Wednesday, January 17, 2018
Birth of Sci Fi?
Some commentators have dubbed Méliès's film A Trip to the Moon the first science fiction movie. Not all critics, however, agree. Tom Gunning, the author of our essay on that film, argues for the contrary view. He states, " 'Science' fiction implies a certain sobriety and serious concern with scientific and technological possibilities. . . . But Méliès cannot take his scientists seriously at all, introducing them first as wizards with pointy hats, figures out of fairy pantomime . . . (70). What do you think? While you may not be able to judge whether this is the first of its kind, you can make a judgment about whether or not it qualifies as science fiction. Compare this film with other science fiction movies you have seen. How is it the same? How is it different? Can we call it a science fiction film, a precursor of such films, or something entirely different?
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First I think that it is important to understand the time that the movie was created in 1902 and to understand what the technology was like. First the idea of the scientist being in pointy hat resembling wizards is not as much to portray them as wizards I think that it is to show the mysteries around the cannon and to show that some people might see them as wizards because of how much they know and a way for the other people to try and justify things they do not understand. One of the reason that I think this is science fiction because the idea of a cannon being able to shoot people to the moon at the time could have been feasible. At the time that was the fastest way for a projectile to move. Also it is important to remember that there were no rockets. That makes the idea of using a giant cannon a great idea for the time and a reasonable idea by the limited knowledge of science that they have. Other science fiction films use the idea of some sort of a future weapon. Star Wars is once example that uses some kind of crazy weapons like the death star. Another idea that A Trip to the Moon shares with other science fiction films is the idea of space travel. One more thing that it has in common with other science fiction films is the idea that there is other forms of life on different planets or different moons in this case. One movie that the idea of starting to try to live life on a different planet on is Interstellar 2014. In conclusion given the time that the film was made, and the very limited knowledge that was known about space at the time. I believe that it’s safe to say that this should be considered the first science fiction film ever.
ReplyDeleteMelies’s film A Trip to the Moon does qualify as a science fiction film because it is based off of what people may have thought the future would be like at that time. This film was created a long time ago, and visions of the future were different. This effect can be seen in other, much more recent films as well; for example, Back to the Future showed hover boards in the year 2015. Keeping this in mind, A Trip to the Moon can be seen as an attempt by Melies to imagine the future. The acts and scientific innovations shown in the film seem absurd to us today, but to Melies and the people creating and watching the film it could have been entirely possible. People may even look back at the films of today and realize that our speculations are mere fantasy. People did not know for sure how a journey to the moon would be made, nor did they know what lay there; and so they made it up based off of what they did know. For all they knew, the scientists of the future really could have been wizard-like figures from a pantomime play. Furthermore, the movie is based off of, or potentially created, one of the most common themes of science fiction: space travel. Countless movies are created with themes related to space travel or space in general, so much so that you could almost say that it is a staple of science fiction. This film is no different, creating an entire story based off of what would happen if people went to the moon. For these reasons, Melies’s a trip to the moon can confidently be called an example, or even the creator, of science fiction.
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