From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Forbidden Planet is a 1956 science fiction film[2][3] directed by Fred M. Wilcox, with a screenplay by Cyril Hume. It starred Leslie Nielsen, Walter Pidgeon, and Anne Francis. The characters and its setting were inspired by those in William Shakespeare's The Tempest,[4] and its plot has many similarities.
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 movie robots that was more than just a "tin can" and had a personality.[5]
Leslie Nielsen along with co-star Anne Francis in a trailer for Forbidden Planet
Early in the 23rd century, the United Planets Cruiser C-57D has been sent to the planet Altair IV, 16 light-years
from the Earth. Its mission is to discover the fate of an expedition
sent 20 years earlier to establish a colony there. The cruiser is
contacted by Dr. Edward Morbius, who radios the crew and warns them to stay away. However, the starship's captain, Commander John J. Adams, decides to land on Altair IV.
The ship is met by Robby the Robot, who takes Adams, Lieutenant
Jerry Farman, and Lieutenant "Doc" Ostrow to meet Dr. Morbius. Morbius
explains that an unknown phenomenon killed nearly all of the other
members of his expedition and destroyed their starship, the Bellerophon.
Only Morbius, his wife (who died of natural causes), and his daughter
Altaira, now 19 years old, survived. Morbius fears the crew of the C-57D
will also meet the same fate. Altaira cannot recall any man but her
father and barely remembers her mother. She is interested in learning
about human relationships.
Morbius explains he has been studying the "Krell",
the natives of Altair IV who, despite being far more advanced than
humanity, all died mysteriously during a single night 200,000 years
before — just as they had achieved their greatest triumph. Morbius shows
Cdr. Adams and his party a device he calls a "plastic educator".
Morbius explains that the captain of the Bellerophon had tried it and had been killed instantly.
Morbius used it but barely survived. However, he doubled his
intellectual abilities as a result. He says this enabled him to build
Robby and the other technological marvels in his house. Morbius takes
them on a tour of a vast cube-shaped underground Krell installation, 20
miles [30 km] in each direction and powered by 9,200 thermonuclear reactors.
This complex had been operating and maintaining itself ever since the
extinction of the Krell. When asked about its purpose, Morbius only
hints at some minor functions, but says it is capable of functioning
with practically limitless power.
One night, a valuable piece of equipment in Cdr. Adams's starship is
damaged, though the sentries who had been posted spotted no intruders.
In response, Adams commands that a defensive force-field
fence be set up around his starship. However, this defense proves to be
useless when whatever caused the damage returns, passes unseen, and
unharmed through the fence to kill Chief Engineer Quinn. Dr. Ostrow is
confused after examining the footprints that it left behind, saying that
the creature appears to violate all known evolutionary laws.
The intruder returns again on the next night, and it is discovered to
be invisible. Its appearance is revealed only in outline by the beams
of the force field
and the crewmen's weapons. Several men are killed by the monster,
including Lt. Farman. Simultaneously in a Krell laboratory, Dr. Morbius
is awakened from a pitched nightmare by a scream from Altaira. At that
instant, the creature vanishes.
Later, while Cdr. Adams confronts Morbius at the house, Lt. Ostrow
sneaks away to use the plastic educator, but he is mortally injured.
Just before he dies Ostrow tells Adams that the underground installation
was built to materialize any object that the Krell could imagine.
However, the Krell had forgotten one vital thing: "Monsters from the id!".
Morbius objects, pointing out that there are no Krell left. Adams
replies that Morbius's mind — expanded by the plastic educator and thus
able to interact with the gigantic Krell device — had created
subconsciously the monster that had killed the rest of his expedition 20
years earlier—after they had voted to return to the Earth. Morbius
scoffs at Adams's theory.
When Altaira declares her love for Cdr. Adams in defiance of her
father's wishes, the alien monster of the mind comes after them. Dr.
