A Review of "Forbidden Planet"

Forbidden Planet is often the film named by historians and critics as the most important science fiction production of the second half of the 20th Century. Without it who knows if other movies such as 2001: A Space Odyssey would have ever been made. Prior to Fred Wilcox’s 1956 Space Opera, science fiction was relegated to smaller budgets, B-level stalwart actors, comical special effects, and hammy scripts. However, this would be the first of such films to actually receive a decent budget, and due to its enormous success, opened the door for future big-budget sci-fi projects. Forbidden Planet is loosely played on Shakespeare’s The Tempest. It concerns a team of scientists (led by Leslie Nielson and Warren Stevens) sent to a far-away planet to check in on a previous group that landed there 20 years earlier to create a colony. Upon arrival, they discover that only one member of the crew is still alive (Walter Pidgeon as Dr. Morbius) as well as his daughter (Anne Francis) who was born on the planet before his wife died. Things seem normal yet out of the ordinary at the same time, as the lone survivor claims he is perfectly happy there and does not need the team to come rescue him or check up on what he is doing. He wants to continue his solitary work.

Rest of the review os available at: https://gcaggiano.wordpress.com/2015/09/26/halloween-twenty-fifteen-a-review-of-forbidden-planet-1956/