A couple of movies that also fit into this category in every respect other than that they were a couple years too early or too late are 2001: A Space Odyssey and Blade Runner.

Something funny that all of these movies have in common other than the pajama thing (wardrobe people of the 70's what were you thinking?) is that there seems to be a lot of room for scenes in these movies that are just totally bereft of dialog. You don't see many directors that have the guts to do that today. Whether it's Clark Kent walking to the north pole, Logan and Jessica exploring the outdoors, Det. Thorn exploring the Soylent factory, Luke overlooking the ruins of his aunt and uncle's moisture farm, or Scotty ferrying Capt. Kirk over to the Enterprise, there sure seems to be a lot of time to listen to the movies score, totally uninterrupted.

The camp/cult factor of these movies are great, and everyone should watch them at least once. Additionally, the only contemporary movie I can think of that is similar to any of these movies, especially in the silence department, is I am Legend, which incidentally is also a remake of The Omega Man.