The Dystopian Arc

Support and Suggestions Podcast Arc Suggestions
#1

After all the classic stuff on the last arc, I thought of maybe an arc can be done on dystopian societies in SciFi film. The nominees are;

1)Last man on Earth/Omega Man/I am Legend

All three are the same story. The first one stars Vincent Price and is closest to the novel. Omega Man stars Chuck Heston, and is my favorite adaptation, and of course the last one stars Will Smith.

  1. Solyent Green

  2. A Clockwork Orange

  3. A Boy and His Dog

  4. Damnation Alley

  5. 1984

  6. Escape From NY - thotfullguy suggestion

  7. THX-1138

  8. Fahrenheit 451

  9. Alphaville - also a sci fi film noir predating Blade Runner by 17 years

  10. 12 Monkeys

  11. Brazil

  12. Animal Farm

  13. 9 - Suggestion of wolfbyte

  14. Gattaca - Suggestion of Frakintalos

  15. Pleasantville - Suggestion of Moviedude

  16. Things To Come - Screenplay by HG Wells based on his 1933 Novel “The Shape Of Things To Come”

#2

Cool that you included “A Boy and His Dog”. Great weird movie and it’s on Neflix Instant Watch.
Would “Escape from New York” be considered Dystopian? Well, regardless EFNY needs to be part of some arc—whether it’s a Kurt Russel arc or New York arc or something.

#3

EFNY could certainly fit. Three more I can think off are THX1138, and Fahrenheit 451 and Brave New World.

Oh and how could I forget Alphaville, 12 Monkeys, and of course Brazil! man this list is gonna get long lol!

#4

Just a thought - the kingdom of Camelot in the Arthurian tales have a dystopian theme to it; and there’s dragons too. :cool:

#5

I would love the Matheson story, but only if it included the superb short. It really rams home the themes well.

#6

Not really. The Arthurian Legends, assuming we are speaking of the ones written in Middle English and not the Lancelot cycle brought over from France, are more allegorical and have more in common with say The Decammaron, The Canterbury Tales, and The Farie Queene.

Dystopias are parodies of Utopian Societies. Why 1984, A Clockwork Orange and say the cartoon version of Animal Farm would be perfect. Satire isn’t always funny :wink:

#7

I stand corrected. :o

#8

Any more suggestions?

#9

equilibrium! good movie, great fight choreography, and it has christian bale AND sean bean. also taye diggs. and emily watson.

gun kata ftw

#10

The entire Mad Max series (although that should be an arc in its own right.)

#11

Why not more sci-fi stories in which everything works out, and everything’s cool?

#12

Because SF is really about the present :confused:

#13

Hehe. I like to call it Farenheit 452 :stuck_out_tongue: Still awesome though

Metropolis - Strangely still very watchable considering it is a 80 year old black and white 3 hour silent film

Casshern was kinda fun if you’re into resurrected protagonists in battle armor kicking the tar out of a robot army

Idiocracy for a scarily accurate representation of where humanity may be heading (the opening sequence alone where we watch the breeding patterns of several generations of “smart” and “dumb” people is well worth the effort. It inspired this comic back when I was doing that)

9 There isn’t much of a society to be dystopian in (it’s more post-apocalyptic) but there isn’t a whole bunch of people in I am Legend either so…

and finally Repo! A Genetic Opera I’ve never seen it but it’s been on my list since my brother told me about it. Giles (from Buffy) as a night-time psychopath who 'repo’s peoples organs if they can’t pay his company. And all set to music. Delicious

#14

Everything is cool now! Example: Someone could do a series about a bunch of people who play a massive multiplayer online game, then actually join together in the real world for wacky hijinks. It’d be awesome to have a series, about a gaming guild, even if it’s a low-budget series of web episodes.

#15

While I am a huge fan of Metropolis, (ask Chuck) unfortunately none of the movies you listed meet the criteria for Dystopias, especially Metropolis as it is actually a Socialist Utopia that is created at the end from a Capitalist society. Repro I’ve seen. I put it on to chase pesky people out of the apartment it is that bad. 9 is probably the best candidate listed.

#16

I can’t speak for Repo and Casshern, since I haven’t seen them, but Metropolis is very much a dystopian movie–the first one ever made, actually.

I’d argue that 9 isn’t dystopian at all. There’s no faux-utopian element in it at all, especially once the major meat of the movie gets going. The most you can stretch the definition is 1’s leadership, and that’s less a utopian rule than it is trying not to die.

Idiocracy might be a utopia to a certain type of person? I don’t think it counts as a dystopia, either.

Has Gattaca been mentioned? I can’t believe I didn’t think of it until now. It sounds so perfect to be able to choose what your kid’s genes will be, until the actual implications of that start to sink in.

#17

What about Dark City? It’s very weird, but in a good way. Very noir feel too, which I think is a really good fit for a dystopian story.

Also 1984. (I’ve read the book, but not seen the movie, so I don’t know if it’s good.)

#18

The film ‘1984’ had Richard Burton and an incredible performance by John Hurt. The director, Michael Radford, stayed pretty faithful to the novel.

#19

Metropolis is most certainly not a dystopia. It ends with a utopian ideal as it’s resolution (the joining of the heart and hands). Gattaca is definitely a good choice!

Dark City not really. 1984 is already on the candidate list. The hard part is watching it. It’s currently only available as a download at iTunes to the best of my knowledge.

I love that adaptation of 1984. The one done in 1951 was horrible.

Oh I wish this was available on DVD, but it is still in Theatres - Never Let Me Go.

#20

For the vast majority of the movie, Metropolis is a dystopia. It’s a veneer of awesomeness with a crunchy layer of suckage for the vast majority of people underneath, and it got a fight the system message through and had a happy ending.

I’m having a hard time thinking of more dystopian movies. Most of the dystopian stuff I like is literature.