Heroes, Monsters and Values: Science Fiction Films of the 1970s ed. by Michael Berman and Rohit Dalvi (review)

The 1970s mark a decade in which the sf film experienced rapid change. Along with the rise of mainstream blockbusters in Hollywood, Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) arguably set the tone for a number of innovative sf films that followed. Additionally, the decade began with the introduction of the first few book-length studies of sf film criticism, notably John Baxter's Science Fiction in the Cinema (1970), William Johnson's Focus on the Science Fiction Film (1974) and Ralph J. Amelio's Hal in the Classroom: Science Fiction Film (1974). This increase in criticism and scholarship is in part due to changes in the genre; as critic Ivor A. Rogers argues in 'Extrapolative Cinema' (1969), a shift occurs in sf film in the late 1960s when films begin to turn away from disaster narratives 'to a more mature introspection of man and his deeds' (287).

Michael Berman and Rohit Dalvi's anthology Heroes, Monsters and Values sets out to explore the philosophical reflection incited by these films, considering a diverse range of sf films of the decade in order to understand the conditions of human existence. Barry K. Grant's preface skilfully outlines the changes in Hollywood film production and the shifting dynamics of sf as a genre, contextualising a decade of American sf film for the collection of twelve essays that follow. Grant contends that sf films of the 1970s mark an important shift in the genre, and that 'if these films functioned as new generic myths for the mass audiences that some of them attracted, they also provided, as this collection of insightful essays so fascinatingly reveals, much to provoke our sense of philosophical wonder' (xii). As Grant notes, ideologically, films of the 1970s range from conservative to subversive, reflecting the vast transformations occurring in the film industry and in popular culture. This diversity is also evident in the films represented in this anthology, ranging from blockbusters such as Alien (Scott US/UK 1979) and Star Trek, the Motion Picture (Wise US 1979) to cult classics such as Rollerball (Jewison UK 1975) and Death Race 2000 (Bartel US 1975).

At the heart of the anthology is an attempt to investigate the human condition. As Berman and Dalvi note in their introduction, 'philosophical analysis and interrogation can be used to articulate the meaning(s) of human being as depicted in the showing of film' (15). The anthology is divided into three sections: 'Heroes in History', 'Monsters of Technology' and 'Values in Disruption'. The first section examines films in light of their heroes. Berman's 'The Corporate Challenges to Recovery of the Individual and History in Rollerball (1975)' explores the role of the individual hero against collective, corporate tyranny. In 'The Nature of the Female Hero in Alien' Jan Marijaq presents Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) as a heroine who challenges popular conceptions of heroic qualities in the 1970s. Maureen Connolly's chapter on 'Performances of Spectacular and Stressed Embodiment in Star Trek' provides a semiotic phenomenological analysis of embodiment and the spectacular/stressed body in the iconic film Star Trek, the Motion Picture.

The essays in the second part, 'Monsters of Technology', examine the consequences of technological development and the 'monstrous' effects of unrestrained scientific advance. Jennifer Welch's chapter, 'Colossus: The Forbin Project: The Evolution of a Monster', considers the film's depiction of artificial intelligence as symptomatic of the shift from a popular belief in humanity's superiority to the dread evoked by our technological innovations, and thus ultimately the triumph of Darwinian evolution in evoking a future in which humanity will no longer be as we know it. Drew M. Dalton's 'Zardoz and the Problem of Infinity: Heidegger and Levinas' explores the dangers of the modern project and its effects on our understanding of identity and human singularity. Rohit Dalvi's 'The Tragic Life of Sol Roth' discusses the importance of...