The Naked Sun by Isaac Asimov

Having reread this novel for the first time in decades- this time having actually having read Caves of Steel first- I've concluded that it's good, very very good. In fact, I'm pondering on the possibility that the two novels taken together may be Asimov's masterpiece. Then again you could argue that about Foundation. In both cases, it's all about the ideas, and the ideas are profound.

Like its prequel, this is a whodunit set in a future with an overcrowded Earth and robot-obsessed colonists, "Spacers" who lord it over the old homeworld, with complex and intriguing sociological undercurrents.These's a bit of an emphasis on the Laws of Robotics, but the ideas in play here far bigger than merely those.

Oh, the novel dates in places. In the future, everyone smokes, at least on Earth. Gendeer roles are very '50s. It's taken as axiomatic and universal that children are to be disciplined by physical force. Most amusingly, sex is rationed on Solaria in order to control the population, in a serialised novel written just three years before the advent of the contraception pill.

Yet there's so much to explore here. Ideas of decadence through technology slowly giving us lives of ease, something which, I think, in 2023, is very far off. Yet Solaria, though an extreme example, is a cautionary tale of what happens if we put too much of our social life into virtual channels rather than face to face, which since Covid we've all done to such extent, with a certain amount of our social skills beginning to atrophy.

This is a work of genius, both as a whodunit and with its conclusions on the future of the society it depicts.

The Killing (1956)

 "It isn't fair!"

This early film by Stanley Kubrick has no stars- hardly the last of his films to fit this description- and I took the quote from a parrot. The narrative structure is cleverly non-linear but the use of narration to explain this feels a little awkward in 2023. Yet this is a stone cold classic, a truly great heist film.

Heist movies are more intrinsically philosophical than you might think. A heist consists of an intricate, precise plan where all the many moving parts must work perfectly.  Yet even the best laid plans must take place in our chaotic little universe. Even in successful heists, little things go wrong that create ripples. As hrere, it's after the apparently successful heist that things go horribly pear-shaped for most. I suppose one moral is that crime doesn't pay, but more fundamentally that we do not live in a clockwork universe and there are no happy-ever-after. This film articulates all of that beautifully, the heist as tragedy.

It does this all the more so because of the very real characters, already tragic before anything happens. We know from the beginning that Johnny Clay's promises to his sweetheart are doomed to fail. Only just out ofv a five year stretch, instead of marrying her he will be going back inside. Then there's the horribly real unhappy couple that is Sherry and George- she's far more intelligent, greedy and immoral than the wet drip she married. The two relationships are quite the contrast, but both equally doomed.

Even the little characters are well crafted. I like Nikki's comeuppance for his racism, and that Maurice, the thug whose role is to start a fight, is a chess-playing intellectual.

This film has depth. It has characterisation. It is a masterpiece.

The Battle of the River Plate (1956)

 "The captain must have a hat!"

I suppose I've slightly neglected war films. I've seen and blogged a few, like Wesrerns, but I suspect, given the sheer number of films I've blogged (789, I think), they're underrepresented.

The Stars, My Destination by Alfred Bester

 

I’d never read any Alfred Bester until now, not that he was a prolific writer. I’d vaguely pigeonholed him as another ‘50s writer of hard science fiction. And he really isn’t.

This is, to put it mildly, not the novel I was expecting. It isn’t really space opera, although it has spaceships in it. Telepathy and teleportation- “jaunting”- are important concepts here, but not necessarily the main point. The future society prefigures cyberpunk with extraordinary prescience: we have a future dominated by corporate clans, urban dystopia and casual cruelty. There are lots of wonderful details, and cool concepts thrown away almost casually.

Yet it’s all about the weird but compelling prose, and the unique central character, a simplistic thug whose crude desire for revenge ironically leads him to wisdom and to freedom- and not only for himself.

This is a difficult novel at times, but full of great ideas and wild experimentalism. I’ll remember it for a long time.

The Searchers (1956)

 "Fella could mistake you for a half-breed."

When accusing a film of racism one needs to be wary of nuance, historical context and all sorts of factors. Past ages were far less sensitive to racist tropes and assumptions, and while that may not prevent racism being racism it must be taken into account. Past filmmakers can be forgiven, up to a point, for growing up in times where being non-racist took a far greater perceptiveness and strength of character than it does today.

Nevertheless, there are times a film is just racist by any standards, and it’s a shame that it has to be this one. The film is gorgeously shot by John Ford, with achingly epic vistas of Arizona standing in for Texas. The script is extraordinarily acute its psychology. And John Wayne gives a superlative performance.

And yet the protagonist, Ethan, is both a colossal racist and a total dick, a bully possessing not an ounce of charm or decent principle. Not long after we first meet him he utters the extraordinary line quoted above to Marty, who is fated to spend much of the film as his sidekick. He remains, three years after the end of the American Civil War, loyal to the Confrderacy, an ideal based entirely on race-based slavery, whatever Southern apologists may have spend much of the twentieth century trying to gaslight us with. He is therefore stubborn in his beliefs but with absolutely zero ethical foundation.

