Another nottobe missed DVD Savant book An endlessly fascinating look at science fiction films from wonderful film expert and author Glenn Erickson aka DVD Savant. Glenn not only covers the story behind the films his critical appraisals are both entertaining and thoughtfuland his gives a welcome critique of the most recent DVD or Bluray release of the films. Both film and scifi buffs won't be able to put it down.
Another fine work by a great writer. I've long read Glenn Erickson's DVD Savant column at Dvdtalk.Com His reviews are well thought out and even better written. Glenn's deep love of science fiction movies shows in the completeness and fairness of his reviews of these classic films. I am myself the author of five books on film and it pains me to say that Glenn is probably a better writer. You may not always agree with his every point but he puts solid reasoning behind each opinion.
A welcome new look at SF cinema I've been a regular reader of Glenn Erickson's DVD Savant column for ten years now. He's an astute film historian with an authoritative yet personable style a relaxed and unforced sense of humor and a way of making you think about not just react to movies and movemaking in new ways.His new book collects his thoughts on 116 science fiction movies. It presents an entertaining thumbnail history of the genre in chronological order covering decades of science fiction milestones e.g. Things to Come The Day the Earth Stood Still Forbidden Planet 2001 A Space Odyssey not to mention some worthy millstones rubbermonster and exploitation fare such as Gorgo Attack of the Crab Monsters The Brain from Planet Arous and Teenage Caveman. He gives fresh perspectives to bigdeal classics that have been written about to death over the years. His scope ranges beyond Hollywood and British titles to also provide perhaps our first exposure to films such as Abel Gance's delirious misfire of 1930 the apocalyptic epic La fin du monde The End of the World the startlingly sophisticated and almost wholly undocumented early Soviet moon adventure Kosmitcheskiy reys Cosmic Journey the East German/Polish Der Schweigende Stern First Spaceship on Venus and the extraordinary Czech space odyssey Ikarie XB 1.Erickson also pokes around under a film's hood to see what sociological and ideological contexts what themes and anxieties might be humming under the surface antiCommunism antiCapitalism religious revivalism xenophobia social paranoia. Not surprisingly the often boldly messagemaking films of the Atomic Age/Cold War 1950s receive hefty attention.For readers watching at home which means pretty much all of us entries also add information about their respective DVD or Bluray viewing options.
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