IMDb RATING
6.8/10
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Directors Stephen Spielberg, George Lucas, Ridley Scott and James Cameron discuss the science fiction movies of the 1950s that influenced them.Directors Stephen Spielberg, George Lucas, Ridley Scott and James Cameron discuss the science fiction movies of the 1950s that influenced them.Directors Stephen Spielberg, George Lucas, Ridley Scott and James Cameron discuss the science fiction movies of the 1950s that influenced them.
- Awards
- 1 nomination
Mark Hamill
- Narrator
- (voice)
Edmund Gwenn
- Dr. Harold Medford
- (archive footage)
Lou Costello
- Orville
- (archive footage)
Walter Pidgeon
- Dr. Edward Morbius
- (archive footage)
Anne Francis
- Altaira Morbius
- (archive footage)
James Arness
- Robert Graham in 'Them'
- (archive footage)
Michael Rennie
- Klaatu
- (archive footage)
Warner Anderson
- Dr. Charles Cargraves
- (archive footage)
- (uncredited)
Morris Ankrum
- Dr. Ralph Fleming
- (archive footage)
- (uncredited)
Raymond Bailey
- Dr. Wahrman
- (archive footage)
- (uncredited)
Gene Barry
- Dr. Clayton Forrester
- (archive footage)
- (uncredited)
Noah Beery Jr.
- Major William Corrigan
- (archive footage)
- (uncredited)
Lloyd Bridges
- Colonel Floyd Graham
- (archive footage)
- (uncredited)
Edward Colmans
- Spanish Priest
- (archive footage)
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThis documentary can be found on the 'Forbidden Planet 50TH Anniversary Two-disk Special Edition' DVD.
- Crazy creditsCredited actors with the "archive footage" attribute are specifically identified by an interviewee or the narrator as film clips in which they appear are seen.
- ConnectionsFeatures The Flying Saucer (1950)
Featured review
Bad Dream
There are few things in life that allow you to crease the world without consequence. In the world of movies, those consequences can be profound.
Take Spielberg, a moderately talented filmmaker who eschews originality and insight, instead trusts an extraordinary intuition about what people like. Or think they like. Or can be fooled into liking with a several hundred million dollar promotion budget.
This is part of that promotion, a fake documentary about science fiction movies with a commercial for Spielberg's "War of the Worlds," tacked on a the end. The "history" here is his own version of what happened in the genre, which naturally enough starts when he started watching movies.
So we get a story about science fiction movies from an accomplished storyteller with a selfish purpose. And it is nearly all wrong. I hope this is enough to warn you away from this travesty. It is bad enough that he peppers us with vulgar movies (yes, even the nobly themed "Schindler"); but it is beyond the pale for him to reinvent the history of cinema to suit himself.
Science fiction goes all the way back to the invention of movies (and of course before that in literature). The core notion has always been with us: we enter the world of film to see another world. So far as films about the future and/or space, that element of the genre was fully mature by the end of the 30s and reached its peak in "Forbidden Planet" of 1956.
After that, the genre was reimagined to host technological thrills either in the story or in the effects brazenly displayed. Scott (shown here with the briefest of comments) added horror with "Alien" and improved on the self-reference of "Planet" with "Bladerunner."
All this without the meddling of Mr Dreamworks. Bah.
Incidentally,Spielberg's one really good film ("Close Encounters") is a French New Wave project about movie-making only wrapped in sci-fi like the French (and now the Hong Kongers) like to wrap in the gangster genre. Never was, even by him at the time, considered sci-fi.
Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.
Take Spielberg, a moderately talented filmmaker who eschews originality and insight, instead trusts an extraordinary intuition about what people like. Or think they like. Or can be fooled into liking with a several hundred million dollar promotion budget.
This is part of that promotion, a fake documentary about science fiction movies with a commercial for Spielberg's "War of the Worlds," tacked on a the end. The "history" here is his own version of what happened in the genre, which naturally enough starts when he started watching movies.
So we get a story about science fiction movies from an accomplished storyteller with a selfish purpose. And it is nearly all wrong. I hope this is enough to warn you away from this travesty. It is bad enough that he peppers us with vulgar movies (yes, even the nobly themed "Schindler"); but it is beyond the pale for him to reinvent the history of cinema to suit himself.
Science fiction goes all the way back to the invention of movies (and of course before that in literature). The core notion has always been with us: we enter the world of film to see another world. So far as films about the future and/or space, that element of the genre was fully mature by the end of the 30s and reached its peak in "Forbidden Planet" of 1956.
After that, the genre was reimagined to host technological thrills either in the story or in the effects brazenly displayed. Scott (shown here with the briefest of comments) added horror with "Alien" and improved on the self-reference of "Planet" with "Bladerunner."
All this without the meddling of Mr Dreamworks. Bah.
Incidentally,Spielberg's one really good film ("Close Encounters") is a French New Wave project about movie-making only wrapped in sci-fi like the French (and now the Hong Kongers) like to wrap in the gangster genre. Never was, even by him at the time, considered sci-fi.
Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.
helpful•2836
- tedg
- Aug 5, 2005
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Watch the Skies!
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime56 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1
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Top Gap
By what name was Watch the Skies!: Science Fiction, the 1950s and Us (2005) officially released in Canada in English?
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