The Science Fiction Film Reader (Limelight)

This compendium is heavily illustrated with film stills covering the landmarks of the science fiction film oeuvre and includes essays, reviews and interviews with some of the leading names in our cultural consortium, among them, Joseph Campbell, Steven Speilberg, Susan Sontag, H.G. Wells, Robin Wood, Philip K. Dick, George F. Will, and Pauline Kael.

Ranging from 1907 to 2004, half the essays are new, and many of the older pieces have been reprinted only once since original publication. Commentaries by Georges Méliès, a French magician and the father of the special effects film, and the author H.G. Wells, who denounces as unscientific the now classic Metropolis, published in 1907 and 1927, respectively, amount to rediscoveries.

THE SCIENCE FICTION FILM READER is broken down into these categories: Foundations, Adventures in Outer Space, The 1950s, Imagining Disaster, The 1960s, Kubrick and Others, Star Wars, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, The Films of Philip K. Dick, Cyborg Cinema, Travels in Time and Place, and Gods and Aliens. Unlike most readers, it offers a broad range of political views from liberal humanists, Marxists, libertarians, Catholics, feminists and conservatives.

Editor Gregg Rickman branches out from the circumscribed academic routine to include work from current journalists and respected critics (J. Hoberman of the Village Voice and Jonathan Rosenbaum of the Chicago Reader ); filmmakers (Joe Dante and Michael Lennick); authors (Arthur C. Clarke and Anthony Burgess, both commenting on their works' adaptations into films by Stanley Kubrick); and celebrated science fiction illustrator, Vincent di Fate. Academic contributors include the well-known Robin Wood; Slavoj Zizek, famous in both the academy and psychoanalysis and the subject of a 2003 New Yorker profile; and the up and coming film historians Hassan Melehy, Carina Dielissen, Keith Hamel and Laura Rascaroli.

Interviews with 1950s filmmakers Robert Wise and Don Siegel, the sublime Joseph Campbell, Steven Spielberg (sanguine immediately following his success with E.T.) and Philip K. Dick have only been printed once or twice before this anthology.

The Science Fiction Film Reader is an impressively informative anthology of brief essays from diverse notable figures including Arthur C. Clarke, Anthony Burgess, Joseph Campbell, and much more, all concerning the philosophy, impact, cultural merit, or parallels with reality in a wide variety of popular science fiction movies. An informational treasure trove for science fiction movie buffs, The Science Fiction Film Reader is a fascinating compilation of insight into favorite mind-expanding popular films, and a highly entertaining way to learn a little more about the philosophies, psychological underpinnings and far-reaching effects of favorite films.