Chronological Chart of the History of SF Film


Events in History	The Film Industry	Trends in SF Film	Major SF Films	SF Lit (fuller timeline)	Major Hollywood Films
Silent Era: 1900-1920 WWI 1914-1916	Invention of film by Lumiere brothers in France Fascination wi ability to alter reality, create illusions Films still quite short with little plot	Comedic experiments; trick films Films based on literary sources: Vernes, Wells, Strong interface btw SF and horror Strong visual influence from German Expressionism	1902 A Trip to the Moon 1910 Frankenstein(Edison) 1914 The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Robert Wiene)	1818 Mary Shelley, Frankenstein 1870 Jules Verne, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea 1888 Edward Bellamy, Looking Backward 1895 H.G. Wells, Time Machine
1920's Fascists take over Italy Prohibition Radio becomes widespread Intro of Modern Art Puklp Era-- lproliferation of SF mags\] 1929 Stock Market crash	Growing divergence btw European and American film Introduction of sound American film industry begins to dominate Studio System begins to evolve explore claymation effects	European films: sombre prediction of future American films: fast-paced narrative Utopia/Dystopian moves Adaptations of literary works	1925 The Lost World 1926 Metropolis (Fritz Lang) 1929 Mysterious Island	1926 Gernsback founds Amazing Stories 1929 Comic strip, Buck Rogers in the 25thC begins	The Golem (1921) Nosferatu (1922)
1930's The Depression WPA -- Art projects 1932 FDR elected 1933 Hitler takes over in Germany 1936 Spanish Civil War 1938 Orson Wells broadcast of War of the Worlds 1939 Germany invades Poland; England and France declare war	1932 German film industry nationalized German film makers leaving for USA European interest in SF does not translate in US In US SF is relegated to to serials produced on Poverty Row Studio System and Stars begin to dominate US film	A few utopias Lots of mad scientists based on Shelley, Wells, Stevenson Super hero serials with megalomaniac scientists who want to take over the universe	1930 Just Imagine 1931 Frankenstein (James Whales) 1933 King Kong 1935 Bride of Frankenstain 1936 Things to Come (H.G. Wells) 1938, 1940 Flash Gordon 1939 Buck Rogers in the 25th Century Serial	1930 John W. Campbell takes over Astounding 1932 Aldous Huxley: "Brave New World" 1938-9 Superman comics begin	1936 Modern Times 1941 Fantasia
The 1940's 1941 Germans enter Paris 1941, Dec. 7 Pearl Harbor US enters WWII 1942 Germans invade Russia 1945 May 8, Germany signs articles of surrender in Berlin. August 6, U.S. drops nuclear bomb over Hiroshima, Japan, instantly killing 100,000 persons. August 9, bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan. August 14, Japan surrenders 1947 Roswell -- UFO scare 1947 HUAAC hearings: Hollywood Ten 1948 Berlin Blockade and Communist take-over in Czechoslovakia Cold War begins 1949 Chinese Communist Revolution	Hollywood controlled by War Office 1941-45 Hollywood intrested in drama and Westerns 1949 Studios lose monopoly control of theaters	SF films generally not made	1941 Dr. Cyclops	Move from short stories to more ambitious novels 1942 Isaac Asimov: The Foundation Trilogy 1945 George Orwell: "Animal Farm" 1947 Heinlein, Rocket Ship Galileo--1st juvenile 1949 George Orwell 1984
