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Tag Archives: dystopia
Logan’s Run
Logan’s Run (1976) – dir. Michael Anderson Logan’s Run starts with a fantastic premise – the human population now lives in a small group of cities, and everyone is ritually executed when they reach a certain age. But in one … Continue reading
Rollerball’s Anti-Individualistic Capitalism
Rollerball (1975) – dir. Norman Jewison Jonathan E. is the world’s greatest rollerball player. He holds all significant records and even fans of opposing teams cheer his name. For a game designed to “demonstrate the futility of individual effort,” this … Continue reading
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Tagged Ayn Rand, capitalism, dystopia, free market, individualism, James Caan, Norman Jewison, Rollerball
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The Stepford Wives (1975)
The Stepford Wives (1975) – dir. Bryan Forbes Sexism “Feminism” in Hollywood is code for “give her boots and a gun.” From the silent era to Sucker Punch, female characters exist primarily to cater to male fantasies. In 1975, The Stepford … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Bryan Forbes, dystopia, Fembots, feminism, film, Ira Levin, Katharine Ross, movie reviews, movies, objectification, science fiction, sexism, Stepford, Sucker Punch, The Stepford Wives
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Fascism is Funny Too
Sleeper (1973) – Woody Allen Health food store proprietor Miles Monroe is cryogenically frozen and wakes up 200 years in the future. The post-apocalyptic world is ruled by a dictator who rules the brainwashed masses through television. Our unlikely hero falls in … Continue reading
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Tagged cryogenics, Diane Keaton, dystopia, parody, satire, utopia, Woody Allen
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Soylent Green: If Only…
Soylent Green (1973) dir. Richard Fleischer I’ve emphasized several times that dystopias are not supposed to “predict the future,” but are instead parables that use extreme situations to clarify our values. Soylent Green however, is the most dead-on. Soylent Green is … Continue reading
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Tagged dystopia, ecology, environmentalism, food, Food Inc., Michael Pollan, movies, natural, organic, organic food, Soylent Green
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The Omega Man
The Omega Man (1971) dir. Boris Sagal The world is very similar to Planet of the Apes, also starring Charlton Heston, and blogged about earlier. Man’s scientific hubris and warlike nature has brought about the end of civilization. The planet … Continue reading
THX 1138
THX 1138 (1971) dir. George Lucas I watched THX 1138 again, thinking I might have missed something in my first viewing. I hadn’t. THX 1138 is instructive because of where it fails as a dystopia. It succeeds in its atmosphere. … Continue reading
Alex DeLarge and Prince Myshkin
A Clockwork Orange (1971) dir. Stanley Kubrick “imagine a human subject devoid of the defense mechanisms produced by a history of hurting and being hurt, of choices and therefore of exclusions; imagine someone who has never had to make a … Continue reading
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Tagged A Clockwork Orange, choice, Christianity, dystopia, dystopias, free will, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Rowan Williams, Stanley Kubrick, The Idiot, theodicy
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Alphaville: Je vous aime vs. sola Ratio
Alphaville: Une étrange aventure de Lemmy Caution (1965) dir. Jean-Luc Godard With the coming of the Enlightenment, we see a sort of secularization of the Protestant principle: sola Scriptura becomes sola Ratio. - Julián Carrón One of the central battles between … Continue reading
