{"id":8538,"date":"2005-10-17T13:16:39","date_gmt":"2005-10-17T20:16:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2005\/10\/17\/the-canon-of-sf-films.html"},"modified":"2015-05-08T12:36:14","modified_gmt":"2015-05-08T18:36:14","slug":"the_canon_of_sf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/10\/17\/the_canon_of_sf.html","title":{"rendered":"The Canon of SF Films"},"content":{"rendered":"

John Scalzi, who’s just publishing the Rough Guide to Sci-Fi Movies<\/a>, puts out the canon of most significant SF films<\/a>:<\/p>\n

All of this is designed to be both interesting and informative, but the part of the book that’s going to get most people’s attention — and raise hackles — is The Canon, which features the 50 science fiction films I have deemed to be the most significant in the history of film. Note that “most significant” does not mean “best” or “most popular” or even “most influential.” Some of the films may be all three of these, but not all of them are — indeed, some films in The Canon aren’t objectively very good, weren’t blockbusters and may not have influenced other filmmakers to any significant degree. Be that as it may, I think they matter <\/em>— in one way or another, they are uniquely representative of some aspect of the science fiction film experience.<\/p>\n

Scalzi had final say on the list (reasons for each are in the book), but he solicited input from others. His list (with the ones I’ve seen in bold):<\/p>\n

The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension!
\nAkira
\nAlien
\nAliens<\/strong>
\nAlphaville
\nBack to the Future
\nBlade Runner
\nBrazil<\/strong>
\nBride of Frankenstein
\nBrother From Another Planet
\nA Clockwork Orange
\nClose Encounters of the Third Kind<\/strong>
\nContact
\nThe Damned
\nDestination Moon
\nThe Day The Earth Stood Still<\/strong>
\nDelicatessen
\nEscape From New York
\nET: The Extraterrestrial<\/strong>
\nFlash Gordon: Space Soldiers (serial)
\nThe Fly (1985 version)
\nForbidden Planet
\nGhost in the Shell
\nGojira\/Godzilla
\nThe Incredibles
\nInvasion of the Body Snatchers (1956 version)
\nJurassic Park
\nMad Max 2\/The Road Warrior
\nThe Matrix<\/strong>
\nMetropolis
\nOn the Beach
\nPlanet of the Apes (1968 version)
\nRobocop
\nSleeper<\/strong>
\nSolaris (1972 version)
\nStar Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
\nStar Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
\nStar Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back<\/strong>
\nThe Stepford Wives
\nSuperman
\nTerminator 2: Judgement Day<\/strong>
\nThe Thing From Another World
\nThings to Come
\nTron<\/strong>
\n12 Monkeys
\n28 Days Later
\n20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
\n2001: A Space Odyssey<\/strong>
\nLa Voyage Dans la Lune
\nWar of the Worlds (1953 version)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

An interesting list. One could do worse than bringing those along on desert island exercise.<\/p>\n

(via BoingBoing<\/a>)<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

John Scalzi, who’s just publishing the Rough Guide to Sci-Fi Movies, puts out the canon of most significant SF films: All of this is designed to be both interesting and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[852,41,360,372],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dc-cinematic-univese","category-media-movies","category-media-tv-star-trek","category-star-wars-media-movies"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6456,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/08\/31\/significant_sf.html","url_meta":{"origin":8538,"position":0},"title":"Significant SF Films","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 31-Aug-04 2:26pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Author John Scalzi is soliciting from folks their votes for the Fifty Most Significant SF Films. As some of you know, I'm currently writing The Rough Guide to Science Fiction...","rel":"","context":"In "Media & Culture"","block_context":{"text":"Media & Culture","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10428,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/01\/17\/the_real_new_hope.html","url_meta":{"origin":8538,"position":1},"title":"The real “New Hope”","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 17-Jan-07 10:57am","format":false,"excerpt":"Oh, this is delicious. If we accept all the Star Wars films as the same canon, then a lot that happens in the original films has to be reinterpreted in...","rel":"","context":"In "Movies"","block_context":{"text":"Movies","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-movies"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3223,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/01\/10\/chum.html","url_meta":{"origin":8538,"position":2},"title":"Chum","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 10-Jan-03 8:43am","format":false,"excerpt":"USA Today is holding a \"Star Wars vs Lord of the Rings\" write-in poll. Let the bloodbath begin!...","rel":"","context":"In "Lord of the Rings \/ Hobbit"","block_context":{"text":"Lord of the Rings \/ Hobbit","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/franchises\/lord-of-the-rings"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10710,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/11\/14\/bond_music_james_bond_mus.html","url_meta":{"origin":8538,"position":3},"title":"Bond music … James Bond music","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 14-Nov-06 7:10am","format":false,"excerpt":"Fun article on NPR (via BD) on James Bond movie title music over the decades. Yes, it's been 42 years of Bond films, and the evolution and maintenance of the...","rel":"","context":"In "Movies"","block_context":{"text":"Movies","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-movies"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1819,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/04\/25\/there_is_nothin.html","url_meta":{"origin":8538,"position":4},"title":"There is nothing wrong with your television","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 25-Apr-02 12:39pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's a paean in Salon to possibly the best SF series ever: \"The Outer Limits\". Even more than these films, though, the series' use of pulp accoutrements as portals into...","rel":"","context":"In "Media & Culture"","block_context":{"text":"Media & Culture","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":128809,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/11\/15\/bond-films-that-never-were.html","url_meta":{"origin":8538,"position":5},"title":"Bond Films That Never Were","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 15-Nov-15 10:23am","format":false,"excerpt":"Fun article on James Bond movies that were mooted at some point but never quite happened, due to rights conflicts, actors leaving the series, actors not getting hired for the series, changes in creative teams, etc. Some of them sound fascinating. The 7 James Bond Movies You Never Saw We\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8538"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8538\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37167,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8538\/revisions\/37167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}