The 1950's 1950 Korean War begins 1951 15 million TV sets in USA ; UNIVAAC 1952 1st thermonuclear device 1953 De Beauvoir's Second Sex published in US; Rosenbergs executed: DNA modeled 1954 James Dean dies aged 24 H.H. Humphrey sponsors Communist Control Act -- would have made Comm illegal. McCarthy hearings being televised. Brown v. Board of Education begins to strike down legal segregation 1955 Break-thru year for Rock’n Roll Rosa Parks Montgomery Alabama Allen Ginsberg reads "Howl" in SF 1956 Eisenhower wins over Adlai Stevenson. Heartbreak Hotel hits Whyte, Organiz Man; Ferlingetti arrested for selling obscene material including Howl 1957 Russians launch sputnik 1959 Batista Flees Cuba; Castro takes over Barbie Doll introd by Matell.	Absolute power of studios lessening, so independent film projects possible competition with TV causes interest in Hollywood big-screen epics and special effects Increasingly large teenage audience Proliferation of drive-in theaters Explosions of formulaic B-movies	Interest in space exlporation Huge numbers of "creature features" interesting focus on size changes-- Widespread political paranoia about communist infiltration shows in fear of aliens While many creatures caused by atomic exposure, no blame for scientists who often help avert threat	1950 Destination Moon (George Pal) 1950 The Flying Saucer 1951 The Thing from Another World (Howard Hawks), When Worlds Collide (Geroge Pal/ Rudolph Mate), *The Day the Earth Stood Still* (Robert Wise) The Man from Planet X (Pollexfen). Five 1953 The War of the Worlds (George Pal/ Byron Haskins) It Came from Outer Space 1954 THEM (Gordon Douglas), *Creature from the Black Lagoon* (Jack Arnold) 1955 This Island Earth (Joseph Newman) 1956 Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Don Siegel), *Godzilla* (1954 in Japan) Earth vs. Flying Saucers (1st boom year for SF films: 25 opened) 1957 The Incredible Shrinking Man (Jack Arnold) 20 Million Miles to Earth. The Monolith Monsters (34 SF films) 1958 The Fly (Kurt Newman), The Blob 1959On the Beach (Stanley Kramer)
The 1960's 1960 SNCC and SDS founded. JFK elected; promises to go to the moon. Camus dies in auto wreck at age 46. Birth Control Pill approved for marketing; sit-ins start: Greensboro 1962 Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba; step-up Civil defense. Dylan cuts his first album October: Cuban missile crisis; Birmingham: dogs and cattle prods 1963 August: Civil Rts March on DC, MLK, "I have a dream" 1963 JFK assasinated 1964 The Twist hits and the Beatles come to the US . Civil Rts workers murdered in Miss. 1965 Escalation of war in Viet Nam 1965 Assassination of Malcolm X 1968 Tet Offensive; begin large-scale anti-war protests 1968 Martin Luther King, Robert Kennedy assasinated .LBJ drops out of race. Student riots Columbia, Chcago, etc.; Nixon elected. 1969 Neil Armstrong walks on the moon. Woodstock.	Loosening of sexual censorship some atttept to chart social change in position of Blacks...(Sidney Poitier) crumbling of trafitional values (Bonnie and Clyde; the Graduate; Te WIld Bunch)	Early sixites: temporary merger of mainstream and SF in atomic holocaust films based on political paranoia MAD-- Mutually Assured Destruction Hollywood Teen film-- High point of Disney Increasing dominance of TV Space Race Later sixties, appearance of big budget SF films by major directors begins to legitimatize the genre Technophobia in the Sixties	1960: The Time Machine (George Pal) 1961: The Day the Earth Caught Fire 1963: X -- The Man with the X-Ray Eyes (Roger Corman) 1964: Dr. Strangelove ( Stanley Kubrick), Robinson Crusoe on Mars (Byron Haskins), Fail-Safe, Seven Days in May(John Frankenheimer) 1965: Dr. Who and the Daleks, Alphaville (Goddard), The War Game (Peter Watkins) 1966: Fantastic Voyage (1966), Fahrenheit 451 ( Francois Truffaut) 1968: Planet of the Apes (Franklin Shaffner), *Barbarella* (Roger Vadim), *2001: A Space