Publication:
MaximumRockNRoll

Author:
Felix Von Havoc

MRR #227-1970s sci fi films
"Lord of the Rings, that's totally Juvenile" I said to Michele as I waved the latest issue of the Punisher for emphasis leaning against my glass case of Star Wars toys. Here at Maximum Rock and Roll we like to mix our punk rock with deep and meaningful social and political commentary. But when the horrors of modern life become too much to bear it's time for some old fashioned escapism.

Get in your time machine and return with us to the 1970's. This was a great period for cinema, especially the Science Fiction genre. It just shows you how bankrupt today's culture industry is that most of the movies that come out these days are remakes of 70's classics, Rollerball, Gone in 60 Seconds, Planet of the Apes, etc. I refuse to go see the remade Planet of the Apes or Rollerball because I think the originals were just about perfect and there's no reason to tamper with them. This would be like saying "we need to re record the Minor Threat LP to fix all the flaws and update it" Bullshit, it was just right the first time. Maybe the technology today has advanced or whatever, but those films and records were made just right with the materials on hand at the time and there is zero reason to try and superimpose bogus 21st century ideas on 1970's classics. So here then are my picks of the great sci fi movies and comics of the 70's!

Star Wars, OK this is a pretty obvious choice. The greatest science fiction adventure film of all time. Although sci fi became really popular after Star Wars, leading to Battlestar Galactica, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the Black Hole, Star Trek the Movie, Buck Rogers etc. I view most of those films and TV shows as bogus and Star Wars more as the logical culmination of the film making earlier in the decade rather than the progenitor of a new explosion in the genre. I feel that one of the over riding elements in 70's cinema was the "dark themes" of the Godfather, Apocalypse Now, Dog Day Afternoon etc. These emphasized the disillusionment with American institutions after Vietnam and Watergate. When Star Wars with its old fashioned swashbuckling adventure, good versus evil simplicity and uplifting ending brought back those sort of themes to Hollywood. This was a bad move and culminated in crap like E.T. And Alf. That said, Star Wars was a masterpiece, combining elements of Kurosawa's Samurai Epics with the Western and traditional Bijou Matinee Sci-Fi Lucas created a most triumphant tale of intergalactic adventure. Star Wars came out when I was 8 years old so I was in the target demographic dead on. I bought all the toys, saw the movie again and again, read the comics over and over and was there on opening day in 1980 for Empire Strikes Back, but that my friends is out of our narrative. So, after dispensing with the obvious we retreat into the earlier 70's for the lost classics.

Clockwork Orange-When I was 12 or 13 I used to play Gamma World and D&D over at this kids house. His older brother had just got out of prison and we thought he was really cool because he taught us how to jimmy locks and break into cars. Anyway, he had a copy of Clockwork Orange by Alec Burgess that he'd read in prison that he gave to me to read. I really enjoyed the book and it wasn't until I started hanging out with punk kids that I realized there was a movie. Stanley Kubrick is my all time favorite director and Clockwork Orange is a masterpiece. Kubrick's cinematic genius adapts the book with nearly perfect verisimilitude. Some people in the punk scene have criticized the treatment of women in the film and it's influence on the Skinhead subculture. If you can detach the film and the book from other people's interpretation's of it and view it objectively it's probably one of the most poignant examinations of juvenile delinquency, crime and punishment in the Anglo-Saxon literary tradition. Kubrick's dystopian (albeit now very 1970's) future of teenage criminality and authoritarian correction is still unequaled in it's masterful cinematography and social relevance.

Death Race 2000-This uncannily prophetic masterpiece is all the more interesting today as it foreshadows the contemporary fascination with things like the WWF and "Faces of Death" and such. David Carradine plays Frankenstien the champion trans American road race champion competing against Stallone as Machine Gun Joe Viterbo and several other drivers in crazy souped up cars. The objective is to score points by killing pedestrians along the way. The out of control mix of violence and sex in this film is such a scathing commentary on American popular culture, yet so entertaining for precisely that same reason. "That's what we love in America Violence! Violence! Violence!!"

Rollerball-Like Death Race 2000 this one takes on America's fascination with sports and violence. Set in a future where giant corporations control the world and have eliminated all poverty, hunger and disease, the only form of escapism is Rollerball a super violent sport played on a circle track. I'm sure the remake of this will suck, so save your money and rent the original. The plot really drags at times but it's worth it for the action sequences.

