Finally saw "The Aviator" last night. Good acting and directing that I kept getting distracted from by the liberties taken with history. I understand, the man's life was very, very full and you can't even tell all of a 20-year segment of it without running way too long, but great huge wodges of stuff went missing. Fairly important stuff.

However, the cameos by both Rufus and Loudon Wainwright and Cate Blanchett's dead-on Kate Hepburn voice did it for me (so much so that I was able to ignore that she looked nothing at all like Hepburn).

OK, I need a list of movies to end this blurb (from a game project I'm working on):

There is a profound loneliness and isolation in space which, owing to the growing special effects capabilities of the 1980’s, film makers began to exploit. There is nothing like it on Earth, where, no matter how hostile the environment, there is always the possibility of encountering another human being. Space is fundamentally different; fundamentally colder and uncaring.

Where earlier science fiction frequently centered on the Earth and various aliens’ plans for it, the next generation of science-fiction movies intentionally distanced themselves, physically and emotionally, from the blue and green home of humanity.

Alienation, rather than aliens, became the central theme of these movies, and movie-goers were treated to a wide variety of outlooks on the future, most showing a grimly polluted and corporate environment in which people were merely pawns to the real, but mostly faceless, powers-that-be.

Although space still contained slavering monsters, dangers beyond reckoning, and horrific imaginings, the relentless drum beat of this genre is that society has been replaced with faceless corporatism, and that individuals must hang together in the face of dangers, both external and internal, or they most certainly will hang separately.

A few classics of the genre include:

Alien

Outland

Aliens

Sphere

Event Horizon

Solaris

And by "classics" I mean movies that match my thesis, not necessarily good movies. This is the list my husband and I came up with; what are we missing?

A little art-house flick, goes by the name of Blade Runner. Maybe you've heard of it?

On a less teasing note, there's also a nice little Brit sci-fi flick that touches heavily on alienation (though less on faceless corporatism) called The Quiet Earth. Very moody and atmospheric.

Hmmm....

Gattaca also touches on those themes a bit. I'll list others as they come to me.

Sean, pppfffbbtt!

Blade Runner gets close, but I'm not sure it's got the "we're all gonna die here" vibe of Alien or such, you know? Still, the mood is right. Good suggestions.

Raquel, I think Silent Running is a transitional film to the era you're describing. It even has them hauling a bit of earth out into space and then deciding that the green stuff is better off without man's pernicious influence. It's the first movie I remember that really made space look big and empty and emphasized human alienation.

I'll also note that it is conventional rock crit thinking that Bowie's favorite early metaphors circled around aliens:alienation with a big dose of apocalpyse on top: Space Oddity, Ziggy Stardust, Man Who Fell to Earth. Hmm, is this relevant? Too early for your thesis I guess but a precursor of the meme?

Also, the fairly early cheapie Dark Star does a good job of evoking the mindfuck of staring into the black (in a black humored way).

Oh, yes, Dark Star is a definite. I sometimes lump it in with Dr. Strangelove and that Dennis Hopper movie where they were in a propaganda plane that was still flying...hmm, need to go look that one up. But anyway, yeah, Dark Star counts, as does Silent Running.

Excellent. Knew this was where to ask.

Now my next question - I need to cite year and studio for each film. IMDb has the years, but not the studios, at least not that I can find. Any idea where to look, for the movies I don't own?

Note to self: 80% of the way through the movie, you really, really like Garden State.

Take that to heart the next time you're thinking about it.

ETA: The ending is still pretty heavy-handed and not-so-great. Still, Zach Braff could definitely have a future as a director.

ETA2: Discussion. Why is the ending unsatisfying? It's a classic case of telling instead of showing. I have no problem with the actual plot points of the last ten minutes, I just don't need them to TALK about it so much. Yes, he changed. That's great. Stop talking about it, because we can SEE it. Gonna stay with Sam? Excellent. I approve. Good choice. Don't explain why: we know why. It's obvious. Just do it, like you did everything else, and let us feel the understated romance. See: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

Overall, though, I liked it much better this time than last time. Lower expectations of 100% brilliance, so I was more willing to accept the 90% brilliance I got instead.

great huge wodges of stuff went missing

Dear GOD. Me, as a non-historian, felt that for a story, wodges could have been left out, and I'd have liked it more. I have no interest in a Howard Hughes documentary.

Raquel, does the Company credits page not have what you want?

Raquel, I think Silent Running is a transitional film to the era you're describing. It even has them hauling a bit of earth out into space and then deciding that the green stuff is better off without man's pernicious influence. It's the first movie I remember that really made space look big and empty and emphasized human alienation.

All that AND the main character gives a moral lecture to a couple of air-conditioners at one point. Brilliant!

(Seriously, I was going to mention Silent Running too, but Hec beat me to it.)

It's a classic case of telling instead of showing.

The funny thing is that all of Zach's student films (that I saw) were show-not-tell, almost to a fault -- gorgeous pacing and composition, very very very sparse writing. I think he just got carried away here.