Generic conventions
Why? These are repeated over and over in films because an audience gets satisfaction and enjoys recognising the familiar. However, the film maker needs to mix them with his or her own vision and new ideas so they don’t become too predictable. The ultimate goal is for the film to be a commercial success.
Characters in SF are often stereotypical, the mad scientist, the damsel in distress or the evil alien. These characters allow audiences to feel they know what to expect and when the narrative delivers the expected results it is satisfying and feels the way it should be.
They conform to the audience expectations about narrative. Initial disruption is followed by new satisfactory situation.
History of Fears and anxieties
‘Between the year 1815, which saw the end of a series of general European wars, and 1914, which saw the beginning of another, there was a brief period in which humanity could afford the luxury of optimism concerning its relationship to the machine. The Industrial Revolution seemed suddenly to uplift human power and to bring on dreams of a technological Utopia on Earth in place of the mythic one in Heaven. The good of machines seemed to far outbalance the evil and the response of love far outbalance the response of fear.’ Isaac Asimov.
The faith in the machine which was so common in nineteenth-century utopias had begun to be replaced by a distrust or fear of the machine. By the 1930s technological advance had become so rapid that science had acquired an awesome mystery in the popular imagination. The key event in transforming the climate of popular opinion about technology was the dropping of the atom bomb in 1945. This momentous event stimulated considerable scepticism about the technological 'progress'. Post-holocaust stories began to flourish, with survivors who typically turned against technology. Computers and robots were frequently interpreted as a threat to humanity in sf of the 1950s and 1960s.
The 80’s brought in the issue of cloning and genetic modification.
Most broadly in SF, we can discern a shift from a concern with adapting technology to human purposes to a concern with the more problematic issue of human adaptation to technological environments. In such contexts, as also in critical writings, technology is no longer seen as neutral tool.
Notes from Daniel Chandler’s Imagining Futures, dramatising fears.
We treat our machines as if they had personalities. We assign them genders; often the idea of ‘intellect’ is associated with ‘male’ machines. We even attribute intent to these machines, the recalcitrant photocopier, toaster or computer. We imagine they are conspiring to frustrate us when they fail to work for us. The spread of computers – the most responsive of devices – has been accompanied by an inclination to treat machines as closely related to us. We talk about out computers, phones etc as if they were family members.
Speculative fiction and films dramatise our feelings, hopes and fears about technology.
Hopes and Fears
There are two pendulums, the attitude that technology represents progress towards human happiness and that it will lead us to increasing dependence with a damaging effect on the Earth and so on. The moral dilemmas deal with the misuse of tech. (military, political and industrial) rather than technology itself. e.g. Metropolis, Blade Runner, District 9.
Historically man’s attitudes towards technology have changes
· Greece to Middle Ages = optimistic
· Jean-Jacques Rousseau (philosopher 1712 -78) saw men enslaved to machines
· 1811-1816 Luddites smashed machines that were automating their work.
· 1815 to 1914 optimism regarding machine.
· Industrial revolution late 19th C, early 20th appealed to middle classes despite the misery it brought workers
· WW1 disillusionment set in – beautiful airplanes delivered bombs and poison gas.
· 30’s focused on limitless power of technological advances without any social consequence
· WW2 and Hiroshima meant post –holocaust stories began
· 1957 Sputnik launch ushered in the space age.
· 60’s the super computer threat and deadly viruses.
· 70’s rehabilitation of the robot Star Wars etc.
· 80’s cloning and moral/ethical issues
· 90’ virus and biological contamination
Fear of Knowing too much
The idea of being able to create life in a lab has been a complex moral issue first made widely popular through Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. The film version does not deal with the idea of responsibility in the same way as the novel does. Knowledge has its dangers.
Asimov’s laws of robotics include :
A robot may not injure a human being, or allow harm to come to a human.
Must obey orders except when conflicts with first law
Protect its own existence (not conflict with 1 or 2.
Fear of Losing control
Who serves who? Frankenstein, Pandora’s Box
Machines out of control, Computers, AI.
Fear of losing our Souls
Efficiency, accuracy, regularity and uniformity vs choice, flexibility, spontaneity, loss of freedom?? Some writers argue the benefits of social stability are worth the price. Metropolis, Blade Runner and District 9 all deal with this idea.
Where does the role of creativity come in all of this? What purpose would be left for us in an automated society?
In an essay on the convention of exploiting fears of the unknown you must discuss the convention, what it means/does, why, how and where it might lead in the future. You must refer to the films you have studied but DISCUSS the ideas of why these work and what the audience feels and why they respond.
I have written a few paras to give you an idea of what your discussion might look like. You need to develop you understanding by writing your own paragraphs.
Fear and hope are essential emotions for the genre of Sci Fi. Without them we would not return again and again to watch the narrative developed around the world of possibilities, negative and positive. It is the questions that dog us about what out future holds and how we will be affected by the growing power of technology in our lives that film makers thrive on. Each time there is anew development in technology we instanty wonder what effect will this have on my life. Since Fritz Lang’s expressionist Metropolis explored the effects of industrialisation to Neil Blompk?? District 9 with it’s move into that most disturbing areas of sci-fi known as "body horror", the experience by which a man is transformed into another kind of being, first explored by Kafka in Metamorphosis, Sci Fi film is constantly appealing to, and exploiting our fear and insecurity about the future.
