Chronological Chart of the History of SF Film

Events in History	The Film Industry	Trends in SF Film	Major SF Films
Silent Era: 1900-1920 WWI 1914-1916	Invention of film by Lumiere brothers in France Fascination wi ability to alter reality, create illusions Films still quite short with little plot	Comedic experiments; trick films Films based on literary sources: Vernes, Wells, Strong visual influence from German Expressionism	1902 A Trip to the Moon 1910 Frankenstein (Edison) 19149 The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Robert Wiene)
1920's 1929 Stock Market crash	Growing divergence btw European and American film Introduction of sound American film industry begins to dominate explore claymation effects	European films: sombre prediction of future American films: fast-paced narrative	1925 The Lost World 1926 Metropolis (Fritz Lang) 1929 Mysterious Island
1930's The Depression 1932 FDR elected 1933 Hitler takes over in Germany 1936 Spanish Civil War 1938 Orson Wells broadcast of War of the Worlds 1939 Germany invades Poland; England and France declare war	1932 German film industry nationalized German film makers leaving for USA European interest in SF does not translate in US In US SF is relegated to to serials produced on Poverty Row Studio System and Stars begin to dominate US film	A few utopias Lots of mad scientists based on Shelley, Wells, Stevenson Super hero serials with megalomaniac scientists who want to take over the universe	1930 Just Imagine 1931 Frankenstein (James Whales) 1933 King Kong 1936 Things to Come (H.G. Wells) 1938, 1940 Flash Gordon 1939 Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
The 1940's 1941 Germans enter Paris 1941, Dec. 7 Pearl Harbor US enters WWII 1942 Germans invade Russia 1945 US drops atom bomb 1947 Roswell -- UFO scare 1947 HUAAC hearings: Hollywood Ten Cold War begins 1949 Chinese Communist Revolution	Hollywood controlled by War Office 1941-45 Hollywood intrested in drama and Westerns 1949 Studios lose monopoly control of theaters	SF films generally not made	1941 Dr. Cyclops
The 1950's 1950 Korean War begins 1951 15 million TV sets in USA 1954 Brown v. Board of Education begins to strike down legal segregation 1957 Russians launch sputnik 1959 Castro takes over in Cuba	Absolute power of studios lessening, so independent film projects possible competition with TV causes interest in Hollywood big-screen epics and special effects Increasingly large teenage audience Proliferation of drive-in theaters Explosions of formulaic B-movies	Interest in space exlporation Huge numbers of "creature features" Widespread political paranoia about communist infiltration shows in fear of aliens While many creatures caused by atomic exposure, no blame for scientists who often help avert threat	1950 Destination Moon (George Pal) 1950 The Flying Saucer 1951 The Thing from Another World (Howard Hawks), When Worlds Collide (Geroge Pal/ Rudolph Mate), The Day the Earth Stood Still (Robert Wise) 1953 The War of the Worlds (George Pal/ Byron Haskins) 1954 THEM (Gordon Douglas), Creature from the Black Lagoon (Jack Arnold) 1955 This Island Earth (Joseph Newman) 1956 Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Don Siegel), Godzilla (1954 in Japan) 1957 The Incredible Shrinking Man (Jack Arnold) 1958 The Fly (Kurt Newman), The Blob 1959 On the Beach (Stanley Kramer)
The 1960's 1960 JFK elected; pledge to go to moon 1962 Cuban Missle Crisis 1963 JFK assasinated 1964 The Twist hits and the Beatles come to the US 1965 Escalation of war in Viet Nam 1965 Assassination of Malcolm X 1968 Tet Offensive; begin large-scale anti-war protests 1968 Martin Luther King, Robert Kennedy assasinated 1969 Niel Armstrong walks on the moon	1960: Last Year at Marienbad, Exodus, Psycho,The Apartment 1961: Jules et Jim, West Side Story, Judgement at Nurenberg 1962: Lawrence of Arabia, Cleopatra, The Manchurian Candiadate, Dr. No 1963: Tom Jones, Irma La Douce, The Birds 1964: Lord of the Flies, A Hard Day's Night, Goldfinger, Mary Poppins, My Fair Lady 1965: Dr. Zhivago, The Sound of Music 1966: Torn Curtain, Alfie, a man for All Seasons, Who's Afraid of VIrginia Woolf? 