My new article is up at Anorak. It is a comparison of the themes and visuals of Contact (1997) and Event Horizon (1997).
Here's a snippet:
"...two notable, big-budget genre movies — Contact and Event Horizon — were released within approximately one month of each other, and both spotlighted a machine or device that could open a gateway to another place: a distinctly spiritual dimension.
Additionally these devices were conceived in eerily similar visual fashion, as machine-like spheres with spinning outer rings. In other words, the devices resembled high-tech whirligigs.
Intriguingly, these 1997 films also complemented one another thematically, functioning as veritable mirror images. The device featured in Contact opened a doorway to a New Age-styled Heaven, and the device in Event Horizon opened to a very Catholic version of Hell.
This was the genre yin-and-yang — the contrary forces — of the summer of 1997.
Contact was a vision of man and his technology connecting to the equivalent of non-denomination bliss, and the opposite view, held in Event Horizon, was of such technology cracking open a fearsome doorway to torment, guilt, shame, and regret."
Check out the full article, here (and if you have the time and the inclination, leave me a comment to let me know what you think.)
John I wrote this at Anorak:
ReplyDeleteJohn excellent reviews and comparisons of these '97 sci-fi films that are better appreciated in hindsight. I am a fan of the Event Horizon(1997) and it's true horror of life in our near future solar system. Unlike Alien(1979) which took us to another far away solar system, the Event Horizon is lost and found in our solar system. The Event Horizon spaceship's mission could have been an episode of Space:1999, like "Dragon's Domain".
SGB
(p.s. Right now, there is no problem at all after no internet since yesterday at 5p.m.. However, if you do not see postings from me it is because my internet access is being worked on by the provider. Don't worry :) I'll be back. )