“When you say ‘science fiction’ to Hollywood,” says Marc Bernardin a TV writer and podcaster who has been an editor for The Hollywood Reporter and the Los Angeles Times, “they see space opera and laser beams.”
Of course Star Wars isn't science fiction. Lucas gives the game away with the lead: A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.
Star Wars is mythology.
The above article talks about some great pre-Star Wars sci fi movies. These are of course 2001, Planet of the Apes, we'd add Soylent Green among others.
Science fiction must needs a speculative element. Soylent Green takes place in 2022. We're just a few years away now, and nothing speculated in the movie or book has come to pass. The movie is jaw-dropping all the same. Here is a vision of a third world America where people live in poverty and are sustained by soy chips. Otherwise its a bland police procedural that ends too quickly. The source material, Harry Harrison's Make Room, Make Room, is better.
When trying to predict the future, the worst thing one can do is take current trends and extrapolate them to their conclusion. In 1980 no one thought the Cold War would be over by 1990. Of course in 1990 everyone thought the Japanese would rule the future....heh. Francis Fukayama prediction The End of History! Hey, remember peak oil, or the population bomb? Try not to laugh.
There is some smart science fiction out there today. The article mentions The Expanse, which we can't recommend too strongly. Arrival deals with aliens, communication, paranoia and time perception and is destined to be one of the greatest sci fi films ever.
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