Martinex1: The Bronze Age movie theater was rife with movies about aliens, so let's discuss these films and rank the best of them. There was a window of time in which little green men with big eyes (or human-looking beings with strange quirks) seemed to be arriving each and every release date.
Just about any movie with aliens is open for consideration, but to keep this discussion fair, let's dismiss the franchises of Star Wars and Star Trek. Those movies and series would tend to fill many of the top tier slots. So to be clear those are outside of our purview today. In addition, let's try to steer clear of the violent, killer, destructive aliens that became common during the same time with the Alien and Predator offerings. That may be a discussion for another time.
Today we are ranking and filing the friendly or at least relatively benign alien flicks!
In the late 1970s and through the 1980s particularly, there were various blockbusters with aliens who acted as friends, compadres, partners, heroes, and protectors. What were the best of those? Take a look at these posters to get primed for the discussion. Why did some of these films work and others fail? What were the top five best films with this criteria? And what were the worst?
Martinex1: I was probably in a very small group of ten-year-olds who liked Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) better than Star Wars. I was mesmerized by the mysterious lights, the sunburn on half of Richard Dreyfuss' face, the urge to carve the monument out of mashed potatoes, that little kid that got abducted, and the eerie musical notes. I cannot say why the movie intrigued me, but I know I sat in the back seat of my mom's car that night looking up to the sky. In retrospect, I suppose it was serendipitous that the film was released around the same time that I was pulling library books about Bigfoot, the Loch Ness monster, secrets of the pyramids, and other such things.
I saw The Brother from Another Planet (1984) one day after school my Junior year of high school. My buddies and I hiked downtown and made it to an "art" theater to see John Sayle's story of an escaped mute three-toed alien slave portrayed by Joe Morton. I haven't seen it in years but I loved that movie at the time and its commentary on many social aspects. There was a lot of humor in the movie and it is well worth another look.
In college, on a lark I watched The Hidden (1987) after classes at the theater just off campus. This was a different type of movie and barely meets the criteria of today's challenge. A slug of a creature is inhabiting citizens' bodies and taking them on sprees of killing and debauchery. The "good' alien arrives in the form of a law enforcement officer (Kyle MacLachlan) who is tracking his spacefaring foe. It is violent but also has some tongue-in-cheek humor that made this outing better rather than worse.
Alien Nation (1988) came out about a year later and took another look at alien style police work. A fully loaded ship from space is stranded on Earth, and the newcomers have to start assimilating to their new home. Life marches on and the police have their plate full dealing with both our normal crime and some other weird events due to the new arrivals. Investigators from both worlds have to interact and solve the crime. This is a cross between a strange invasion movie and a buddy-cop film. Mandy Patinkin does a great job as the alien cop Detective Sam Francisco.
Those are some of my favorites. I've also seen Enemy Mine with Dennis Quaid and Lou Gossett Jr. but I do not remember much. I was not a big fan of E.T.; it was okay but never grabbed me long term. I did not like Cocoon; it had that sugary sweet, message-bearing, feel-good vibe of many films from the era that left me feeling under-entertained. I never saw Starman believe it or not; Jeff Bridges was nominated for an Oscar so maybe I will search it out. Mac and Me was a notorious and horrendous money grab following the E.T. wave.
So what did you think about films like these or the dozens like them. What were your favorites and what do you wish never arrived? And yes, I guess Superman fits the criteria I outlined. Cheers!
13 comments:
I was one of the poor unfortunates who saw MAC & ME at the local multi-plex on what was (at that time) my coveted "movie marathon day off"-- a combination of hittin' the theater a couple of blocks away and renting a passel of videos from the pre-Blockbuster right next to it.
Mac&Me may well be one of the worst films I've ever endured. Apparently the producers thought that doubling-down on some of E.T.'s less-satisfying elements was clearly the road to greater success. Therefore, the young protagonist was even MORE disadvantaged (wheelchair-bound); the little alien kid (and ultimately his folks) looked even MORE like a bathtub squeaky toy; and (this will be hard to believe, I know) there was even MORE blatant, egregious, intrusive product placement throughout. The final, pre-credit shot is burned forever in my brain: a helicopter shot of the now-assimilated (?) alien family driving in their convertible down the California freeway, attired in their Leave-It-To-Beaver best. The tykes in the audience (theater was packed FULL, btw!) shrieked-- SHRIEKED!!- with joy at this sight, which was ironically just about the only moment in the alleged-film that held their attention. All of the assorted Moms and Dads and babysitters, etc, all showed a common sense of urgency in getting the heck out of there as soon as humanly possible. Hooo-boy.
I rather liked ENEMY MINE quite a lot, but no one else I know seems to have.
Of the ones you've listed here, CLOSE ENCOUNTERS would def be my favorite. Probably the only "great" film of this bunch, IMO. STARMAN was also pretty nicely-done-- although it was a deceptively small-scale film. And you could totally see the finish line from pretty much the beginning of the movie.
BUT-- I want to give a tangential shout-out to a 1950's horror/sci-fi movie (since those are also generally beloved by us Bronze Agers) that went almost completely against the "Evil Invaders From Beyond" trope that was pretty much the universal theme at that time, and point out that the classic IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE is in fact a Friendly Alien film that deals with consequences of dealing with a rogue. There's a subtle don't-judge-a-book-by-its-cover message that quietly makes its progressive way into the events-- soooo refreshing for that time.
HB
CEOT3K was by far the best of the bunch, and when I watched it recently it still holds up. It was a bit mysterious to my sharp but still 11-year old brain, and the cool foreboding being reconciled to that joyous ending was a great sleight of hand move by Speilberg.