Morbius commands Robby to kill it, but the robot freezes, unable to harm
a human being. Robby recognizes the monster as an extension of Morbius,
and his only way to destroy it would be to kill Morbius; instead, the
clash of orders burns out the robot's circuits. The creature breaks into
the house and then melts its way through the nearly-indestructible door
of the Krell laboratory where Adams, Altaira, and Morbius have taken
refuge.
Morbius finally accepts the truth that the creature is an extension
of his own mind, and he tries to renounce it. When Morbius is mortally
injured trying to intervene, the creature disappears permanently. While
Morbius lies dying, he directs Cdr. Adams to press a lever that sets the
Krell complex to self-destruct. Adams, Altaira, Robby, and the rest of
the starship's crew take off for outer space. From there, they witness
the destruction of the entire planet of Altair IV from a safe distance
away. Before the film ends, Adams says to Altaira, "We are, after all,
not God."
Near the ship, First Officer Lt. Jerry Farman converses with Dr Morbius' daughter, Altaira.
The crew works on jury-rigged communications circuits. Ostrow is in the middle, with Adams and Quinn to his left.
[edit] Production
United Planets Cruiser C-57D lands on Altair's 4th planet.
Id Monster - plaster cast of footprint, and outlined in electric field and blaster rays
The original screen story by Irving Block and Allen Adler in 1952 was titled Fatal Planet. The later screenplay by Cyril Hume renamed the film Forbidden Planet, because this was believed to have more box-office appeal.[6] Block and Adler's drama took place in the year 1976 on the planet Mercury.
An 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
final film, though Grant is able to rescue both Adams and his daughter
and escape the invisible monster stalking them.
The film sets were constructed at a Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM) sound stage on its Culver City movie lot, and they were designed by Cedric Gibbons
and Arthur Longeran. This film was shot entirely inside studios,
without any genuine outdoor scenes. All of its "outdoor" scenes were
simply simulated with sets, visual effects, and matte paintings.
A full-size mock-up of about three-quarters of the C-57D was built to
suggest its full width of 170 ft (51 m). This simulated starship 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 Culver City sound stage.
Forbidden Planet is the first film in which humans are
depicted traveling in a flying saucer of their own construction. It is
also the first science fiction film set on an alien world in deep space,
far away from the Earth and its solar system.[7]
The Great Machine, dwarfing the three men walking on the platform.
Later on, C-57D models, special effects, and the full size set were reused in several different episodes of the television series The Twilight Zone, which were also filmed by CBS at the same MGM studio location.
At a cost of about $125,000, "Robby the Robot" was a very expensive film prop for its time.[8]
The electrically-controlled car ("dune buggy") driven by Robby and the
tractor-crane truck off-loaded from the C-57D starship were also
constructed specially for this film. Robby later starred in the movie The Invisible Boy, and appeared in many following TV series and movies. Like the C-57D, Robby (and his vehicle) appeared in various episodes of The Twilight Zone, usually slightly altered for the each appearance.
The animated sequences of Forbidden Planet, especially the attack of the "id monster", were created by the veteran animator Joshua Meador, 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 that it is connected with Dr. Morbius, the only character with this feature.
[edit] 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 though the following September.
Forbidden Planet was re-released in movie 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.[7] Video releases feature the "G" rating however, they are all uncut.
[edit] Home media
Forbidden Planet was first sold 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. This film was also sold on
laserdisc by The Criterion Collection. The Warner Bros. company next published it on DVDs
in 1999. (MGM's catalog of films had been sold to AOL-TW by Turner
Entertainment and MGM / UA in 1998. This version came with both the
standard and the widescreen format on the same disc.
The Ultimate Collector's Edition is packaged in a metal box with the
original poster as a cover. Inside on two DVDs are 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.[9]
The DVD edition was followed by a release of the 50th Anniversary HD DVD and the Ultimate Collector's Edition DVD on November 28, 2006.[7] The 50th anniversary version was restored by the Warner Bros.-MGM reconstruction crew.[10] A Blu-ray edition was released on September 7, 2010.