Lots of Westerns are not overtly racist as they don’t centre on the opposition between “whites” and the Native Americans whom said “whites” are in the process of slowly exterminating. It’s I arguable that the story of the American West is a story of genocide, but it would be pointless to dismiss much of a whole genre because of this. The American West was full of people born there just trying to live their often very hard lives and survive and, although they were all complicit in this genocide, well, I’m sure you and I have both worn clothes made by slave labour, and are complicit in the climate catastrophe. We are all born into the societies we are, and few of us are so virtuous as to not share some of that society’s guilt.

All of which is to say that I do not condemn the Western genre on the grounds of this genocide, not even necessarily where Native Americans are portrayed as an antagonist. But The Searchers absolutely leans into this. The central plot is when a bunch of Comanche destroy a home and murder its inhabitants, taking little Debbie to raise as their own. Yet everyone in the film, barring Marty, seems to be of the opinion that she is now tainted, made “not white any more” by her adoption of another culture, and should therefore be killed. This is not a film about Ethan the racist; it is a racist film.

And yes, the film ends with Ethan relenting, and generously allowing that a white girl who sleeps with a non-white man and adopts elements of non-white culture may not, perhaps, deserve to be slaughtered. So miscegenation is bad and so is non-white culture, but perhaps it shouldn’t quite be a capital offence. That seems to be the message here.

The Searchers is a very good film, perhaps even an excellent one. Unfortunately, it’s also incredibly racist.

Forbidden Planet (1956)

"Sorry, Miss. I was giving myself an oil job."

Wow. After all the '50s sci-fi B movies I've seen so recently this is a revelation. It's a fiercely intelligent updating of The Tempest that looks superb and actually makes you think. This isn't what I was expecting at all. I was so surprised that it took me embarrassingly long to work out which one was Leslie Nielsen.

Every aspect of the design is sheer class, right down to the lettering in the opening titles, and this film defines the look of American TV science fiction for years to come or, in the case of Lost in Space, gets shamelessly ripped off. It's also worth mentioning how, in 1956, it was still quite unusual for films to depict humans exploring other planets.

But even more extraordinary is the soundtrack, which is brilliant and adds so much to the atmosphere. The sound effects are outstanding and the music- an eerie, alienating, theremin-infused score that evokes Stockhausen and other contemporary composers- is incredible.

The plot is, of course, basically The Tempest with a bit of Freud thrown in, but the way it's told is riveting, based as it is on characters with actual traits and personalities, a rarity in '50s sci-fi.

Yes, I know it's the planet of the matte paintings, there's some misogyny directed at Alta, the crew are all disturbingly white, and I rolled my eyes a bit at the characters boasting about their IQ's, but there's not much to complain about in this extraordinary film. I can't believe I waited so long to see it.

(As a Doctor Who fan it's clear to me just how influential this story has been. It clearly inspired all of Planet of Evil, right down to the costumes, and it's now obvious where the invisible beasts attacking the perimeter came from in Face of Evil.)

Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956)

"When an armed and threatening power lands uninvited in our capital, we don't meet him with tea and cookies!"

This film is a magnificent spectacle of flying saucers courtesy of the great Ray Harryhausen, with loads of great action sequences and even a reasonable plot and a stab at characterisation. It's one of the better films of its type and definitely not Mystery Theatre 3000 territory. Even the acting is largely adequate.

It's still very '50s, of course. The sexual politics raise an eyebrow. And it's interesting to watch the early part of the film, predicting satellites, knowing that next year the Soviets will launch Sputnik and the Space Age will begin.

And then you look at the aliens and their silly walk and think "Oh dear".

Still, this is a visually impressive flying saucer flick that looks good even today. It's probably as good as a '50s sci-fi B movie is going to get.

X the Unknown (1956)

"It's on it's way for the biggest meal of its life."

Yes, Mr. Kneale. We realise you refused permission to use the character of Professor Quatermass in this film. What's that, Mr. Kneale? Oh, no. Heaven forbid. The character of Dr Adam Royston is in no way a thinly veiled carbon copy of the good Professor. And the odd similarity of the format to your own work is just coincidence. Small world, isn't it, Mr. Kneale?

Suspicious coincidences aside, this is a good and entertaining film, if a rather shirt one. Not bad for the first ever Hammet horror, or not, depending how you define these things; to me this is very much science fiction.

Oh, it's a little odd that none of the characters seem to notice that Royston is American, and the young Frazer Hines' Scottish accent is a bit rubbish at this stage although, to be fair, give it ten years and he'll get a lot of practice. Also, it's the '50s, so everything is radiation this and radiation that. 

This is a fairly inconsequential diversion, but, if you can stand the sight of Leo "Rumpole of the Bailey" McKern bring indecently young, it's a fun and entertaining film.