The Philosophy of Science Fiction Film
2008; Wiley; Volume: 31; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
1542-734X
Autores Tópico(s)Space Science and Extraterrestrial Life
ResumoThe Philosophy of Science Fiction Film Steven M. Sanders, Ed. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2008. To speak of the philosophy of science fiction is to waste words on a redundancy; as sci-fi enthusiasts-you may call them -have long understood, spaceships and time travel are merely the door prizes that permit audiences to consider the human condition unencumbered by the laws of nature. As for science fiction film, fans of sci-fi's copious print literature have long scoffed at cinephiles for their lazy eyeballs and empty book bags, treating the film adaptations of their favorite tomes as cartoonish trash. Many efforts to translate sci-fi print literature into movie magic have been unsuccessful, but this fact owes less to any objective deficiencies of the genre than to cinema's own complex and demanding rules. The worst sci-fi films (and even some of the best) are little more than filmstrips: staggering visual sequences held together by celluloid and run through the projector as if the clock wasn't ticking on the audience's bladders. If some sci-fi films are genuinely bad, though, the whole genre, Steven Sanders notes, is too often dismissed as pretentious and emotionally unsophisticated (in a word, adolescent)-a criticism he blames less on the movies themselves than on critics willing to pan work they haven't seen. The far more sympathetic contributors to Steven Sanders's The Philosophy of Science Fiction Film take readers on a grand tour of the genre, surveying the key themes percolating within a baker's dozen of the most respected sci-fi films, including such notables as Metropolis, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and the more recent Matrix. A generous, inviting introduction by the editor introduces the essays, which he structures less around a single theme than several: identity of the self; extraterrestrials, time travel, and computer intelligence; and conceptions of the future. Within these three parts, twelve essays explore the historical context and philosophical implications of selected films, or attempt to connect works to shared themes. The authors have kept their pieces short and to the point, and while seasoned geeks may find only occasional novelty in the essays, none overstays its welcome. For example, William Devlin's obligatory, but nicely assembled study of time travel paradoxes in The Terminator and 12 Monkeys summarizes the salient issues, while Jerold Abrams's and Alan Woolfolk's discourses on Metropolis and Alphaville, respectively, add valuable perspectives to foreign films that cry out for commentary because they either take themselves too seriously (Metropolis) or not at all (Alphaville). Aeon Skoble's piece on The Day the Earth Stood highlights the nuances of the 1951 film's alien savior and robot enforcer. …
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