Edward D. Wood Jr.

Edward D. Wood Jr.
(Worst Director of All Time)

Frank Henenlotter

Frank Henenlotter
(Film Maker & Film Historian)

sexta-feira, 29 de junho de 2012

Forbidden Planet















































































Info About This Groundbreaking  Sci-Fi Movie With A Top Notch Soundtrack:

Forbidden Planet is a 1956 science fiction film[2][3] directed by Fred M. Wilcox, with a screenplay by Cyril Hume. It stars Leslie Nielsen, Walter Pidgeon, and Anne Francis. The characters and its setting have been compared to those in William Shakespeare's The Tempest,[4] and its plot contains certain story analogs. Forbidden Planet was the first science fiction film that was set entirely on another planet in deep space, away from the planet Earth.[5] It is considered one of the great science fiction films of the 1950s,[6] a precursor of what was to come for the science fiction film genre in the decades that followed.
Forbidden Planet features special effects for which A. Arnold Gillespie, Irving G. Ries, and Wesley C. Miller were nominated for an Academy Award. It was the only major award nomination the film received. Forbidden Planet features the groundbreaking use of an all-electronic music musical score. It also featured "Robby the Robot", one of the first film robots that was more than just a mechanical "tin can" on legs; Robby displays a distinct personality and is a complete supporting character in the film.[7]

Plot

Early in the 23rd century, the United Planets Cruiser C57-D travels to the planet Altair IV, 16 light-years from the Earth, to discover the fate of an expedition sent 20 years earlier. Soon after achieving orbit, the cruiser receives a radio transmission from Dr. Edward Morbius, the expedition's linguist, who warns them to stay away, saying he cannot guarantee their safety and that he needs no assistance. The starship's captain, Commander John J. Adams, insists on landing.
They are met by Robby the Robot, who takes Adams, Lieutenant Jerry Farman, and Lieutenant "Doc" Ostrow to Morbius. At his home, Morbius explains that an unknown "planetary force" killed nearly everyone else and then vaporized their starship as the survivors tried to leave the planet. Only Morbius, his wife (who later died of natural causes), and their daughter Altaira were somehow immune to this force. Morbius fears that the C57-D and its crew will meet the same fate. Altaira is fascinated to meet men other than her father.
Later the next night, some equipment aboard the C57-D is sabotaged, though the sentries never spotted an intruder. Adams and Ostrow visit Morbius the following morning, and learn that he has been studying the Krell, a highly advanced native humanoid species. The Krell had all died mysteriously in a single night, some 200,000 years before, just as they achieved their crowning scientific triumph.
In a still functioning Krell laboratory, Morbius shows Adams and Ostrow a device he calls the "plastic educator," a machine capable of measuring and enhancing intellectual capacity; it shows three-dimensional projections of thoughts. The captain of the Bellerophon had tried using the machine and had been killed instantly. When Morbius used the machine the first time he himself barely survived, but found his intellectual capacity had been permanently doubled. This, along with information he obtained from a Krell "library," enabled him to build Robby and the other technological marvels in his house. Morbius then takes them on a tour of a vast cube-shaped self-maintaining underground Krell complex, 20 miles [30 km] on a side and powered by 9,200 thermonuclear reactors.
In response to the sabotage, Adams orders a defensive force field fence deployed around the ship. This proves useless when the intruder returns undetected and murders Chief Engineer Quinn aboard the starship. Dr. Ostrow is confused by a casting made from one of the large footprints the intruder left behind; its features appear to violate all known evolutionary laws.
When the intruder returns again the next night, the C57-Ds crew discovers it is invisible, its shape outlined only by the energy beams of the force field fence and the energy weapons directed at it, all of which have no effect. Several of the crew are killed, including Farman. Simultaneously in the Krell laboratory, Morbius is awakened from a nightmare by Altaira's scream; at that same instant, the creature vanishes.
Later, while Adams confronts Morbius, Ostrow sneaks away to use the educator. He is mortally injured, but just before he dies, Ostrow explains to Adams that the vast underground installation was built to materialize any object that the Krell could imagine anywhere on the planet. However, Ostrow realizes that the Krell had forgotten one vital thing: "Monsters from the id! Monsters from the subconscious." When confronted by Adams, Morbius objects, pointing out that there are no Krell still alive. Adams replies that Morbius's mind – expanded by the "plastic educator" – had recreated the same creature that had killed the members of the original expedition, but Morbius still refuses to believe it.
When Altaira declares her love for Adams in defiance of her father's wishes, the monster approaches the house. Morbius commands Robby to kill it, but Robby knows the creature is an extension of his master. The conflict with his programming to never harm humans forces Robby to shut down. The monster breaks into the house and eventually melts its way through the nearly indestructible doors of the Krell laboratory where Adams, Altaira, and Morbius have taken refuge.
Morbius finally accepts the truth: The creature is an extension of his own mind, "his evil self". He is fatally injured trying to drive the creature away, but the monster disappears. Morbius directs Adams to activate a self-destruct mechanism; he warns them that they must be 100 million miles away within 24 hours. From deep space, Adams, Altaira, Robby, and the rest of the crew witness the destruction of Altair IV.

