Predicting the future

[3LB]

Starship Troopers popped up in another thread this week and I'm always impressed how aptly the director (Paul Verhoven) depicts a future society that then seems to come into being (like Robocop and Starship Troopers). There have been a few others like that; movies that were intended to be cautionary tales of how ugly things could get if left unchecked. Network is one. Another is a movie I didn't see until about 10 years ago, was Andy Griffith's acting debut in A Face In The Crowd, which was an over-the-top portrayal of a country bumpkin being 'discovered', turned into a pop singer, becoming a popular TV personality, then an influencial on-air talking head ruminating on culture and politics. Of course, the idea of a country bumpkin having such a meteoric rise (with seemingly little talent) and having a TV audience hanging on his every word prolly stopped being 'groundbreaking' a year or two after this movie's release (late '50s) but as over-the-top and dated as this premise is (I'm sure it seemed really improbable then) it sure is surreal to Griffith play such a vile character. Its also interesting that in the days of TV's infancy, someone could see it as a tool for mass manipulation even then. But as is often the case, these movies seem to only serve as blueprints and idea factories for an industry, rather than the cautionary tales they were intended to be.

[Troy]

Network comes to mind first for me too.

I mentioned Idiocracy the other day and I find that movie to be eerily prescient. It's a Mike Judge time-travel comedy about an Army private (Luke Wilson) and a prostitute (Maya Rudolph) who get sent to the year 2505. When they arrive, they find a civilization so dumbed-down that they're the smartest people on earth, which is owned and run by one giant corporation. It's not a great movie in any way, but it's coming true much faster than I prefer.

[Feanor]

... which was an over-the-top portrayal of a country bumpkin being 'discovered', turned into a pop singer, becoming a popular TV personality, then an influencial on-air talking head ruminating on culture and politics. Of course, the idea of a country bumpkin having such a meteoric rise (with seemingly little talent) and having a TV audience hanging on his every word prolly stopped being 'groundbreaking' a year or two after this movie's release (late '50s) but as over-the-top and dated as this premise is (I'm sure it seemed really improbable then) it sure is surreal to Griffith play such a vile character. ....

... Glenn Beck?!??

[Worf101]

Some dystopian films do become eeriely prescient. While the world of "Metropolis" and "Blade Runner" aren't here yet, I think the fake reality of "The Running Man" is here already, and Blade Runner is on the doorstep as we crack more and more of the Human Genome. I personally don't think Human Cloning is far off. Wonderous and scary times.

Worf

[nightflier]

Gatacca oddly came to mind, but it isn't the most exciting movie to watch.

Of course, we can't continue this discussion forgoing the mother of all harbinger movies: 1984.

[Auricauricle]

Isn't this what Sci-Fi is? A modern form of the cautionary tale?

[Troy]

Isn't this what Sci-Fi is? A modern form of the cautionary tale?

No, not always. Space operas like Star Wars aren't.

[3LB]

Worf, on some levels the world of Metropolis existed during the time of its inception, as it still does now, with the ever widening guff twix the working class and the elite.

[Troy]

And then there's this:

[poppachubby]

Great post Troy. Watched the whole thing. Don't know anything about that, when was it made?

[Troy]

Great post Troy. Watched the whole thing. Don't know anything about that, when was it made?

Disney, 1958. Cool innit?

[Worf101]

Disney, 1958. Cool innit?

Yeah, cute how in the last minute or so the "magc highway" passes through India, the middle east and domes that suspiciously look Russian in design... LOL, world conquest through technology and it's magnificent irrefusable benefits. No thoughts of a bomb throwing religious zealots flooding those undersea tunnels. I am laugh...

Worf

[poppachubby]

Yeah, cute how in the last minute or so the "magc highway" passes through India, the middle east and domes that suspiciously look Russian in design... LOL, world conquest through technology and it's magnificent irrefusable benefits. No thoughts of a bomb throwing religious zealots flooding those undersea tunnels. I am laugh...

Worf

Actually, I saw it more as the world being "brought together" rather than taken forcefully by technology. If you look at the highway in terms of the internet rather than an actual road, this video hit it on the head. A world that is easily accessible through use of a super highway, well the internet has certainly shrunk the global community.

You're right though Worf, no one in '58 could have imagined Al-Qaeda. They certainly wouldn't have been working for Disney if they could have.

[Troy]

Hearts and minds fellas, hearts and minds.

[bobsticks]

While the world of "Metropolis" and "Blade Runner" aren't here yet, I think the fake reality of "The Running Man" is here already, and Blade Runner is on the doorstep as we crack more and more of the Human Genome. I personally don't think Human Cloning is far off. Wonderous and scary times.

Worf

Agreed that the Human Genome thing has a variety of interesting possibilities but as far as surreal cityscapes run go to Hong Kong or Macao and you'll see that Blade Runner-esque ambiance is already in existance.

I'm buying as much stock in Taco Bell as possible...

[3LB]

another one for the prescience file

To Die For - Nichole Kidman is pitch-perfect in yet another movie who's subject was meant to be satirical and scathing, and might have seemed over the top for its time (1995), but is now tame compared against the backdrop of our current celebrity obcessed society, where people will do anything to get their 15 minutes of fame (just look at YouTube). At one point in the movie, Kidman's character states that everyone would be a better person if they could be on TV, a sentiment apparently shared by millions of people some 15 years later.

[3LB]

If you look at the highway in terms of the internet rather than an actual road, this video hit it on the head. A world that is easily accessible through use of a super highway, well the internet has certainly shrunk the global community.

Good observation. I communicate with people all over the world on speaker hobby sites. It always amazes me how many other cultures can read and write english, w/o the aid of a translating program.

[Worf101]

Most future history films were/are dystopias but a couple of my faves were not.

"The Transatlantic Tunnel" (1935) and "The Shape of Things to Come" (1936) dealt with the hopefullness that Science would or could become either a deterrence or an antidote to war. I loved both these films for their naive faith in rational thought and science as a cure for mans self destructive tendencies. TSoTtC correctly predicted the use of flat panel, plane of glass thick televisions or monsterous proportions.

Worf