Odyssey* (Stanley Kubrick) 1969: The Illustrated Man, Charley, Night of the Living Dead (George Romero), Marooned (John Sturges 1969)		1960: Last Year at Marienbad, Exodus, Psycho,The Apartment •1961: Jules et Jim, West Side Story, Judgement at Nurenberg •1962: Lawrence of Arabia, Cleopatra, The Manchurian Candidate, Dr. No Advise and Consent, A Rasin in the Sun •1963: Tom Jones, Irma La Douce, The Birds •1964: Lord of the Flies, A Hard Day's Night, Goldfinger, Mary Poppins, My Fair Lady 1965: Dr. Zhivago, The Sound of Music, The pawnbroker 1966: Torn Curtain, Alfie,A Man for All Seasons, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Our Man Flint 1967: Blow Up, Belle de Jour, Bonnie and Clyde, Heat of the Night, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner 1968: The Thomas Crowne Affair, Funny Girl, The Odd Couple, The Lion in Winter, Oliver! The Green Berets 1969: Midnight Cowboy, Easy Rider, Bullitt, The Wild Bunch Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, They Shoot Horses, Don't They, Satyricon, Women in Love, Bob and Carol and Ted and ALice,
1970's 1970 Conservative Party wins in Britain 1970 Kent State -- 4 students shot 1970 Student Strikes 1971 U.S. bombs Cambodia 1971 Lt. Calley found gulity of Mylai Massacre 1971 Pentagon Papers begin to appear 1972 Watergate Break-in; Nixon re-elected 1973: Watergate Hearings; Nixon resigns 1973: Cease-Fire in Vietnam; Arab Oil Embargo 1973: AIM occupies Wounded Knee 1974: Nixon resigns 1975: Indictment of leading figures in Nixon administration 1976: Bicentennial; Carter elected 1978: Leftist Sandanistas in Nicaragua try to take over from Somoza	Old Hollywood companies being taken over by conglomerates 1970 MGM auction (ruby slippers) RKO gone Paramount (Gulf &Wstern) Studio now doing marketing & financing	Technophobic and dystopian films fight out ideological battles of conservatives vs. liberals , conservative films valorizing an individual ized return to nature over over the totalizing state, liberal films indicting corporate control and questioning fundamental distinctions between nature and culture, man and machine. Phenomenal success of Star Wars ignites resurgence of SF genre, with focus on big-budget fantasy Technophobia in the 70's	1970: Colossus: The Forbin Project, No Blade of Grass (Cornel Wilde), Beneath the Planet of the Apes, Gas-s-s, Ice, 1971: *THX1138* (George Lucas), Westworld (Michael Crichton), *A Clockwork Orange* (Stanley Kubrick), Omega Man (Boris Sagal), *Silent Running* (Douglas Turnbull), The Andromeda Strain, Glen and Randa 1972: Flesh Gordon, Night of the Lepus, ZPG 1973 : Solyent Green, Sleeper (Woody Allen), Westworld (Michael Crichton), Slaughterhouse Five, Day of the Dolphin 1974: Dark Star (John Carpenter), Zardoz ( John Boorman,) 1975: Stepford Wives, A Boy and His Dog (L. Q. Jones), Rollerball (Norman Jewison, 1975), The ltimate Warrior 1976: The Man Who Fell to Earth , Logan's Run 1977: Star Wars (George Lucas), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Stephen Spielberg), Damnation Alley , Demon Seed, Capricorn I, 1978: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Philip Kaufman), Superman, Coma, The End of the World, 1979: Alien (Ridley Scott), Star Trek; The Motion Picture, Mad Max,* Battlestar Galactica, The Late Great Planet Earth*		1970: Catch-22, True Grit, Patton, Woodstock, Women in Love 1971: The French Connection 1972: Cabaret, The Godfather, Play It Again Sam, 1973: Last Tango in Paris, The Sting, China Town 1974: Godfather II, Harry & Tonto, 1975: Jaws, Nashville, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest 1976: All the President's Men, Rocky, Taxi Driver, Network 1977: Annie Hall, Julia, Saturday Night Fever 1978: Grease, Animal House, Interiors, Coming Home, The Deer Hunter, Pretty Baby, Midnight Express, Halloween, Up in Smoke, The Fury. A Wedding 1979: Apocalypse Now, Hair, China Syndrome, Tin Drum, Kramer vs. Kramer, Being There, All That Jazz, Seduction of Joe Tynan, Monty Python's Life of Brian, Breaking Away, The Muppet Movie, Dawn of the Dead
