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Too much Charlton Heston in the author's list. He's a dreadful, wooden actor. I love Silent Running. Does The Stepford Wives count as sci-fi? Logan's Run was

Too much Charlton Heston in the author's list. He's a dreadful, wooden actor. I love Silent Running. Does The Stepford Wives count as sci-fi? Logan's Run was a fabulous film, full of memorable moments and lines. The Sutherland remake of Body Snatchers is brilliant; Sutherland's alien persona is genuinely scary, and despite his versatility I can't think of anything else he's done that's quite so out-there.

RajT88 3y ago
> He's a dreadful, wooden actor. That's the meta-appeal for me. How did this guy get in so many movies? Back in the day, it was the pleasure of people seeing a favorite actor turn up in more things, I am sure. > Does The Stepford Wives count as sci-fi? Yes, for sure. What's your thinking on why it wouldn't?
- philwelch 3y ago
  Charlton Heston's peak was in the 1950's, which was a very different era for movies. Judging him by his performances in cheesy sci-fi movies isn't entirely fair if you haven't seen Ben-Hur or The Ten Commandments, and avoided the trap of thinking that our modern fashions are the last word in good art (be that acting or filmmaking more generally).
ndsipa_pomu 3y ago
> The Sutherland remake of Body Snatchers is brilliant; Sutherland's alien persona is genuinely scary, and despite his versatility I can't think of anything else he's done that's quite so out-there. How about his Wilhelm Reich in Kate Bush's Cloudbusting video? There's also his performance in "Don't Look Now" to consider.
- euroderf 3y ago
  IIRC the Cloudbusting video was based on Peter Reich's "A Book of Dreams", written while he was in a Swiss hospital recovering from a dreadful motorcycle accident. A book of hallucinations, akin to Naked Lunch. And then there's the whole orgone thang of his father.
euroderf 3y ago
You can knock Heston but I've always felt that in a way he single-handedly rescued American sci-fi. He brought real star power to a then-maligned genre.

RajT88 3y ago

> He's a dreadful, wooden actor. That's the meta-appeal for me. How did this guy get in so many movies? Back in the day, it was the pleasure of people seeing a favorite actor turn up in more things, I am sure. > Does The Stepford Wives count as sci-fi? Yes, for sure. What's your thinking on why it wouldn't?

philwelch 3y ago
Charlton Heston's peak was in the 1950's, which was a very different era for movies. Judging him by his performances in cheesy sci-fi movies isn't entirely fair if you haven't seen Ben-Hur or The Ten Commandments, and avoided the trap of thinking that our modern fashions are the last word in good art (be that acting or filmmaking more generally).

ndsipa_pomu 3y ago

> The Sutherland remake of Body Snatchers is brilliant; Sutherland's alien persona is genuinely scary, and despite his versatility I can't think of anything else he's done that's quite so out-there. How about his Wilhelm Reich in Kate Bush's Cloudbusting video? There's also his performance in "Don't Look Now" to consider.

euroderf 3y ago
IIRC the Cloudbusting video was based on Peter Reich's "A Book of Dreams", written while he was in a Swiss hospital recovering from a dreadful motorcycle accident. A book of hallucinations, akin to Naked Lunch. And then there's the whole orgone thang of his father.

euroderf 3y ago

You can knock Heston but I've always felt that in a way he single-handedly rescued American sci-fi. He brought real star power to a then-maligned genre.