Cast

Production

The screen story by Irving Block and Allen Adler, written in 1952, was originally titled Fatal Planet. The later screenplay draft by Cyril Hume renamed the film Forbidden Planet, because this was believed to have greater box-office appeal.[8] Block and Adler's drama took place in the year 1976 on the planet Mercury. An Earth expedition headed by John Grant was sent to the planet to retrieve Dr. Adams and his daughter Dorianne, who have been stranded there for twenty years. From then on, its plot is roughly the same as that of the completed film, though Grant is able to rescue both Adams and his daughter and escape the invisible monster stalking them.
The film sets were constructed on a Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM) sound stage at its Culver City film lot and were designed by Cedric Gibbons and Arthur Longeran. The film was shot entirely indoors, with all the Altair IV exterior scenes simulated using sets, visual effects, and matte paintings.
A full-size mock-up of roughly three-quarters of the C57-D starship was built to suggest its full width of 170 ft (51 m). The ship was surrounded by a huge, painted cyclorama featuring the desert landscape of Altair IV; this one set took up all of the available space in one of the Culver City sound stages.
Forbidden Planet is the first science fiction film in which humans are depicted traveling in a starship of their own construction.[9]

Later, C57-D models, special effects shots, and the full-size set details were reused in several different episodes of the television series The Twilight Zone, which were filmed by CBS at the same MGM studio location in Culver City.
At a cost of roughly $125,000, Robby the Robot was very expensive for a single film prop at this time.[10] Both the electrically controlled passenger vehicle driven by Robby and the truck/tractor-crane off-loaded from the C57-D starship were also constructed specially for this film. Robby the Robot later starred in the science fiction film The Invisible Boy and appeared in many TV series and films that followed; like the C57-D, Robby (and his passenger vehicle) appeared in various episodes of CBS' The Twilight Zone, usually slightly modified for each appearance.
The animated sequences of Forbidden Planet, especially the attack of the "Id Monster", were created by the veteran animator Joshua Meador,[11] who was loaned out to MGM by Walt Disney Pictures. According to a "Behind the Scenes" featurette on the film's DVD, a close look at the creature shows it to have a small goatee beard, suggesting its connection to Dr. Morbius, the only character with this physical feature; the bellowing, now visible Id monster, caught in the crewman's high-energy beams during the attack, is a direct reference to and visual pun on MGM's familiar roaring mascot Leo the Lion, seen at the very beginning of Forbidden Planet and the studio's other films of the era.

Release

Forbidden Planet was first released on April 1, 1956, across the United States of America in CinemaScope and Metrocolor, and with stereophonic sound in some cinemas (either by the magnetic or Perspecta processes). The premiere of Forbidden Planet in Hollywood was at Grauman's Chinese Theatre, and Robby the Robot was on display in the lobby. Forbidden Planet ran every day at Grauman's Theater through the following September.
Forbidden Planet was re-released in film theaters during 1972 as one of the "Kiddie Matinee" features of MGM, with about six minutes of film footage cut to ensure that it received a "G" rating from the Motion Picture Association of America.[9] Video releases feature the "G" rating; however, they are all uncut.

Home media

Forbidden Planet was first sold in the pan and scan format on MGM VHS and Betamax Video tapes in 1982, then was re-issued again by MGM/UA on widescreen VHS for the film's 40th anniversary in 1996. The film was also released on laser disc the same year by MGM/UA and later in its original CinemaScope widescreen format from The Criterion Collection. The Warner Bros. company next released it on DVD in 1999. (MGM's catalog of films had been sold to AOL-Time Warner by Turner Entertainment and MGM/UA in 1998. Their version came with both the standard and original widescreen format on the same disc.)

For the film's 50th anniversary, the Ultimate Collector's Edition was released on November 28, 2006 in an oversized red metal box, using the original movie poster for its cover. Both DVD and high definition HD DVD formats were available in this deluxe package. Inside both premium packages were the films Forbidden Planet and The Invisible Boy, The Thin Man episode "Robot Client" and a documentary Watch the Skies!: Science Fiction, The 1950s and Us. Also included were miniature lobby cards and a 8 cm (3-inch) toy replica of Robby the Robot.[12] This was quickly followed by the release of the Forbidden Planet 50th Anniversary edition in both standard DVD and HD DVD packaging.[9] Both 50th anniversary formats were mastered by Warner Bros.–MGM techs from a fully restored, digital transfer of the film.[13] A Blu-ray Disc edition of Forbidden Planet was released on September 7, 2010.

