I wouldnt even say they were ahead of their time at the time; just repackaged in a way that appealed to the audience of the day. All that Matrix, Truman type stuff had been done decades earlier in some format or another. I gues the only bragging rights the Matrix could get away with is in the FX department.
I would agree that the ideas in The Matrix and The Truman Show were explored earlier in various ways in The Twilight Zone but not as clearly or as effectively as in these two movies. And although it is clearly not a new idea, there aren't many movies that deal so effectively with cartesian dualism as The Matrix.
I would agree that the ideas in The Matrix and The Truman Show were explored earlier in various ways in The Twilight Zone but not as clearly or as effectively as in these two movies. And although it is clearly not a new idea, there aren't many movies that deal so effectively with cartesian dualism as The Matrix.
Cartesian, had to look that one up.
I don't think TTZ had any problems exploring those ideas clearly or effectively. In fact I think they did so amazingly well, considering time, budget and era constraints. What they didn't, or couldn't do, mainly due to those constraints was to explore those ideas as extensively and stylistically as the movies did. I think.
I don't think TTZ had any problems exploring those ideas clearly or effectively. In fact I think they did so amazingly well, considering time, budget and era constraints. What they didn't, or couldn't do, mainly due to those constraints was to explore those ideas as extensively and stylistically as the movies did. I think.
Yes, I think the point is that Rod Serling was so far ahead of his time that it is impossible to fault TTZ. Budgets are bigger but Serling had the ideas. It is the philosophical nature of many episodes that makes TTZ so special. Admittedly, Serling worked in TV rather than cinema which in itself might show some foresight.
Andrei Tarkovsky's "Stalker" is oddly ahead of its time in terms of use of technique, but strangely prophetic as well. Many people after seeing it think its based on the Chernobyl accident, but the film was made BEFORE the explosion, yet the film is oddly set in a Pripyat type place. Its also a movie that employed some truly remarkable recording effects, a good 30 years before major movies started doing it.
As a reverse to that, The Thing. Not the utterly crap remake, but the original stone cold classic. The whole film has ZERO cgi. In fact, its the last major hollywood movie (even though it was considered a B movie) to avoid using computer based effects. Everything you see is really how it looks. They got some of the best craftsmen and perhaps one of the best photography and location experts ever, and it really shows how well a horror movie can be done, even without the aid of special effects from a computer. It still looks pretty decent today, its aged very well.
I suppose its not so much before its time, because in the 50s you had lots of slick drama films, much like we had a influx of them in the early 2000s. Its more of a cycle thing, and on occasion, one of those stands out. Meh, thats my take on it anyway.
Seems very 80's in some ways but ahead of its time/prophetic in others - look where we are with reality TV/I'm a Celebrity etc and (this is slightly further back from now I know) those weird shows in Japan.
1971 simply wasn't ready for Ken Russell's The Devils. It's hard to credit even now that some of the stuff that was in the severely compromised version finally allowed a release was filmed in 1970 - over 40 years ago. Not so much in terms of the explicitness of the content - which of course has been far, far since exceeded - but it still retains a certain pretention-free brazenness and boldness that I doubt a modern film-maker could replicate without tedious 'solemnity' and/or visual cliché.
Although a couple of originally jettisoned sequences have since been rediscovered, I find it distressing that practically all the film's contentious scenes were liberally shaved of specific content and detail, amounting to probably another few minutes again of footage, that is gone forever.
Comments
I would agree that the ideas in The Matrix and The Truman Show were explored earlier in various ways in The Twilight Zone but not as clearly or as effectively as in these two movies. And although it is clearly not a new idea, there aren't many movies that deal so effectively with cartesian dualism as The Matrix.
Cartesian, had to look that one up.
I don't think TTZ had any problems exploring those ideas clearly or effectively. In fact I think they did so amazingly well, considering time, budget and era constraints. What they didn't, or couldn't do, mainly due to those constraints was to explore those ideas as extensively and stylistically as the movies did. I think.
Metropolis
Die Nibelungen (some scenes would not be out of place in Star Wars)
And F. W. Murnau's 'Faust'
Yes, I think the point is that Rod Serling was so far ahead of his time that it is impossible to fault TTZ. Budgets are bigger but Serling had the ideas. It is the philosophical nature of many episodes that makes TTZ so special. Admittedly, Serling worked in TV rather than cinema which in itself might show some foresight.
As a reverse to that, The Thing. Not the utterly crap remake, but the original stone cold classic. The whole film has ZERO cgi. In fact, its the last major hollywood movie (even though it was considered a B movie) to avoid using computer based effects. Everything you see is really how it looks. They got some of the best craftsmen and perhaps one of the best photography and location experts ever, and it really shows how well a horror movie can be done, even without the aid of special effects from a computer. It still looks pretty decent today, its aged very well.
I suppose its not so much before its time, because in the 50s you had lots of slick drama films, much like we had a influx of them in the early 2000s. Its more of a cycle thing, and on occasion, one of those stands out. Meh, thats my take on it anyway.
Seems very 80's in some ways but ahead of its time/prophetic in others - look where we are with reality TV/I'm a Celebrity etc and (this is slightly further back from now I know) those weird shows in Japan.
Not a great film by any means but groundbreaking certainly.
Although a couple of originally jettisoned sequences have since been rediscovered, I find it distressing that practically all the film's contentious scenes were liberally shaved of specific content and detail, amounting to probably another few minutes again of footage, that is gone forever.