Dystopian novels and movies
I has occurred to me that some of the rather bleak visions of the future that were written/produced a generation or two ago are, at least in some ways, coming true.
My top three would be:
1984
Fahrenheit 451
Soylent Green
Food for thought methinks, does anyone else have any nominees or am I just being unduly pessimistic?
My top three would be:
1984
Fahrenheit 451
Soylent Green
Food for thought methinks, does anyone else have any nominees or am I just being unduly pessimistic?
2
Comments
Pierre Boulle wrote the original Planet of the Apes, a very good book in it's own right but also the original concept for the original movie.
Wool is supposed to be an excellent read, though I haven't read it yet.
I am not sure if Asimov's writings necessarily qualify as 'Dystopian' or not, but the rise and fall of humanity would certainly seem relevant.
More recently, Orson Scott Card wrote "Ender's Game", which if you read the series it points to quite a few 'Cracks' in society including mandatory birth restrictions, child labor and rather rampant homelessness (particularly in children).
Another book I quite liked was called Recursion by Tony Balyntine. The rest of the series was somewhat less interesting, but the first book was very original and dealt with the emergence of AI.
As far as movies are concerned, Logan's Run was a favorite of mine (the TV show less so). I liked a lot of the themes including the dissolution of the family unit in favor of institutionalized 'upbringing'. And the whole demystification of love versus recreational sex was an interesting take on things. No families, therefore no strong familial bonds to create friction, etc... Loads of good stuff in there. And then there is the whole 'Mandatory suicide' thing.
The original (unaired) ending to Terminator 2 suggests a Utopian/dystopian theme to the franchise. Well, the whole 'Rise of the machine' theme (not the movie) suggests that, but that particular ending got me and I think it should have been used over what was actually released.
If you are classic British Sci-fi fan, there was a show in the 70 called Blake's 7.
Coppelion (コッペリオン): Written in 2008 by Inoue Tomonori, the story resolves around the question "what if a nuclear disaster hits a super metropolis like Tokyo?". Ironically when the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster occured in 2011, this ceased to be fiction.
Then there's this South Korean science fiction action movie "Snowpiercer". Scientists found a fancy way of stopping global warming by blowing nano machines into the stratosphere. Thing is, those little guys worked too well and created a new ice age. Everything froze over and the few survivors gone all banana. Then again... who wouldn't?
(this is a joke and not intended to offend anyone or belittle any actual hardships suffered).
Some others not so much, but you can win 'em all.
There's the 60s show and a remake from the 90s, I watched the latter.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0667878/
One of my favorites.