As long as I remember I've been a huge fan of Science Fiction. It didn't matter whether it was movies or books, I loved SciFi. So when the original Star Trek television series came along in 1966 we watched. The whole family watched. We were all Science Fiction fans but before Star Trek, Science Fiction was kind of a guilty pleasure. It was paperback books, lurid covers on pulp magazines and cheap special effects drive-in movies. Science Fiction just wasn't really respectable. There were some classic authors like Jules Verne and H. G. Wells but other than that it was Edgar Rice Burroughs and the Princess of Mars. It was the same with movies. There were the occasional good science fiction movies like Metropolis in 1927 and the Things to Come in 1936 but for the most part Science Fiction cinema was Flash Gordon using pie pans on wires with sparklers for engines as special effects. Sometimes they had iguanas in slow motion for space monsters. Special effects were just too expensive. The 1950's was the 'golden age' of Science Fiction movies and there was a ton of cheap low budget science fiction movies. Some of them were very good. Them! in 1954, Invasion of the Body Snatchers in 1956, the Day the Earth Stood Still in 1951, and Thing From Another World in 1951 were all really well written quality movies. Ray Harryhausen was doing the best special effects in the 50's and both Earth Versus the Flying Saucers and 20 Million Miles to Earth were state of the art when they were made. But generally with the exception of some classics made into film (War of the Worlds 1953, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea 1954, and Journey to the Center of the Earth 1959) the 1950s were not a time of A list major studio release science fiction movies.
Science Fiction changed in the 1960's. Fantastic Voyage in 1966 was an A list special effects movie starring two of Hollywood's hottest stars, Raquel Welch and Steven Boyd. 1968's Planet of the Apes starred academy award winner Charlton Heston and the greatest of all Science Fiction movies (according to American Film Institute) 2001 a Space Odyssey came out in 1968. I remember when 2001 was showing. It was an event that everyone, and I mean everyone, was talking about. Special effects were still very expensive but Science Fiction was becoming an acceptable plot line for mainstream film.
By the 1970's Science Fiction was taking off in Hollywood. George Lucas came out with his THX 1138 in 1971. Also in 1971 A Clockwork Orange was up for Best Picture. Soylent Green 1973, The Omega Man 1971, Westworld 1973, The Stepford Wives 1975, Rollerball 1975, and Logan's Run in 1976 were all mainstream movies with major actors. Then 1977 the blockbuster of all blockbusters Star Wars premiered and Science Fiction broke out. Mad Max and Star Trek the Motion Picture both came out in 1979 and Science fiction would become a part of every summer's fare. Now it almost seems as if Science Fiction has replaced the Western as the one of the major genre's of motion pictures. This year Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Gravity, and Star Trek Into Darkness are all top ten grossing films of 2013, and the Star Wars, Star Trek, Terminator, Back to the Future, X-Men, and the Matrix are some of the highest grossing film franchises of all time. Science Fiction has come a long way from being a guilty pleasure.
Rob's list of must see pre Star Wars Science Fiction.
Metropolis 1927
Things to Come 1936
Day the Earth Stood Still 1951
Thing From Another World 1951 (A Howard Hawks Film! It's Alien screwball!)
Them! 1954
Invasion of the Body Snatchers 1956
Earth Versus the Flying Saucers 1956 (This is the movie Mars Attacks parodies)
20 Million Miles to Earth 1957
War of the Worlds 1953 (Still the best version of Wells classic but Independence Day is close 2nd)
Fantastic Voyage 1966
Planet of the Apes 1968 (Ruined by the sequels but the original is a classic)
Omega Man 1971
Soylent Green 1973
Rollerball 1975 (Critics don't like this movie but I think it's highly underrated.)
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