The movies that I chose to watch were Alien, Star Wars IV and Star Trek; The Motion Picture. These films are all the first in their series of space, action and adventure movies. These films are all united by this theme and that they were all made in the late 1970s.
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, made in 1977, written and directed by George Lucas, is the first made movie in the Star Wars series. "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away..."an empire taken over by the dark side of the force rules. A small group of rebels is forming and with the help of Luke Skywalker they plan to take back the empire and return peace to the galaxy.
Alien, a 1979 space adventure and Horror film, directed by Ridley Scott is the first movie in Alien series. The cargo spaceship Nostromo is heading to Earth when they encounter an alien message and go to explore the source. One of there members, Kane, gets attacked by an alien but they are able to bring both back to the ship. The organism has planted an egg in Kane. The alien hatches out of Kane and terrorizes the ship.
Star Trek: The Motion Picture, made in 1979 and created by Gene Roddenberry and is the first Star Trek film. This film is based off the popular 1970s TV show Star Trek. Sometime in the far future a space cloud/starship V'ger is approaching Earth and will destroy it and everything in its path. The only starship in range of V'ger is the USS Enterprise and they have to stop or destroy V'ger before it hits Earth.
I thought that it was very interesting how these three movies tried to portray futuristic space travel and the future of earth. Most of the scenes of these films were filmed inside of the space crafts. All three movies seemed to have the same futuristic look. But Star Wars and Star Trek seem to stand out as very similar visions of a space craft. they had a very drastic contrast from the "good guys" and the "bad guys". For example the rebel star ships in Star Wars were a mostly white, sleek and modern look but the empires ships were always wall to wall black. This theme seemed to be the same with the Star Trek showing a obvious line of good and evil. I thought that George Lucas did the best job of incorporating that line of good and evil. The greatest example of this was when in Star Wars Dark Vader and Obi-Wan Kenobi are battling it out in the Deathstar and you can see a clear contrast. Darth Vader is in his usual all black outfit with a black mask and cape and he has a bright red lightsaber. Obi-Wan Kenobi is in a tan robe with no mask and a brown cape, wielding a green lightsaber. This scene really captures that stark contrast that Lucas wants you to see between the Dark side of the force and the Jedi side of the force. 
Alien seemed to take the same look of the space ship but they used more of a horror film look. They used mostly dim lighting and shadows to give an eerie feel to this film. I also noticed that Alien would use many unclose face shots exposing much of the background right before something bad was going to happen. I thought that they used this well in building up suspense.
Alien seemed to take the same look of the space ship but they used more of a horror film look. They used mostly dim lighting and shadows to give an eerie feel to this film. I also noticed that Alien would use many unclose face shots exposing much of the background right before something bad was going to happen. I thought that they used this well in building up suspense.
These movies also used lots of amazing technology for there time. The visual effects are a huge part of all of these movies. Star Trek seemed to use the most post production especial effects with Star Wars following in a close second. These movies are not like other 1970s films because they are huge budget, sci-fi, event films. They attracted people with there cutting edge special effects and mass marketing techniques.
An interesting approach for the film study. Good ideas about the good/evil portrayals, but I would have also been interested in hearing more about what you think about a "first film" because that seemed to be the focus of this. Why did these "work," what elements does a "first film" have? Don't forget about outside research.
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