The 1980's 1980: Ronald Reagan elected President, Mt. St. Helens erupts John Lennon is killed Soviets invade Afghanistan 1981: Iranian hostage crisis ends first women Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Conner MTV videos economy falters, IBM introduces thePC 1982: Falklands War ERA falls short of ratfication US Marines land in Beirut Tylenol scare recession peaks first space shuttle flight 1983: US invades Grenada First American woman in space Reagan announces SDI 1984: Ronald Reagen is reelected AIDS virus identified 1985: Gorbachev comes to power "Live Aid" sanctions on South Africa for aparteid VCRs begin to be common Rock Hudson dies of AIDS US dollar devalued 1986: US air strikes against Libya The Challenger Accident Iran Contra affair exposed first genetic engineered organisms Ivan Boesky Wall Street scandal 1987: Rev. Jimmy Baker resigns his ministry worst stock crash on Wall Street 1988: George Bush elected US President PanAm 747 over Lockerbie, Scotland Lt. Col.Oliver North indicted severe drought in midwest Wal mart and K mart 1989: End of the Berlin Wall US Forces enter Panama and capture Pres. Manuel Noriega Exxon Valdez Oil spill major earthquake in California Hurricane Hugo, Pete Rose banned from baseball.		Leftist films continue to mount critique of capitalism, exploitation of workers, enviornmental degredation Conservative counter-reaction shown in rise of superhero figures	1980: *The Empire Strikes Back* (Geroge Lucas),J Altered States, Saturn 3, Battle Beyond the Stars (Geroge Corman) 1981: The Incredible Shrinking Woman, Outland, Escape from New York, The Last Chance, Heavy Metal, 1982: *Blade Runner (Ridley Scott), E.T* (Steven Spielberg), *Tron, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan* (Nicholas Meyer), *Road Warrior* (George Miller), Atomic Cafe, John Carpenter's The Thing, The Black Hole, Videodrome, The Parasite 1983: Liquid Sky, Return of the Jedi (George Lucas), Brainstorm, Strange Invaders, Time Rider, Testament, The Day After (TV, Nicholas Meyer), Special Bulletin (TV, Herskowitz & Zwick), Scanners 1984: Terminator (James Cameron), Dune, Buckaroo Bonzai, Starman, Android, Last Starfighter, ST III: Search for Spock, Night of the Comet, Brother from Another Planet, Repo Man, 2010: The Year We Make Contact 1985: Back to the Future, Cocoon, Max Headroom, The Handmaid's Tale, Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome, Enemy Mine, Trancers 1986: Brazil, Highlander, They Live!, Lifeforce, Flight of the Navigator, When the Wind Blows (animated, UK) 1987: ST IV: The Voyage Home, Aliens (James Cameron) Robo Cop (Verhofen) 1988: Light Years (animation), Earth Girls Are Easy, Cocoon: The Return, The Hidden, Miracle Mile 1989: *Total Recall* (Verhofen), Millennium, DeepStar Six, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier , Alien Nation, Communion,		1980: Raging Bull, Ordinary Poeple, Elephant Man, The Great Santini, Coal Miner?s Daughter, Breaker Morant, Atlantic City 1981: Chariots of Fire, On Golden Pond, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Reds, French Lieutenant's Woman 1982: Ghandi, Missing, My Favorite Year, Tootsie, The Verdict, Sophie's