Logan's Run-Another ironically prophetic movie. Set in a future closed society where no one is allowed to live over 30. This movie focuses on two of the "Sandmen" whose job it is to chase down the "runners" who don't voluntarily acquiesce to societies ritual suicide. As expected one of the sandmen becomes a runner himself and tries to escape to the "outside." I read the book and think it was a little better than the movie but this is still cool. Especially it's commentary on America's fascination with youth, plastic surgery etc. I think there might have been a hardcore band called Logan's Run at one point.

Wizards-Ralph Bakshi's animated tale of evil wizards and good wizards battling for control of the world from the land of Scortch. I haven't seen this one in a long time but Bakshi was a great filmmaker who also did the first film adaptation of Lord of the Rings and the Spiderman TV show.

Heavy Metal- Another animated classic. This is a cinematic version of the glossy sci-fi/fantasy magazine. Although the soundtrack is pretty weak today this is still pretty entertaining, the plot and dialogue are so weak that it's pretty good to put on while listening to some records and just watch the cool aliens and hot space chicks and muscle bound barbarian dudes.

Soilent Green-Not the Metal band dude. This was a killer movie set in yet another dystopian future where an evil government and corporations "solve" over population and hunger by making food out of dead people. Were those dudes in the 70's trying to warn us about something?

2001-Stanley Kubrick's cerebral Sci Fi masterpiece. I have to admit, even though he's my favorite director this film sort of drags. I mean the cinematography is great but it's really something I think you have to watch while tripping on acid or something to really get into. If you don't believe me about Kubrick's mastery try renting all of his movies in chronological order and watching them all back to back (this will take several weeks unless you are home with the flu or something) This man was the greatest, don't forget the early ragers like The Killing and Paths of Glory.

Alien-Actually a post Star Wars film this is one of the greatest Sci Fi and horror films. Set in deep space on a spooky spaceship a crew of blue collar space jockeys fights an HR Giger designed alien killing machine for survival. Crucial! The sequals to this were just OK but the original is a masterpiece. Fraught with suspense, amazing special effects and makeup on the alien and Giger's mind blowing sets.

Planet of the Apes-This amazing series Planet of the Apes, Beneath the Planet of the Apes, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, Escape from the Planet of the Apes and Battle for the Planet of the Apes is a total must see for anyone into 70's sci fi. If you ask me the first movie and Conquest are the best while Battle and Escape are pretty weak. Charlton Heston's spaceship somehow crashes on Earth thousands of years in the future where mutant Apes have taken over and humans are reduced to mute victims of vivisection. "The only good human is a dead human!" There is a lot of 70's social commentary about technology, environmentalism and racial prejudice mixed in here which only adds to the continuing fascination with these films. Monkeybite fanzine anyone!

Mad Max-OK I like the Road Warrior better but that didn't come out until the 80's. This 1979 classic features a young Mel Gibson as a renegade cop fighting a desperate gang of bikers in the Australian outback. There are two versions of this film. One Australian original and another dubbed with American accents. Definitely seek out the Aussie version. "I'm laying down a rubber road to freedom!"

Also cool, Zardoz, Silent Running, Damnation Alley, Firebird 2010, Barbarella Queen of the Galaxy, THX 1138, The Man who fell to earth, Omega Man.

This column is really about the 70's but I can't help but mention some early 80's classics Blade Runner and the Road Warrior which no one should be without. And Tron which is my best bet for a remake. I loved that video game.

Now we move on to 70's Sci Fi in the comic books. Most of this stuff has no value to collectors and you can probably pick it up for pennies at a comic book shop. The only other person I've met in the punk scene into this stuff is Ken Sanderson of Prank Records.

2001- This comic I think I actually liked better than the movie. Jack Kirby's cosmic style lent itself perfectly to the cosmos spanning and deep world of Kubricks' film. This book continued for a year or so and is notable for spawning Machine Man a crucial super hero in his own right.

Deathlok the Demolisher- My all time favorite comic book character. Deathlok originally appeared in Astonishing Tales in 1974. This character and title have been revived by Marvel several times but none even touches the original mid 70's Deathlok. Deathlok was a cyborg killing machine. A super soldier experiment who rebelled against his creators and did battle with the CIA and mutants in a dystopian future (New York City 1997). This comic is so cool I wish they would bring it back as close to the original concept as possible. The only time I ever had a letter printed in a comic book was writing in to complain that the last incarnation of Deathlok wasn't as cool as the 70's original.

Kamandi Last Boy on Earth-OK it's really strange for me to be into a DC comic but Kirby jumped to DC for a while in the 70's and did two awesome Sci Fi titles, Kamandi and OMAC. Kamandi was basically a knock off of Planet of the Apes. Based on the adventures of a "last boy on earth" who is the last survivor of the old order raised in a secret bunker. He emerges into a world run by mutated animals where humans are mute and treated like slaves (sound familiar). Every issue of this when Kirby was writing is solid gold, totally goofy but still great. It continued for several years after Kirby left but not as good. This title also tied in to Hercules Unbound which wasn't that good.

