Off the Planet: Music, Sound and Science Fiction Cinema

by Philip Hayward (Editor)

Over the last decade, music and sound have been increasingly recognized as an important―if often neglected―aspect of film production and film studies. Off the Planet comprises a lively, stimulating, and diverse collection of essays on aspects of music, sound, and Science Fiction cinema. Following a detailed historical introduction to the development of sound and music in the genre, individual chapters analyze key films, film series, composers, and directors in the postwar era. The first part of the anthology profiles seminal 1950s productions such as The Day the Earth Stood Still, the first Godzilla film, and Forbidden Planet. Later chapters analyze the work of composer John Williams, the career of director David Cronenberg, the Mad Max series, James Cameron's Terminators, and other notable SF films such as Space Is the Place, Blade Runner, Mars Attacks!, and The Matrix. Off the Planet is an important contribution to the emerging body of work in music and film. Contributors include leading film experts from Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Distributed for John Libbey Publishing

Genres: Music, Film

175 pages, Paperback

First published June 16, 2004

Reviews

[Benjamin Fasching-Gray · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first three chapters, "Day the Earth Stood Still," "Godzilla," and "Forbidden Planet," led me to order those soundtracks from a CD store. These are followed by "The Transmolecularisation of [Black] Folk: Space is the Place, Sun Ra and Afrofuturism." If you know me, you know I can't help but love that. Although I have seen that countless times, I need to watch it again RIGHT NOW.

Star Wars and Close Encounters are borderline fascist and the only good thing you can say about Wagnerian John Williams in Chapter 5 is that he's so good at what he does, that one can hardly form a counter-identification while watching the movies because the soundtrack does not allow for any other interpretation than the one established in William's leitmotifs. I totally agree. I loved those films as a kid, and I still dig them, but good grief. And the sex stuff in Star Wars. Yuck. Forget the incest hints. What was that about X and Ys flying into a trench again?

This book is from the antipodes and the chapter on Mad Max is right on. After reading the David Cronenberg chapter, I listened to the soundtrack to Scanners. What the heck!

Blade Runner, no nah, but you can't do a book like this and not talk about it.

I never really thought about the sound design or soundtrack to Terminator or T2 before, need to give that another listen. Never saw Mars Attacks but apparently Slim Whitman's yodeling has a big role in it. We end on the Matrix and go deep into the 5 channels of Dolby 5.1 so I guess don't watch the Matrix if your shit eats tapes.

You know what? This weird little volume is awesome.