Choice, Frances, An Officer and a Gentleman, Victor/Victoria, The World According to Garp 1983: Zelig, Terms of Endearment, The Dresser, The Right Stuff, Tender Mercies, Educating Rita, Silkwood, Cross Creek , The Year of Living Dangerously, Yentl, Flashdance 1984: The Killing Fields, Amadeus, A Passage to India, Places in the Heart , A Soldier's Story, The Bostonians, Country, The River, Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, The Karate Kid, Places in the Heart 1985: Out of Africa, The Big Chill, The Color Purple, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Prizzi's Honor , Witness, agnes of God, Trip to Bountiful 1986: Platoon, Hannah and Her Sisters, Children of a Lesser God, The Mission, A Room with a View, Color of Money, 'Round Midnight 1987: The Last Emperor, Full Metal Jacket, Lethal Weapon, Salvador, Hoosiers, 1988: Rain Man, Born on the Fourth of July, Broadcast News, Fatal Attraction, Hope and Glory , Moonstruck, Wall Street,Good Morning, Vietnam, Ironweed 1989: Driving Miss Daisy, Dead Poets Society, Crimes and Misdemeanors, The Accidental Tourist, Dangerous Liaisons , Big, Mississippi Burning, Working Girl , The Accused, Gorrillas in the Mist, A Fish Called Wanda, Little Dorritt, Tucker, Bull Durham, Heathers
			1990 The Handmaid’s Tale, Hardware, Predator 2, The Abyss, I Come in Peace, Robocop 2, Akira 1991 Lawnmower Man, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Naked Lunch, War of the Worlds, Eve of Destruction, Robot Jox, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country 1992 Alien 3, Freejack, Universal Soldier 1993 Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman, Demolition Man, Jurassic Park, Jurassic Park, Fortress, Fire in the Sky, Lifepod (tvm), Robocop 3, Ghost in the Machine 1994 Stargate, Tommyknockers, No Escape, Body Snatchers, TekWar, Timecop, Stargate, Star Trek: Generations 1995 Apollo 13, The City of Lost Children, Hackers, Johnny Mneumonic, Judge Dredd, Strange Days, Tank Girl, Twelve Monkeys, Waterworld, Village of the Damned, Species, Ghost in the Shell 1996 Independence Day , The Arrival, Mars Attacks, Star Trek: First Contact, 1997 Alien Resurrection, Contact, Dark City, Event Horizon, The Fifth Element, Gattaca, Men in Black, Mimic, Spawn, Starship Troopers, 1998 Armageddon, Deep Impact, Godzilla, Lost in Space, Sphere, The X-Files Movie, 1999 eXistenz, The Matrix, Star Wars I: Phantom Menance, The Thirteenth Floor		1990 GoodFellas, Pretty Woman, Mountains of the Moon, My Left Foot, Wild at Heart, Ghost, Archnaphobia, Postcards from the Edge, Dances with WOlves, Edward Scissorhnads, Godfather Part II 1991 Silence of the Lambs, Grifters, Mel Gibson Hamlet, Reersal of FOrthune, Barton FInk, Thelma and Louise, Boyz N the Hood, Truly, Madly, Deeply, Fisher King, Beauty and the Beast, Prince of Tides, Cape Fear, Fried Green Tomatoes, JFK, 1992 Basic INstinct, WYne's WOrld, The Player, Batman Returns, Death Becomes Her, Husbands and WIves, Last of the Mohicans, A River RUns Trough It, Strictly Ballroom, Bram Stoker's Dracula, eservoir Dogs, Aladdin, Malcolm X, Chaplin, Patriot Games, A League of Their Own, 1993 Shindler's List,Groundhog Day, Howard's End The Crying Game, Branagh's Much Ado about Nothing, The Piano, Like Water for CHocolate, Sleepless in Seattle, Remains of the Day, Philadelphia, Mrs. Doubtfire 1994 Four Wedings and a Funeral,What's Eating Gilbert Grape, Shadowlands, THe Crow, SPeed, Forrest Gump, Pulp FIction, The Lion King, Ed WOod, True LIes, Nell, Shawshank Redemption, The Mask 1995 Legends of the Fall, Clerks, Dum and Dumber, Babe, Braveheart, Usual Suspects, Clueless,