As for the 50s B movies, the original Alien, It The Terror From Beyond Space, gets my nod. Ridley Scott ripped off the entire movie, albeit so much better than the original.
Yoyo
Another friendly-alien film that comes to mind is 'The Abyss' from 1989. I recall the advertising for 'Close Encounters' was: "If you liked Star Wars, you'll love Close Encounters" but I never saw CE at the time and I think I'd have considered it rather boring compared to Star Wars. Now I think it's a great film and the scene with the musical notes is one of the classic moments of cinema history.
I remember first hearing about E.T. on a BBC news show called Newsnight (which is still around) in the summer of 1982 and they had a report about this little inexpensive film which was doing really well in American cinemas. I was studying French in school at the time and the teacher, Miss Davies, used to hand out copies of 'Paris Match' magazine - they mostly weren't very interesting and seemed to be obsessed with the royal family of Monaco but one of the issues had E.T. on the cover and as a sci-fi fan I wanted that issue - but they were handed out randomly and the E.T. issue went to somebody else, bah !
I've seen Starman on TV but I've never heard of Mac & Me, The Hidden or The Brother From Another Planet.
I've only seen Enemy Mine, Cocoon and parts of Close Encounters. Amazingly, I haven't seen these others at all.
One time in college around 1985 I did briefly stand in line for a Sunday matinee showing of ET for a buck, because I was bored stiff. After standing in line for 20 minutes with all the young children and parents waiting to enter the theater room, I just said 'screw it' and walked back to my dorm.
I told myself, "I wasn't 'that bored'"..
There was some B-movie (don't recall the name..) in the late 80s about some little cute bumbling aliens that crash land here and when they were first considered dangerous, the young girl tried to calm the adults who found them by sayin', 'They're not dangerous, they're just stupid..'
I hear "Mac and Me" and all I can think of is the Friends episode where Joey is going to star in a TV series called "Mac and Cheese".
Anyway, the weekend I saw Close Encounters was momentous in the annals of the history of Doug, as it was the same weekend I saw KISS in 1978. We went to a late show for the film, and I recall being spellbound by many of the things Martinex referenced in today's post. I was also into Bigfoot, etc., as he mentioned, so the possibilities of real-life close encounters seemed quite scary. Good stuff.
And Richard Dreyfus was everywhere in the mid- to late 70s, wasn't he?
Doug
"Close Encounters" was a winner in my book. As Colin noted, the element of the musical notes was powerful and effective. The film had many nice touches, and the early scene on the railroad tracks is still enough to raise the hackles on the back of your neck. Incidentally, we lived not far from Muncie, Indiana which was the setting early in the film. I drove around most of one afternoon looking for that lonely railroad crossing site; never found it.
Also liked "Starman", and was pretty enthralled by "E.T." at the time (although even then I felt the treatment of the government scientists was pretty heavy-handed). Never saw "Mac and Me", never wanted to. It looked waaay too cute, like a Care Bear.
As for older material: "The Day the Earth Stood Still" has long been a favorite of mine. "Klaatu Barada Nikto"...
Redartz, the scene with the gov't scientists in ET reminds me of several movies that either took an unsavory turn in the third act, or perhaps should even have ended earlier. Ang Lee's Hulk film comes to mind with the whole "Absorbing Man" stuff at the end; I thought the Two-Face part of The Dark Knight was also an unnecessary piling on.
Doug
I liked ET, Alien Nation and Enemy Mine at the time. Not sure if they'd be as good now though.
Since Bigfoot's been mentioned here, I'll recommend an entertaining documentary called Shooting Bigfoot which follows Bigfoot hunters around. Often hilarious, and interesting character studies.
Fools! There are no friendly aliens! Watch the skies!
Watch them, I say!
M.P. (looking for his meds)
I saw Brother from Another Planet in 1985/6 with friends while stationed in Germany. My buddy's wife rented it b/c it was highly, highly acclaimed. We watched it all the way through quite uncertain as to what we were seeing until finally convinced we'd been had (as in pranked).
Years later, after returning to the USA, I made a point to highly recommend this film to all my friends and family just to perplex them and have something totally off the wall to talk about.
SO, for all of you have not seen this I HIGHLY HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT!!! (Perhaps I have some form of post PTSD and I am just exorcising my demons???)
I've seen that, and it's actually a pretty good movie, from what I remember.
M.P.
Thanks for joining in all. I do -and without tongue in cheek- recommend The Brother from Another Planet. It is super low budget. And none of the actors are household names (other than perhaps Joe Morton who gives a great performance). About 80% of the movie is not sci-for but rather social vignettes. And since Morton's character is mute then much is projected onto him.
The special effects are horrible because of the budget so don't expect that to be good. I agree you have to be in the right mood and it is a bit dated. But I will take it over MIB or most of the big Hollywood movies for sure. And the bar scenes and the card trick on the train are pure fun.
I could be completely wrong but I still remember the above all these years later. Half the movies I see now I can't remember the next morning.
Curious if anybody sees it in the future what you rate it. Zero bronze medallions to five bronze medallions? I give it - 3.5. You? Feel free to comment any day if you revisit any of these.
Charlie Horse maybe we can set up a Siskel and Ebert of BitBA
Hi Marti! If we did Siskel and Ebert it'd be a very, ad hoc event. I can barely watch 45 minutes of TV on Netflix without getting sleepy!
That's interesting about "Brother" though. As you are describing it, I am starting to remember more of it. As open minded as we tried to be, it just didn't connect.
Wife and I had a similar experience with Chocolat a 1988 release by Claire Denis. Highly highly acclaimed... just could not connect with it. We kept thinking "now it's going to start" and then, suddenly, it ended.
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