1967: Blow-Up, Belle de Jour, Bonnie and Clyde, Heat of the Night, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner 1968: The Thomas Crowne Affair, Funny Girl, The Odd Couple, The Lion in Winter, Oliver! 1969: Midnight Cowboy, Easy Rider, Bullitt, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, They Shoot Horses, Don't They, Satyricon, Women in Love	Early sixites: temporary merger of mainstream and SF in atomic holocaust films based on political paranoia Later sixties, appearance of big budget SF films by major directors begins to legitimatize the genre Technophobia in the Sixties	1960: The Time Machine (George Pal) 1963: X -- The Man with the X-Ray Eyes (Roger Corman) 1964: Dr. Strangelove ( Stanley Kubrick), Robinson Crusoe on Mars (Byron Haskins), Fail-Safe, Seven Days in May (John Frankenheimer) 1965: Dr. Who and the Daleks, Alphaville (Goddard), The War Game (Peter Watkins) 1966: Fantastic Voyage (1966), Fahrenheit 451 ( Francois Truffaut) 1968: Planet of the Apes (Franklin Shaffner), Barbarella (Roger Vadim), 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick) 1969: The Illustrated Man, Charley, Night of the Living Dead (George Romero), Marooned (John Sturges 1969)
1970's 1970 Conservative Party wins in Britain 1970 Kent State -- 4 students shot 1970 Student Strikes 1971 U.S. bombs Cambodia 1971 Lt. Calley found gulity of Mylai Massacre 1971 Pentagon Papers begin to appear 1972 Watergate Break-in; Nixon re-elected 1973: Watergate Hearings; Nixon resigns 1973: Cease-Fire in Vietnam; Arab Oil Embargo 1973: AIM occupies Wounded Knee 1974: Nixon resigns 1975: Indictment of leading figures in Nixon administration 1976: Bicentennial; Carter elected 1978: Leftist Sandanistas in Nicaragua try to take over from Somoza	Old Hollywood companies being taken over by conglomerates 1970: Catch-22, True Grit, Woodstock, Patton, Women in Love 1971: The French Connection 1972: Cabaret, The Godfather, Play It Again Sam, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie 1973: Sleeper, Last Tango in Paris, The Sting, China Town 1974: The Godfather II, Harry and Tonto, Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore 1975: Jaws, Nashville, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest 1976: All the President's Men, Rocky, Taxi Driver, Network 1977: Annie Hall, Julia, Saturday Night Fever 1978: Grease, Animal House, Interiors, Coming Home, Autumn Sonata, The Deer Hunter 1979:	Technophobic and dystopian films fight out ideological battles of conservatives vs. liberals , conservative films valorizing an individual ized return to nature over over the totalizing state, liberal films indicting corporate control and questioning fundamental distinctions between nature and culture, man and machine. Phenomenal success of Star Wars ignites resurgence of SF genre, with focus on big-budget fantasy Technophobia in the 70's	1970: Colossus: The Forbin Project, No Blade of Grass (Cornel Wilde), Beneath the Planet of the Apes 1971: THX1138 (George Lucas), Westworld (Michael Crichton), A Clockwork Orange (Stanley Kubrick), Omega Man (Boris Sagal), Silent Running (Douglas Turnbull), The Andromeda Strain 1972: Flesh Gordon, Night of the Lepus 1973 : Solyent Green, Sleeper (Woody Allen), Westworld (Michael Crichton), Slaughterhouse Five, Day of the Dolphin 1974: Dark Star (John Carpenter), Zardoz ( John Boorman,) 1975: Stepford Wives, A Boy and His Dog EK (L. Q. Jones), Rollerball (Norman Jewison, 1975) 1976: The Man Who Fell to Earth Logan's Run *1977: Star Wars* (George Lucas),** Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Stephen Spielberg), Damnation Alley , Demon Seed 1978: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Philip Kaufman), Superman 1979: Alien (Ridley Scott), Star Trek; The Motion Picture, Mad Max, Battlestar Galactica
The 1980's		Leftist films continue to mount critique of capitalism, exploitation of workers, enviornmental degredation Conservative counter-reaction shown in rise of superhero figures