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

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.

"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!

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.

Directors Stephen Spielberg, George Lucas, Ridley Scott and James Cameron discuss the science fiction movies of the 1950s that influenced them.

This is an interesting short documentary, now featured on the Blu-ray for "Forbidden Planet" (with Spielberg joking that Robby the Robot influenced C3PO). We get a broad range of science fiction films from the 1950s, with some much better known than others, and four of the most successful science fiction directors discussing them.

I was frankly impressed how well the directors knew these films, with their casts and plot and special effects. Usually only Martin Scorsese seems to have this kind of recall. Either the interviewees were prepped, or they truly love these films and were deeply influenced by them. I prefer to accept the latter.

I was really looking forward to watching this documentary on what I considered to be some of the most entertaining films ever made. Growing up in L.A. during the 60's many of these old black and white films were shown on the local stations. I even remember a Friday night show called "Strange Tales of Science Fiction" that showcased a different Sci Fi flick every week. This documentary however spent way too much time on the opinions of the four famous filmmakers and how they felt about the classic movies of that genre and how they used them as inspiration in their filmaking.

That is not what I was hoping for in this documentary. It really could have been a comprehensive examination of the decade instead of a brief highlighting of the most well known films of the era. Anyone who has studied or been interested in these films are pretty familiar with standouts such as War of the Worlds, Forbidden Planet, The Thing, The Day the Earth Stood Still, etc. I would have liked to see some excerpts from lesser known films and perhaps some interviews with people involved in the making of these movies. I would have to agree the documentary was way too focused on Spielberg's opinions and was a type of commercial for his new release of War of the Worlds.