In the post that launched this thread, I listed what were my favorite science-fiction films. Now here are the ones I consider the best of all time:
Metropolis (1926), for its architectural vision of a city of the future;
Things to Come (1936), for its optimistic vision of, and endorsement of, scientific and technological progress, despite its Fabian Socialism;
Destination Moon (1950), for its glorified depiction of a first voyage to the moon, for its advocacy of private enterprise being the prime technological and financial mover behind the conquest of space, and for the fact that it’s one of the few space films set in a benevolent, Aristotelian universe;
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954; the Walt Disney version); for its colorful adventure story of life in a submarine, something not completely realized in the time of the writing of Jules Verne’s novel;
This Island Earth (1955); for treating the mind as something noble, good and heroic, and doing so in an outer-space setting;
Village of the Damned (1960); for showing how that reasoning mind can confront even the most terrifying and formidable threats to human life;
Robinson Crusoe on Mars (1964) (And I just got the DVD!); for presenting how an individual of high self-regard and a healthy mind can survive even on an alien world;
The Andromeda Strain (1971); for showing four or five individuals, who often disagree with one another regarding method and, sometimes, ethics and politics, using their reason to find a way to halt and destroy a microscopic organism carried to Earth from space.
Tempted to include:
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951); very well done movie, in all respects–directing, acting, photography, writing, and, certainly, the music score by Bernard Hermann; however, I did not include it in this list for two reasons: 1) its focus is not on reason and science–though these are brought up–but rather on the issue of physical force on a global–or interplanetary–level; and 2 (though really 1!): the movie is just one big plug for the U.N., just like another of director Robert Wise’s well-done pictures, The Sand Pebbles.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1957); terrifying movie showing how collectivism is deadly to the individual. But the focus is not on science and the workings of the reasoning mind, so I did not include it in the list; it belongs in another list, such as the Best Horror Films Ever Made, or something;
Forbidden Planet (1956); I enjoy it for the reason I stated in my first post, but, again, it’s adulterated and darkened by Sigmund Freud (“Monsters, John…monsters from the Id!”) and Plato (“A civilization without instrumentalities…”)
The Time Machine (1960); very imaginative movie, but I put time-travel stories in the fantasy category;
The Time Travellers (1964); really, really cheesy (so much so it’s often unintentionally hilarious), but shows alot of imagination and has some neat special effects; but, again, it’s time travel;
Fantastic Voyage (1966); for the reason I stated in Post #1, but not included because it is “fantastic”, and belongs on a “Best Fantasy Films” list;
Fahrenheit 451 (1966); one of my favorite movies of any kind, but deals with the issue of intellectual freedom and not primarily with science and the application of reason; also, I consider the film fantasy, because it would not be possible to have complete prohibiting of reading material and still have the level of technology possessed by the future society in this story;
Planet of the Apes (1968); for the reason I stated above; however, the film is anti-Man, anti-technology, and, almost, anti-science;
Star Wars (1977) and The Empire Strikes Back (1980); because both movies are “sunlit”, exciting, colorful, have great direction, acting, writing and music; but both have the mystical “Force”;
Alien (1979); another space film set in an Aristotelian universe (an astronaut’s question when entering a millenia-old derelict alien spacecraft and finding only the skeleton of the pilot: “Where’s the rest of the crew?”; in other words, even the alien beings we imagine cannot fly spaceships by mystical means)–but it’s not a benevolent universe;
Aliens (1986); great action thriller, and the heroine does win, again; but the film has an extremely dark and heavy streak;
Back to the Future (1985); a “delightful fantasy”, as I heard someone say; but it’s time travel.
On another subject, one of the above posters praised 2001: A Space Odyssey. For years, I’ve enjoyed watching that movie. However, I call it “a bad movie with great moments”. I call it bad because there is no plot; rather there are four stories only tangentially related by the monolith, which cannot even be considered a “MacGuffin”: the “Dawn of Man” story, the moon monolith story, the HAL story, and the “worm-hole” (or whatever the hell that was!) story. But the photography, the special effects (still unsurpassed), the use of sound (and silence), the editing, the sets, and the sometime use of classical music were all great, and the film did have some great scenes: the ape’s discovery of the first tool and weapon (the bone), the sudden cut from that primitive tool to the spaceship in the year 2001, a man’s first touching of the alien monolith, the “waltz of the spaceships” to the Blue Danube Waltz (by itself it would be a great music video).
The Wikipedia entry states that many takes were reused over and over in different episodes, and I personally recall that some of the scripts were atrocious. The new re-imagined series is watchable, but not that great either.