12 Great Sci-Fi Movies From the 1970's Reviewed
1. Colossus: The Forbin Project (1970) IMDB 7.1/10 ME 7/10
This is about a computer brilliant man who creates a vast computer that is able to think on it's own, it's intelligent. However, it becomes aware and it takes over the world in combination with it's Soviet counterpart. They are both in total control of the nukes on both sides. They demonstrate a show of force and the people fall in line, right down to the secret police disappearing people that are deemed a threat to the peace that the computers have forced onto the world. It is left open ended and with total control of the population of the world. There are many people who think there was a part II to this movie, but there was not.
2. The Andromeda Strain (1971) IMDB 7.2/10 ME 6/10
A small town has been devastated by some mysterious plague. The people sent to look into it find a baby and an old man alive. These two turn out to be the key to the destruction of the plague in the end. They are housed in a top level security base under a farm. They have a sample of what turns out to be an alien life form of crystal structure but is alive and can kill people and destroy certain materials. The life form gets out of the lab and the nuclear self destruct mechanism is engaged. The head scientist needs to climb up a service shaft to get to a terminal to shut down the bomb, as they know know how to kill it. The end is just them seeding the clouds and the rain kills the alien bug.
3. THX 1138 (1971) IMDB 6.6/10 ME 10/10
This is a dystopian world in the 25th century where all known human life is living in a city underground. Their lives are strictly controlled by the system and the use of drugs to make them act the way the system wants them to act. One day THX's room mate, a woman, tampers with his daily drugs and makes him wake up from the fog like she did. They end up making love. However this is a crime as breading is done artificially and sex is a criminal act. They are arrested and THX ends up escaping from the prison, that frankly is not that hard to get out of. He is with a homosexual and a dark skinned man who is used for entertainment but got out of his aria. The homosexual ends up in a kids aria and taken back into custody. The black man, ends up dead in a car crash. After a long high speed chase, THX ends up climbing out of the city on a service shaft. The cops are told to stop chasing him and it ends with him seeing the sun either rising or setting for the first time in his life. This is my favorite film of all time and I've seen it over 20 times.
4. Silent Running (1972) IMDB 6.6/10 ME 7/10
This is the story of a botanist who is taking care of a dome full of trees and plants in a space station that is orbiting Saturn. The earth is destroyed basically, and on this ship in the domes, are the last of earth plants. There is a power struggle going on on earth and they want the ship to be returned into service and the domes to be blown up with mini nukes. The scientist has three converted service robots that seem to have developed personalities, but can't communicate well. The scientist takes drastic action and kills the crew. He then sends the dome into deep space with the robots to take care of it, as it is a self sustaining echo system. We never find out what happens to him or the earth.
5. Solylent Green (1973) IMDB 7.0/10 ME 8/10
The lead in this movie is a man who is basically a cop. He has legal powers over others and is tacked to investigate the death of a wealthy man. The world is suffering from a drastic food shortage, water shortage, and overpopulation. The climate is also destroyed by pollution and humanity is on it's last legs. The apartment of the rich man brings many pleasures to light for the investigator. He has real food for the first time in his life, and can take a shower for the first time ever. He also has access to a woman who was the property of the rich owner and referred to as furniture. He shares with his good friend who has an illegal library. The friend ends up being willingly put to death in exchange for seeing and hearing the sights and sounds of the world in it's prime. This leads the investigator to see where the bodies go. It turns out they are the food the people consume. He tries to tell people, but they just don't care.
6. Westward (1973) IMDB 6.9/10 ME 8/10
This place is a theme park where people can go to live out the fantasy of being a gun fighter in the old west. There are robots that look human that they can shoot and kill or generally abuse in many ways. This is not the only part and there are several others in the same aria. The robots however rise up against the humans and are impossible to kill. When "killed" in the fantasies they fake dead, then get fixed. However now the top gunfighter villain is unstoppable and out to destroy the people. It's a slaughter basically, where the rich oppressor's get what is coming to them by the slave robots. This is a perfect allegory for todays world, where the rich are getting richer and the middle class is vanishing. It also warns of the dangers of allowing machines to have too much ability to think and too much power in their hands. It spawned a spinoff and a series on HBO. There where also a series of books.
7. Logan's Run (1976) IMDB 6.8/10 ME 8/10
This movie takes place in the far future where most of humanity is in a domed city that is completely controlled and maintained by a computer that is very intelligent. The people have biological clocks in their hands, in the form of a crystal. The crystal changes color with age. When it is your time at age 30, you go to be "renewed" in a strange ritual where the bodies are destroyed. The lead character is a cop who kills those who try to escape their fate in the arena. They are thought to not renew if killed in this manner. Logan is then tasked by the computer that controls the city to find if sanctuary exists and to report back. This leads him and a "runner" to exit the city and face dangers including his friend who is trying to kill him because he thinks he's a runner and trying to escape the renewal. They find an old man and bring him back. Things go wrong for Logan and he shoots the computer, causing the destruction of the city and the people to escape to the outside where they see an old person for the first time. There was a short lived and not too loved TV show soon after the movie and a series of comic books put out, where the people where pissed off about the city being destroyed.
