Yup, and the Oscars have been ignoring genre films for decades, rarely nominating them for anything except technical awards. Although this year is a welcome exception, with both Gravity and Her getting Best Picture nominations.
There have been other years that have been exceptions, most notably the Oscars for 2009, which nominated Avatar and District 9 for best picture. But I think the number of sf films that have been nominated for the big prize is no more than a dozen.
I was disappointed with Sinbad the Sailor. It was a very old-fashioned production with Fairbanks putting in a very broad performance with a lot of flourishes more suited to the stage. It was not helped by long stretches between the sequences of derring do. And Dr. Copellius was not just based on a ballet, it was a ballet! I'm not cultured enough to sit through that.
I used to be, but as I've gotten older and have a heart that likes to skip beats, I want to live through what I'm watching...
March: SUN 3/2 4:00 AM: Doctor Dolittle ('67) MON 3/3 3:45 PM: A Midsummer Night's Dream ('35) 8:00 PM: Tom Thumb ('58) TUE 3/4 Midnight: The Time Machine ('60) FRI 3/7 6:30 AM: Tarzan and the Amazons ('45): Weissmuller's 9th, debut of Brenda Joyce as Jane. Maria Ouspenskaya, of all people, as the Amazon Queen. 8:00 AM: Tarzan and the Huntress ('47): Two films later. Final appearance of "Boy." SAT 3/8 5:00 PM: Village of the Damned ('61) 6:30 PM: It! The Terror From Beyond Space ('58) SAT 3/15 6:00 AM: Jack and the Beanstalk ('52): Abbott & Costello version. FRI 3/21 4:15 AM: Master of the World ('61): Vincent Price as Jules Verne's Robur. SAT 3/22 10:00 PM: The Mouse That Roared ('59) SUN 3/23 2:00 AM: Zardoz ('74) 3:45 AM: The Green Slime ('69) WED 3/26 8:15 AM: Tarzan the Ape Man ('32) 12:15 PM: King Solomon's Mines ('37) FRI 3/28 6:45 AM: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde ('20): Silent version with John Barrymore. (There's also a 1922 Barrymore Sherlock Holmes at 10:45 AM.) SAT 3/29 Midnight: Soylent Green ('73) 1:45 AM: Night of the Living Dead ('68) 6:45 AM: Godzilla, King of the Monsters! ('56): Raymond Burr version. 2:30 PM: Journey to the Center of the Earth ('59)
Speaking of Village of Damned, there was actually an episode of Teen Wolf a few weeks back that featured a serial killer who was obsessed with Village of the Damned ("not the crappy remake, the original") and who delivered a long, demented monologue on the subject. How peculiar. One has to wonder how many teenagers watching MTV even knew what he was talking about . . . .
That's good, though. Some of them will be interested enough to track it down and that may trigger a greater interest in classic material. Shout outs like that make stuff seem cool to kids that might otherwise seem uncool. It will be nice to see Master of the World again. I haven't seen that in ages.
Looking forward to The Green Slime which looks like campy fun. Pairing it with Zardoz sounds about right. I've tried Master of the World a couple of times but always lose interest at some point though I never remember exactly why so I'll probably try it and turn it yet again.
I keep mixing up Zardoz and Outland. They're both Sean Connery movies that you'd see at the video store and resolve to check out at some point but never do.
You really should check out Zardoz if you haven't. It's usually the butt of jokes but it's creative and thought-provoking (though ponderous) and totally 70's.
Except I can't stand its ridiculous take on "explosive decompression," the assumption that it means any person exposed to vacuum will instantly explode like a water balloon. That's the one thing that sticks in my memory about that movie, is how stupid and wrong that was. Outland and Total Recall are the two worst offenders in terms of propagating the explosive-decompression myth. (Although I knew one person who didn't even realize that was what was supposed to be happening in Total Recall -- she thought it was the Martian atmosphere having some kind of caustic effect.)
Hey, I didn't say it was great. That's definitely the silliest part of the movie, which I think is good, but certainly falls short (a description which could be applied to all of Peter Hyams' movies, really, especially his sf work). I give Total Recall a pass because most of the movie (probably) takes place inside Quaid's mind and is therefore a fantasy.
Oh, you don't have to sell me on Richard Matheson. I love his work and I still have a nice letter that he sent me one time. I agree. It's a bit psychedelic, but it's from a day when SF in movies and TV was idea-driven, rather than just a synonym for "action movie."
Cool. Please bear with me. After being Richard's editor for twenty years or so, preaching the gospel of Richard Matheson is practically second nature these days. And he had damn well better be featured in the Oscars' "Memoriam" reel this year or there will be hell to pay.