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Tag Archives: dystopias
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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Dr. Zaius Was Right
Planet of the Apes (1968) dir. Franklin J. Schaffner For the first hour and forty minutes, Planet of the Apes plays like a standard anti-theocratic dystopia. Prisoner Charlton Heston is given a brief look at ape society, which is ruled dogmatically by … Continue reading
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
Lord of the Flies
Lord of the Flies (1963) dir. Peter Brook Of all the films on my 45.1 Essential Dystopias list, Lord of the Flies is among the closest to what I consider a perfect dystopia. Lord of the Flies is a rebuke … Continue reading
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Tagged anti-utopia, civilization, dystopias, film, lord of the flies, movies, Pax Brittanica, Peter Brook, Rosseau, science, The Coral Island, William Golding
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The Great Dictator: Remembering Hitler Properly
The Apotheosis of Adolf was a project started by the Nazis and continued in the popular imagination by casting him as a malevolent deity. Hitler’s plans for Germany didn’t work out, but his egotistical desire to become a Wagnerian god has.
The real Nazi party was a disorganized mess, and Hitler only achieved the military success he did through luck rather than some sort of genius. Yet popular historiography simply perpetuates the self-glorifying mythos he created. Continue reading
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Tagged Adolf Hitler, Charlie Chaplin, dystopia, dystopias, fascism, film, movies, Nazis, Nazism, parody, satire, The Great Dictator, TSPDT
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Metropolis: A Proto-Fascist Anti-Utopia
Metropolis is director Fritz Lang’s most famous work. The 1927 German silent classic is renowned for its epic German Expressionist style and its sweeping influence on the science-fiction genre. Here, it is the first entry in 45.1 Dystopias, and I’ll … Continue reading
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Tagged Adolf Hitler, dystopias, fascism, film, Fritz Lang, Joseph Goebbels, Metropolis, movies, Nazi Party, Nazis, science fiction, silent film, TSPDT
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45.1 Essential Dystopias
Each week I’ll offer a new post on each of the 45.1 dystopian films listed. It’ll include a short essay, video, pictures, and links to better short essays. Notes on the genre in general and explanations of my compilation follows … Continue reading
