June 18, 2008
AFI’s 10 top 10: Where do cyberpunk films fit in?
For those who missed it tonight, AFI has announced their top 10 movies in 10 categories, including animation, fantasy, and (need it be said?) science fiction. Of course, sci-fi was the main category to watch to see if movies like Blade Runner made the cut.
No longer keeping you waiting, here’s the cyberpunk films in sci-fi:
Sarah Connor kicking ass, Arnold turns the bad bot into a guardian angel, pioneering special effects, enough action to inspire a TV series… ‘Nuff said.
While its cyberpunk-ness has been called into question, its influence is quite apparent thanks the H.R. Giger.
Android dreams of electric sheep and unicorns come true. This classic has earned its place in cyberpunk movie history, meaning more can enjoy Roy Batty’s farewell speech.
This bit of proto-cyberpunk fare will keep minds warped for years to come, with visions of fast-forward sex done to the William Tell Overture.
For the record, the #1 sci-fi movie was 2001: A Space Odyssey.
An incomplete picture. Again, it should be emphasized that AFI is primarily for American movies. That means movies like Metropolis, Tetsuo, and many anime movies are left out. What if the AFI did include foreign films? Better yet, is there a world motion-picture consortium (a world-wide AFI of sorts) that can come out with the top films of the world? Maybe we can fill in that picture (no pun intended) with our own listing of the top cyberpunk movies.
Comments
June 18, 2008
Merzmensch said:
What a pity… Great Cyberpunk movies came also from foreign countries: “La Antena”, “Renaissance”, “Avalon” and all Mamoru Oshiis movies, even Tarkovskys “Stalker”…
AFI seems to go the mainstream line and look only for blockbusters, they do their job not really objective.
So I appreciate your great database, which proves, cyberpunk is a worldwide phenomenon, not only American priority.
June 22, 2008
Helu0302 said:
They shoot Pictures don’t they, http://www.theyshootpictures.com/
Has a list of the 1,000 greatest films of all time, which factors in many lists like AFI’s but include a large portion of foreign films and includes films like La Antena and Stalker pretty early in the list.
June 23, 2008
Burt_lombard said:
Hey that list didn’t just skip over great foreign films. It didn’t even include Robocop! Such Injustice.