8. The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976) IMDB 6.8/10 ME 8/10
This is one amazing film that speaks more of humanity than it does of an alien who comes to earth. The being comes here to get water for his people as they need it to survive. He uses his knowledge to become a super rich tech giant. He then falls into the vices of humanity. The pleasures of the flesh, drinking, drugs, music, and all manner of vice, including the risk of death for thrills. David Bowie played the character so incredibly well, that I can't imagine anyone else doing the roll. This is about a being who is decaying morally, mentally, and physically, as he is latterly being killed by our atmosphere. It's an orgy of delights, and experiences for him and the woman he has in his grasp. It speaks of the dangers of wealth and unchecked power, and the failing of human nature to control it's self if given to much room to play.
9. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) IMDB 7.6/10 ME 9/10
This is a story of a man who is given knowledge by aliens on where they are going to contact humanity and how to get there. Unfortunately, it's not very well defined and is not exactly completely compatible to the human mind. The movie for the most part is the main character going about building a model of the mountain and finding out where it is, and going there. He meets others who are invited by the aliens as well. Unfortunately, the government got their first, but they end up as part of the greeting party. There are people released who seem to be from far back in the past even, that where taken before (some are recognizable). The greatest part of this movie are the stunning practical effects that they had for it. The mother ship alone is a massive achievement. The flights of orbiting crafts and the flashing lights set a hell of a deep, and involved experience. The puppets art are not standing up well today, but for the time, people where amazed by them. This could well have set the tone for more movies, and even a series, but did not.
10. Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope (1977) IMDB 8.6/10 ME 8/10
In it's self, this movie is self contained and could well have been the only one and still worked well. But it was part of a planned series of movies. They do not use flashbacks or cuts to things that are talked about in this film, and that in it's self made it unique. It's the first movie with highly developed androids in it, that are very human like in their thinking and actions. The battles in space where epic pieces of special effects (practical effects). There is no CGI back then, so the ships where modals and hand crafted for the production. The uniforms where not the best you will ever see, but for the time they where impressive. They invented technology to make this movie happen, and it shows, with the incredible depth to the visuals. It also introduces you to a lot of interesting creatures, and ways of life, including the Jedi who are hunted. It is a great struggle and to this date a very good movie. I think it stands up. I get more into this movie than a lot of modern CGI driven movies. The story is deep, the characters extremely defined and the entire galaxy is completely new to us at the time, and is to this day still expanding.
11. Alien (1979) IMDB 8.5/10 ME 9/10
OK this movie scared the hell out of a friend I saw it with. He literally started to cry at the point where the alien comes out of the guys chest. So this starts with a ship full of blue caller workers who complain about their job. The ship is very well done in it's self, as it looks very lived in and rather unkept at times. There is a hidden agenda by the company to get them to pick up an alien life form what is extremely dangerous and almost impossible to kill. The hero, Ripley, and her cat fight to survive and escape the ship. This is a hell of a task it seems and she goes through an absolute hell to get away, and the alien is left alive in the end, as it can live in space. The blood of the creature is acid and it is armor plated, very fast, and smart. The company obviously wants this as a weapon, as you see in future episodes of the movies. The latest of them makes it extremely obvious it's to be turned into a weapon and possibly other uses like extending life. The woman that plays Ripley ended up being an unlikely sex symbol at the time with a hell of a lot of teen boys having a poster of her in very small undies on their wall. She may well have been the first very strong female lead in the movies.
12. Mad Max (1979) IMDB 6.8/10 ME 7/10
This movie takes place as the world is coming to an end. In the future of the franchise, there is implied that the world was in a nuke war and destroyed. But now things are just falling apart, the government is all but gone, the last of the cops like Max are leaving the city. There is much conflict with very bag folks in this movie and to say the least it is not all that complicated. It's just a very good version of a world gone to hell movie, and the setup for many post apocalyptic movies. Max has his family killed and takes revenge in a rather brutal and final manner. This movie has a hell of a lot of chase scenes and car crash stunts. These where life ricking actions at the time this was filmed as there was no CGI or complicated safety systems like today. Max is the ultimate unwilling hero that is trust into action. Most of the movies to date after this had him in the same situation, an unwilling hero.
I personally think all of these movies are worth a watch, even today. I think they stand the test of time.
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