OMAC-The One Man Army Corps OMAC was another Kirby triumph. Set in a Dystopian future where a super governmental interanational law enforcement body is set up to police run away corporate greed OMAC is their top agent. The coolest thing about this guy is he had a big black Mohawk in 1974! Kirby used this comic to deal with a lot of issues that are still current today like technology, genetic engineering, cloning and rampant corporate power. This only ran for a few issues and was revived in the 90's for a pretty cool limited series. Rumor has it that OMAC was Kamandi's father.

Heavy Metal, EPIC, Star Reach, 1984/1994-The 70's was the golden age of black and white comic magazines and sci fi/fantasy comics. Combining elements of sci fi cinema with super hero comics and underground comix a new generation of artists created some stuff that was too sexual and gory for mainstream comics but still totally juvenile escapism not to be taken very seriously, therefore pretty cool. Heavy Metal still exists although not as good. These comic magazines from the 70's are all over the map. Every few issues is an absolutely amazing story with mind blowing artwork, interspersed with total schlock. Still stuff like this isn't exactly big ticket items on Ebay, more like stuff you find on a box in the floor of the comic shop for a buck a piece so what the fuck?

Killraven Warrior of the Worlds-This guy was fighting for the survival of the human race against the Martian invaders of HG Wells War of the Worlds. This comic got really trippy sometimes but there was plenty of action Killraven was cool because he fought a lot with ray guns and also swords and throwing stars. I always liked it when people mixed swordplay with ray guns. This is of course why light sabers are so rad. There was a character in this comic called Old Skull!

Warlord-Enter the Lost World of the Warlord! Inspired partly by Arthur Conan Doyle's Lost World this story of adventure swords and sorcery and robot warriors obviously influenced by Marvel's popular Conan titles. I'm sure these go for less than a quarter today, if any comic shops even bother to stock them. But if you are into dudes battling robots while riding flying dinosaurs this is some wicked shit.

The Micronauts-Basically one of the only cool Toy company spin off comics I can remember other than GI Joe. (Rom the Spaceknight and Shogun Warriors were pretty dismal) I don't know how many people remember the Micronauts toys, they were just as cool, if not cooler than the Star Wars action figures with their interchangeable parts and cool characters like Baron Karza and the Acroyears. The comic was actually really cool. Basically a group of space adventurers flee the evil Baron Karza through a time warp from inner space to earth where they show up about 3 inches tall and do battle with the police, lawn mowers etc. This comic ran for several years after the toys faded away but the first twenty or so issues are the best.

Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica comics. OK these were cool, but not as cool as the movies. The Star Wars comics were pretty good especially the years in between Empire and Star Wars for those of us who needed a monthly fix. But the art and writing steadily declined over the years.

The Eternals-Another Cosmic Jack Kirby creation this time back at Marvel. I guess Kirby read "Chariots of Fire" and got really inspired by the idea that there was a vanished race of space aliens who visited the ancient Incas or something. Either way this was pretty cool but unfortunately degenerated into a standard superhero comic after a while and the Eternals got integrated into the Marvel Universe messing around with Thor and stuff. There was a cool character called "Karkas" who was the prototypical burly grind core dude. One of a race of evil mutants called the "Deviants"

John Carter Warlord of Mars-The 1930's Edgar Rice Burroughs character got treated to a few years of glory in comics form by marvel. I read all books so I thought the comics were pretty cool. Who can resist Tars Tarkas the four armed green Martian warrior dude battling enemies of various hues. Flying cars, radium bullets, and lots of sword fighting on Mars. Nobody does shit like this anymore.

Conan the Barbarian and Savage Sword of Conan-OK this along with Kull, Red Sonja, Klaw etc is swords and sorcery not sci fi and really deserves it's own column but the Conan comics especially the first 20 and really up to issue 100 or so are some of the best ever. The Barry Windsor Smith period was so epic. The Black and White Savage Sword's were awesome right into the late 80's. It's a shame Marvel killed off Conan and Swords and Sorcery has died out as a genre. I'd take Frank Thorne's Red Sonja over Xena warrior princess or X Men any day.

OK, next month I'll talk about punk music I swear, I'm outta here, gotta ride my BMX bike to the arcade to play some Missle Command and Battle Zone.

Publication Date:
January 1, 1988

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