Science fiction is all about taking us into new worlds, but quite often they have something to say about the world in which we already live. Or, rather, the world we will live in if we’re not careful. Blade Runner, Gattaca, The Terminator, Minority Report, Her, The Matrix, even Johnny Mnemonic, these were all movies that were prescient to varying degrees. And, when it comes to being prescient, the older a sci-fi movie is, the more impressive its prescience becomes. And that brings us to the 1960s, which had quite a few classics of the genre with themes that feel eerily more relevant today than they were six decades ago.
The following movies either aged well in terms of how they look or what they had to say. Either way, they make it seem as though no time has passed at all since they were first released.
5) Fantastic Voyage
For a 1966 movie about venturing inside the human body, Fantastic Voyage (based on the Isaac Asimov book by the same name) looks remarkably great. And like one other entry on this list, that’s all thanks to practical effects.
Some of the tech inside the vessel is a little dated, and the suits the crew wear aren’t all that dissimilar from what is seen on aliens in a Shōwa era Godzilla movie, but when it comes to actually selling the concept that we’re inside a human body the movie does a great job. It’s no wonder it took home the Oscar for Best Special Visual Effects. James Cameron intends to helm a remake, and imagine how great that would look in IMAX.
4) Village of the Damned
Village of the Damned (which Halloween director John Carpenter later remade to middling effect) preys on the valid fear of soulless crowd mentalities. If someone is the leader of a nation there are plenty of people who feel comfortable doing whatever they say, even if what they’re telling people to do is increasingly ludicrous and morally questionable.
Before long, people are afraid to break from the norm. To question the authority and or status quo means to stand out and risk being seen as a danger by those who are comfortable embracing groupthink. Standing out is exactly what the human residents of this particular Village are afraid to do when most of its women give birth to white-haired telepaths. It’s quite similar to The Twilight Zone episode “It’s a Good Life,” released one year later.
3) Fahrenheit 451
Like Ray Bradbury’s novel, the Fahrenheit 451 movie is all about a totalitarian regime’s censorship of knowledge by burning books. The government controls what the populace sees by controlling media, resulting in a society that all thinks the same things, acts the same ways, and never questions anything.
We’re at a point in our history where the major news sources are all controlled by just a few super-rich members of society. Not to mention, a jarring number of U.S. citizens seem fine with taking many wonderful, thought-provoking books out of schools, with some of the more extreme members of said subsection not that far off from burning those books. There are even plenty of people who think the Bible should be taught in public schools. We’re barreling towards a full-on Fahrenheit 451 situation in the States.
2) 2001: A Space Odyssey
On one hand, Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey still looks terrific nearly 60 years later. In other words, thanks to practical effects, it’s aged impeccably aesthetically.
Then there are its themes, especially when it comes to the dangers of AI. If we put too much faith in it, it’s inevitably going to learn enough about us to really turn the tables on humanity. Sounds familiar these days.
Stream 2001: A Space Odyssey on HBO Max.
1) Alphaville
Jean-Luc Godard’s Alphaville tells the story of secret agent Lemmy Caution (Eddie Constantine, one of the many times he played the role), who is sent to the dystopian city of Alphaville to find a missing agent. He’s supposedly being held captive by an AI called Alpha 60, which has outlawed free will and anything so much as resembling an actual emotion.
Here’s another example of AI being a primary focus in a film well before AI even became a real-world concern. With technology we’re all being shown by the algorithm exactly what we want to see, so it’s as if we’re being wedged further and further into a pre-set viewpoint. Before long, that becomes a total lack of thinking for oneself. It’s a slippery slope.
Stream Alphaville for free on Kanopy.