Soundtrack

Forbidden Planet's innovative electronic music score, credited as "electronic tonalities" – partly to avoid having to pay any of the film industry music guild fees[citation needed] – was composed by Louis and Bebe Barron. MGM producer Dore Schary discovered the couple quite by chance at a beatnik nightclub in Greenwich Village while on a family Christmas visit to New York City; Schary hired them on the spot to compose his film's musical score. While the theremin (which was not used in Forbidden Planet) had been used on the soundtrack of Alfred Hitchcock's Spellbound (1945), the Barrons' electronic composition is credited with being the first completely electronic film score; their soundtrack preceded the invention of the Moog synthesizer by eight years (1964).
Using ideas and procedures from the book, Cybernetics: Or, Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine (1948) by the mathematician and electrical engineer Norbert Wiener, Louis Barron constructed his own electronic circuits that he used to generate the score's "bleeps, blurps, whirs, whines, throbs, hums, and screeches".[10] Most of these sounds were generated using an electronic circuit called a "ring modulator". After recording the basic sounds, the Barrons further manipulated the sounds by adding other effects, such as reverberation and delay, and reversing or changing the speeds of certain sounds.[16]
Since Louis and Bebe Barron did not belong to the Musicians Union, their work could not be considered for an Academy Award – in either the "soundtrack" or the "sound effects" categories. MGM declined to publish a soundtrack album at the same time that Forbidden Planet was released. However, film composer and conductor David Rose later published a 7" (18 cm) single of his original main title theme that he had recorded at the MGM Studios in Culver City during March 1956. His main title theme had been discarded when Rose, who had originally been hired to compose the musical score in 1955, was discharged from the project by Dore Schary sometime between Christmas 1955 and New Year’s Day.[citation needed]
The Barrons finally released their soundtrack in 1976 as an LP album for the film's 20th anniversary; it was on their very own PLANET Records label (later changed to SMALL PLANET Records and distributed by GNP Crescendo Records). The LP was premiered at MidAmeriCon, the 34th World Science Fiction Convention, held in Kansas City, MO over the 1976 Labor Day weekend, as part of a 20th Anniversary celebration of Forbidden Planet held at that Worldcon; the Barrons were there promoting their album's first release, signing all the copies sold there. They also introduced the first of three packed-house screenings that showed an MGM 35mm fine grain vault print in original CinemaScope and sterophonic sound. A decade later, their soundtrack was released on a music CD in 1986 for the film's 30th Anniversary, with a six-page color booklet containing images from Forbidden Planet, plus liner notes from the composers, Louis and Bebe Barron, and Bill Malone.[16] The soundtrack is also available on disc one of the album Forbidden Planet Explored.

Track list

The following is a list of compositions on the CD:[16]
  1. Main Titles (Overture)
  2. Deceleration
  3. Once Around Altair
  4. The Landing
  5. Flurry Of Dust – A Robot Approaches
  6. A Shangri-La In The Desert / Garden With Cuddly Tiger
  7. Graveyard – A Night With Two Moons
  8. "Robby, Make Me A Gown"
  9. An Invisible Monster Approaches
  10. Robby Arranges Flowers, Zaps Monkey
  11. Love At The Swimming Hole
  12. Morbius' Study
  13. Ancient Krell Music
  14. The Mind Booster – Creation Of Matter
  15. Krell Shuttle Ride And Power Station
  16. Giant Footprints In The Sand
  17. "Nothing Like This Claw Found In Nature!"
  18. Robby, The Cook, And 60 Gallons Of Booze
  19. Battle With The Invisible Monster
  20. "Come Back To Earth With Me"
  21. The Monster Pursues – Morbius Is Overcome
  22. The Homecoming
  23. Overture (Reprise) [this track recorded at Royce Hall, UCLA, 1964]
Influence

The biography of Gene Roddenberry, Star Trek Creator, notes that Forbidden Planet was one of the inspirations for the series Star Trek.[17] The Doctor Who story Planet of Evil was consciously based partly on Forbidden Planet.[18]
The musical Return to the Forbidden Planet was inspired and loosely based on Forbidden Planet[19] and won the Olivier Award for best musical of 1989/90.[20]
A scene from the science fiction television series Babylon 5, set on the Epsilon III Great Machine bridge, strongly resembles the Krell Great Machine. While this was not the intent of the show's producer, the special effects crew tasked with creating the imagery stated that the Krell Great Machine was a deliberate reference to their Epsilon III homage.[21]
The film is named alongside several other science-fiction cult films in the opening song of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.


Extracts Taken From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forbidden_Planet

More Info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049223/
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