The threat of social divides and the disillusionment with the machine were fears that were prevalent in the early 1900’s. The events of the first world war, when the beautiful airplane became a carrier of bombs and destruction, changed the social landscape. The political instability of Europe, with the Russian Revolution and the post WWI hardships, made people question what was happening and where the future was going. It was in this climate of fear of the machine and concern regarding political stability that Fritz Lang’s 1927 masterpiece Metropolis was made. While the expressionist film was set in two worlds, that of the rich, and that of the slave like worker, it’s message was focussed on the need for unity. The coming together of the two classes and an age of understanding. The Machine Man in the film is associated with evil and magic as at this point in history the audience would not have believed the idea of an actual robot made soley by science. They would have been shocked by this idea of life being created by humans and the idea might have caused great concern in many. This robot was the early version of the Star Wars one. The fear of technology running amok was planted in the audience of this time, along with other films like Frankenstein.
In Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner the ideas are updated to appeal to the fears of the 80’s audience. The setting of two worlds developed the growing concern of the a class divide and the setting in a dystopic, polluted and exiled earth, home for the medically inflicted, racially varied, exiled remnants of society appeals to the very real fears of global warming and the effects of global immigaration. The Off World is the home for the wealthy and healthy. The plight of the replicants introduces the more modern and relevant idea of what it is to be human. To the audience this idea is more relevant because of the huge advances of modern science. In the 80’s the first cloning of the first sheep occurred so the idea of cloning humans was becoming more widely accepted. The possiblity that this could happen in a test tube, without a birth and childhood and education is alarming.
When a replicant, played by Rutger Hauer, is being pursued by Harrison Ford’s detective, Rick Deckard we go on to learn that the group of replicants are actually trying to avoid dismantlement, which was ordered by the company that produced them, because they valued their own lives. Would we not do the same to continue living? The film’s climatic chase scene ends with Roy actually saving Deckard’s life and imparting his own fear of death. He talks of all the things he has seen and done and how those memories and experiences will be lost, “Like tears, in the rain.” These fears could easily be that of any human when contemplating death and their own mortality. This scene moves audiences to contemplate what it is to be human and they feel that Roy is indeed a human at this point
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NARRATIVE
Stuart Kaminsky, the author of the book American Film Genres (published by Nelson Hall: Chicago 1985) has described the science fiction film as being like
"A shared dream ...a mythic representation of universal concerns and fears."
By this he is suggesting that it appeals to everyone because the narratives of many science fiction films follow patterns that we are all familiar with. These are based on the ancient myths and legends that are found in cultures and societies all over the world. The concerns arid fears he talks about, for example, that humankind will destroy itself through the search for more powerful weapons, are fears shared by everyone. On a simpler level, sci-fi narratives offer us an all-enveloping escape from the problems and realities of everyday life.
TDTESS Blade Runner District 9
Location – The use of location allows us to relate to a film more, in that we often associate with the location therefore it allows us to bring our expectation, values and beliefs to viewing the film. In Fritz Lang’s 1927 masterpiece Metropolis the setting of an upper world and under world triggered the fear of industrialisation and class division that was around in Europe at the time. The upper world is one of wealth and ease of life. We see the sons of the rich running around chasing women for their entertainment. The lower world is dystopic and one of suffering and slavery, The workers move like robots and the audience clearly see the divide and feel for the inhabitants of the lower world. The presentation of evil through Rotwang also would have made the audience uneasy as creating life, as he does with The Machine Man, was linked supernatural forces. The setting is not natural and has a very artistic expressionist style to it which is later recreated in Blade Runner. This feel allows the viewer to feel that it is a tale that has links to their world but that it is also other worldly, a possibility which creates less of a sense of unease.
The location also lets us look at ourselves when it is a setting that is every day. In TDTESS, the setting is very realistic, downtown Washington, with a domestic element of mother and child. The conversation sets the tone of the 50’s and the fears that people had. Setting in the centre of politics in the one of the countries that was a main player in the Cold War develops the message that the audience need to be part of the solution. The audience is able to think about the ideas of the film, which were controversial for the day, and their views and are therefore interested, wanting to see what the outcome is. We see the film locations that deal with social issues more real and easy to identify with.
The location of Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner is our worst fears realised and the concept of a damaged Earth and an off world for the wealthy strikes fear into those who are concerned about environmental issues and globalisation. The opening images of flaring smokestacks and hazy pollution signify a world of total industrialisation and clearly set out all the excesses of the modern world, advertising, pollution, corporate greed and exploitation. The replicants are trapped in a life that allows them no freedom, they are effectively slaves.
This idea of corporate greed is developed in District 9 with the location being Johannesburg, South Africa. This setting is a change from the usual centre of trade. It still has a large population but included are strong references to history as we still all remember the Black South Africans struggle against apartheid. This location allows the audience to bring all sorts of values and beliefs to the film and then use that knowledge to build a strong reaction to the plight of the outcast, in this case a race of aliens, derogatorally called ‘prawns. The mass slum they live in is like the shanty towns the blacks lived in the 50’s and 60’s but the racism they suffer is meted out by both black and white Africans. This change of a familiar situation is interesting as it so real for the audience and mixes in the possibility of it happening again but with non humans. By using something that is in our historical conscious and changing it it brings the idea closer to us than it has been before. This idea of linking our experience of history to new locations and races is used again in James Cameron’s Avatar, with the Navi’s similarity in to the Native Americans and the idea of imperialism which has palyed such a strong part in your history. This idea or using familiar location and elements is growing as the SF genre looks to engage us in a meaningful dialogue about what is our world holds for us.