1956 Directed by Fred M. Wilcox
Starship C57D travels to planet Altair 4 in search of the crew of spaceship "Bellerophon," a scientific expedition that has been missing for 20 years, only to find themselves unwelcome by the expedition's lone survivor and warned of destruction by an invisible force if they don't turn back immediately.
Walter Pidgeon Anne Francis Leslie Nielsen Warren Stevens Jack Kelly Marvin Miller Earl Holliman Richard Anderson George Wallace Robert Dix Jimmy Thompson James Drury Harry Harvey Jr. Roger McGee Peter Miller Morgan Jones Richard Grant James Best William Boyett Les Tremayne Frankie Darro Robby the Robot
Il Pianeta Proibito, Planeta Proibido, Запретная планета, Запретный мир, O Planeta Proibido, Planeta prohibido, Planète interdite, Planeta prohibit, Alarm im Weltall, Закрытая планета, Verboden Planeet, 금지된 세계, Απαγορευμένος Πλανήτης, Tiltott Bolygó
While a contemporary audience might dismiss the now hokey-appearing charms of Fred M. Wilcox's "Forbidden Planet," that audience would be overlooking a science fiction classic that is a true document of its time. With its zithering, atonal music score; colorful, future-world sets; speculative technologies; and classic genre themes; the film works to establish an other-worldly sensibility and couch that sense in a cutting-edge, mid-century special effects extravaganza. The fact that it also strives to entertain the largest possible audience with its occasionally jokey beats, dusty gender politics, and sailors-in-an-exotic-port vibe may work against the film now, but it should not detract from the genre greatness and enjoyable experience on hand.
A space-bound take on Shakespeare's "The Tempest," "Forbidden Planet" finds…
Every damn time.
Every damn time I re-watch Forbidden planet, and the first act unfolds, I question how I consistently give this sci-fi classic four stars. I appreciate it’s complete cheesiness, how the Electronic Tonalities set the stage for aural sci-fi cues for the next decade, how Irwin Allen unabashedly appropriated everything about Robbie and Spaceship C57D for Lost In Space, and especially what could be the first movie use of the order issued by an earnest Captain .. ‘Reverse The Polarity!’
You couldn’t get a much more earnest, svelte, and libidinous Captain than Leslie Neilson’s Commander Adams. He’s the Alpha Male, The Head of the Pack, The Big Cheese, A-Number-One, who’s completely willing to quash the competing lascivious advances…
It's vaguely interesting to think about whether or not Dr. Morbius' hubris was the result of his bonus!intelligence, or if it was simply who he was, a man who presumed his superiority over the simple masses even before he got a big, giant, alien brain. Similarly, how much of his complete lack of humanity was because he had been living with one other person for so long, a person who obeyed his every word and held him in something like awe? Or was he always like that, a man for whom time spent on consideration of the feelings and ideas of others is time wasted?
I was thinking about this because it's not as if our hero, Commander Adams, is…
Space Pilot: "Hey pops, something came on our ship last night and killed one of our dudes!"
Space Scientist: "Let me explain." *serious voice* "Please examine all these sweet alien gadgets we found on this planet."
Space Pilot: "Dang, this is some dank extraterrestrial swag! Why did I come here again?"
Space Scientist: "No idea. Would you like to go hit on my daughter some more?"
Space Pilot: "Heck yes."
35mm at Somerville Theater
Essential Sci-Fi Canon | Top 10 50's Sci-Fi
Part of A Film A Day
Part of Essential Films To Watch
"I'm in command of 18 competitively selected super-perfect physical specimens with an average age of 24.6 who have been locked up in hyperspace for 378 days."
After viewings of sequel after sequel, and remake after remake, it's refreshing to see a film like Forbidden Planet. Though it's a generalization, it's definitely fair to say that originality, and creativity is lacking in Hollywood nowadays. Films now, often feel the same. And though it's not necessarily a bad thing, it definitely become tiresome. Godzilla, Amazing Spiderman 2, Rio 2, Captain America: The Winter Soldier: only a few recents films that are either remakes (or reboots, in this case) or sequels.…
Feels especially odd to see Leslie Nielsen in a serious movie while not being an old man.
Leslie Nielsen Ranked
Can you imagine how insanely awesome it would be if someone today were to take the most futuristic, avant garde music they could find and apply it to highly stylized images and effects in service of a story that leans heavily on contemporary psychology to express concern for the very soul of mankind in the face of massive technological advancement?
No, me neither. Guess we're stuck with Prometheus.
Forbidden Planet is one of, if not the most iconic Science Fiction movie to have have been released during the 1950's. It stands shoulder to shoulder with the likes of "The Day the Earth Stood Still" and The Invasion of the Body Snatchers" to name but a couple.
Forbidden Planet takes the "hard" Sci-Fi route, whilst retaining fantastical elements that are associated with space dramas. The film carries a level of class that elevates it above its genre contemporaries due to the fantastic production values. The special effects and set designs hold up remarkably well even by today's standards. There's a real sense of filmmaking prowess behind this film.
However, where this film really shines is in its script and…
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s visual effects and art departments were ostensibly waiting to hurl themselves at the opportunity to create a sci-fi film, and they wholeheartedly seized the chance in bringing the imaginations of director Fred M. Wilcox to fruition, who before this was known primarily for a succession of Lassie movies. The original script, which takes many of its inspirations from William Shakespeare's The Tempest, possesses an impressive vision of culturally advanced society as well as an alien civilisation to remarkable realisation, as it follows a crew on a starship examining a human settlement on a planet that only possesses two survivors.
The principal cast members of Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis and Leslie Nielsen swirl around the casual and gently propagated lascivious…
I just love the film actually credited the robot as a cast member... not the voice actor, but the robot itself...
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Perhaps one of the greatest landmarks in sci-fi cinema history, almost right of the get-go you could see the footprint of this movie on other films: the whole bridge to the lab reminded me a lot to the whole time room on Interstellar; also you can trace the premise on many other much modern flicks.
The unrecognizable Leslie Nielsen (seriously I thought that was Kirk Douglas!) does an great job as the commander of this spaceship on a quest for another missing spaceship troupe. Walter Pidgeon also does a good job as this crazy and suspicious who might…