[edit] Novelization
After the movie was released, a novelization quickly followed in both hardcover and mass-market paperback by W. J. Stuart (the mystery novelist Philip MacDonald writing under the pseudonym), which chapters the novel into separate POV
narrations by Dr. Ostrow, Commander Adams, and Dr. Morbius. The novel
delves further into the mysteries of the vanished Krell and Morbius's
relationship to them. In the novel, he repeatedly exposes himself to the
Krell manifestation machine, which (as suggested in the film) boosts
his brain power far beyond normal human intelligence. Unfortunately,
Morbius retains enough of his imperfect human nature to be afflicted
with hubris and a contempt for humanity. Not recognizing his own base
primitive drives and limitations proves to be Morbius's downfall, as it
had for the extinct Krell. While not stated explicitly in the film
(although the basis of a deleted scene found on the film's 50th
anniversary DVD), the novelization compared Altaira's ability to tame
the tiger (until her sexual awakening with Commander Adams) to the
medieval myth of a unicorn being tameable only by a virgin.
The novel also clarifies an issue only hinted at in the film. When
Dr. Ostrow dissects one of the Earth animals, he discovers that its
internal organs are altogether unlike that of any real animal. The
tiger, the deer, the monkey are all creations of Dr Morbius's
unconscious mind, and only outwardly resemble these creatures. Since the
Krell Great Machine can project matter "in any form", it can
create life. The Krells' destruction was, in part, punishment for
appropriating the powers of God. This is why Captain Adams says "We are,
after all, not God".
[edit] 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 - was composed by Louis and Bebe Barron. The MGM producer Dore Schary discovered this 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. The theremin (which was not used in Forbidden Planet) had been used as early as 1945, in the movie Spellbound, but the Barron's score is widely credited with being the first completely electronic score. This soundtrack preceded invention of the Moog synthesizer (1964) by eight years.
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 "bleeps, blurps, whirs, whines, throbs, hums, and
screeches".[8]
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.[11]
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 - that
year. Curiously, MGM declined to publish a soundtrack album at the same
time that this film was released. However, movie composer and conductor David Rose published a 7" (8cm) single of his original main title theme. He had recorded this at the MGM Studios in Culver City
during March 1956. This movie theme had been discarded when Rose, who
had originally been hired to compose the musical score in 1955, was
discharged sometime between Christmas 1955 and New Year’s Day by Dore
Schary.[citation needed]
The soundtrack was finally released on a vinyl LP album
by the Barrons for the film's 20th anniversary in 1976, on their 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 Labor Day weekend that year, as part of a 20th Anniversary celebration of the film at that Worldcon.
A decade later, it 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.[11] The soundtrack is also available on disc one of the album Forbidden Planet Explored.
[edit] Track list
The following is a list of compositions on the CD:[11]
- Main Titles (Overture)
- Deceleration
- Once Around Altair
- The Landing
- Flurry Of Dust - A Robot Approaches
- A Shangri-La In The Desert / Garden With Cuddly Tiger
- Graveyard - A Night With Two Moons
- "Robby, Make Me A Gown"
- An Invisible Monster Approaches
- Robby Arranges Flowers, Zaps Monkey
- Love At The Swimming Hole
- Morbius' Study
- Ancient Krell Music
- The Mind Booster - Creation Of Matter
- Krell Shuttle Ride And Power Station
- Giant Footprints In The Sand
- "Nothing Like This Claw Found In Nature!"
- Robby, The Cook, And 60 Gallons Of Booze
- Battle With The Invisible Monster
- "Come Back To Earth With Me"
- The Monster Pursues - Morbius Is Overcome
- The Homecoming
- Overture (Reprise) [this track recorded at Royce Hall, UCLA, 1964]
[edit] Influence
[edit] Remake
New Line Cinema had developed a remake with James Cameron, Nelson Gidding and Stirling Silliphant involved at different points. In 2007, DreamWorks set up the project with David Twohy set to direct. Warner Bros. reacquired the rights the following year and on October 31, 2008, J. Michael Straczynski was announced as writing a remake. Joel Silver will produce.[16] Straczynski explained that the original had been his favorite science fiction
film, and it gave Silver an idea for the new film that makes it "not a
remake", "not a reimagining", and "not exactly a prequel". His vision
for the film will not be retro, because when the original was made it
was meant to be futuristic. Straczynski met with people working in astrophysics, planetary geology and artificial intelligence to reinterpret the Krell back-story.[17]
[edit] See also
- ^ "Forbidden Planet (1956)". Internet Movie Database. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049223/. Retrieved 2006-08-14.
