Watch the Skies!: Science Fiction, the 1950s and Us

I was quite amazed when I watched this film, as the producers were able to assemble several amazingly important "heavyweights" from the film industry to talk about 50s sci-fi as clips are shown. George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, James Cameron and Ridley Scott all were interviewed and Mark Hamill narrated. Listening to their insights and recollections concerning these films was indeed interesting to a sci-fi fan like myself and I sure liked the clips. However, I felt that the show lacked pizazz and tended to be a bit too cerebral at times. I would have preferred a more comprehensive show--one that showed a broader spectrum of movies--including the bad ones, not just a few famous or seminal ones. Because of this, the special just wasn't as entertaining as it might have been. Interesting, yes--fun, not especially.

Despite the previous reviewer's screed, this is a well paced and interesting documentary with lots of clips from classic 1950s sci-fi films that influenced Spielberg, Lucas and others in their more recent efforts. I agree that Spielberg's films aren't even in the same league as the films discussed here, such as William Cameron Menzies' brilliant INVADERS FROM MARS, to name just one of the many titles examined, but this is still a remarkably good overview of 1950s paranoid sci-fi. Yes, it turns into a commercial for the tepid remake of WAR OF THE WORLDS during the last fifteen minutes; you can turn that off. The rest is surprisingly good, and it's nice to see contemporary filmmakers remember the films that inspired them, even if they can't begin to match the originals.

I'd like to confront my personal opinion about 'Watch the skies' movie with Ted's one.

First of all, I suppose that your personal dislike with Spielberg movies make you blind on the whole movie. Please remember, it's not only Spielberg's point of view. There are interviews with J.Cameron, R.Scott and G.Lucas here. Of course, it's only a brief take of the issue. I'd like to watch some more depth, insight production someday.

One of the subjects of this movie is looking back on 50s SF movies, which can be interpretated like express of society fears. Fear of space invaders might symbolize fear of the "others", which can be Russians or any different culture. And of course there is H war anxiety also.

What selfish is in that interpretation of SF movies by Spielberg and rest the directors? It's not they invention. We have many examples of movies or even the whole genres in film history, which represents some fears and havocs in given societies - like the German Expresionism.

Of course first SF movies arised shortly after Lumieres invention, f.e. G.Melies movies, but it's not a untrue (form my POV) that SF as a separately genre appears in early 50s. From that era, SF movies, and authors have began to be taken seriously.

I think 'Watch the skies' is a good introduction to history of science fiction movies. It's definitely not exhaust the topic, but might be a nice foothold to further searchings, for those who are interested in the issue.

"Watch the Skies" (2005 - 60 minutes) is an excellent documentary about movies of Science Fiction. It was produced and directed by the critic Richard Schickel, author of more than 20 books on this theme. Mark Hamill is the documentary narrator. Schickel joins directors as Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, George Lucas and Ridley Scott to carry through a trip in time and space to show some of the most memorable science fiction movies of the fifties and also some more recent classics. The documentary shows six different approaches: The paranoia of the atomic war; The fantastic trips to the Moon; The enigmatic planet Mars; Good and evil aliens; The after-apocalyptic world; and The humanity future. It presents comments and scenes of the following classics: The Flying Saucers, Rocketship XM, Destination Moon, The Space Children, The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, The Incredible Shrinking Man, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, A Trip to the Moon, The Angry Red Planet, Forbidden Planet, The Thing From Another World, Earth vs. The Flying Saucers, I Married a Monster from Outer Space, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Blob, The War of the Worlds, The Day the Earth Stood Still, ET: The Extra Terrestrial, The Omega Man, The Planet of the Apes, The Terminator, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Things To Come and Metropolis. Highly recommended to Science Fiction fans!

Purported documentary that tries to examine sci-fi films of the 1950s and how they affected (and REflected) America. Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Ridley Scott and James Cameron are interviewed and Mark Hamill narrates.

Pretty terrible. The "insights" that are given are nothing new--for instance--the Cold War and the threat of nuclear war affected a whole generation of children. Well-duh! They try to cover all of the different sub genres of sci-fi films of the 1950s--the big bug movies, invaders from space movies etc etc. That's good but they choose the most obvious films and they've been over analyzed to death already. It was cool seeing clips from "Rocketship X-M", "Destination Moon", "Forbidden Planet", "The Thing" and "The Day the Earth Stood Still" but everything the directors said was so incredibly obvious to any viewer that it's insulting. Even though it's under an hour I was thoroughly bored 30 minutes in. This gets a 2 for some of the clips but nothing else.