- ^ Variety film review; March 14, 1956, page 6.
- ^ Harrison's Reports film review; March 17, 1956, page 44.
- ^ Wilson, Robert Frank (2000). Shakespeare in Hollywood, 1929-1956. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press. p. 10. ISBN 0838638325. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=_YhlAAAAMAAJ&q=%22forbidden+planet%22+tempest&dq=%22forbidden+planet%22+tempest&client=firefox-a&cd=5. Retrieved 14 March 2010.
- ^ "The Robot Hall of Fame : Robby, the Robot". The Robot Hall of Fame (Carnegie Mellon University). http://www.robothalloffame.org/04inductees/robby.html. Retrieved 2006-08-14.
- ^ "tkm fav the forbidden planet". klangmuseum.de. http://www.klangmuseum.de/tkm_favourites/favourites_text/forbidden_planet.html. Retrieved 2006-08-16.
- ^ a b c "Forbidden Planet: Ultimate Collector's Edition from Warner Home Video on DVD - Special Edition". Whv.warnerbros.com. http://whv.warnerbros.com/WHVPORTAL/Portal/product.jsp?upc=012569793057&S=ClscsCllct. Retrieved 2010-08-15.
- ^ a b "Forbidden Planet". MovieDiva. http://www.moviediva.com/MD_root/reviewpages/MDForbiddenPlanet.htm. Retrieved 2006-08-16.
"He cost $125,000; a lot of money for a single prop, and was inhabited
by a couple of different actors and voiced by Marvin Miller, whose other
brief moment of fame was the title role in The Millionaire, a 50s tv
show."
- ^ "Ultimate Collector's Edition at Turner Classic Movies". Turnerclassic.moviesunlimited.com. http://turnerclassic.moviesunlimited.com/Product.asp?sku=D69004. Retrieved 2010-08-15.
- ^ "HD DVD review of Forbidden Planet (Warner Brothers,50th Anniversary Edition)". DVDTOWN.com. 2006-11-28. http://www.dvdtown.com/reviews/forbiddenplanet/4103. Retrieved 2010-08-15.
- ^ a b c Notes about film soundtrack and CD, MovieGrooves-FP
- ^ Alexander, David (1996-08-26). "Star Trek" Creator: Authorized Biography of Gene Roddenberry. Boxtree. ISBN 0-7522-0368-1.
- ^ A Darker Side, documentary on Planet of Evil DVD (BBC DVD1814)
- ^ Return to the Forbidden Planet, The Henley College
- ^ "Oliviers:Olivier Winners 1989/90". officiallondontheatre.co.uk. Society of London Theatre. http://www.officiallondontheatre.co.uk/olivier_awards/past_winners/view/item98524/Olivier-Winners-1989-90/. Retrieved 2010-11-11.
- ^ Borys Kit and Jay A. Fernandez (2008-10-31). "Changeling scribe on Forbidden Planet". The Hollywood Reporter. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/film/news/e3ib356467890c70c66f5453b8ea7d5fc00. Retrieved 2008-10-31. [dead link]
- ^ Casey Seijas (2008-12-01). "J. Michael Straczynski Promises His Take On ‘Forbidden Planet’ Will Be Something ‘No One Has Thought Of’". MTV Movies Blog. http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2008/12/01/j-michael-straczynski-promises-his-take-on-forbidden-planet-will-be-something-no-one-has-thought-of/. Retrieved 2008-12-02.
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