classic sci fi o rama

Continuing my sojourn through classic scifi, in the last few weeks I've watched:

• Fahrenheit 451 - Homes are fireproof but society - ignited by ideas - is flammable, so firemen burn books. "I'm happy to meet you. I'm Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance." (1966)
  
• Omega Man - Thinking he is the last person on earth after a war waged with biological weapons, Dr. Neville (Charlton Heston) befriends a statue and fends off "the family" - survivors who have been transformed by a plague into nocturnal creatures that obsess about purifying the world of evil (i.e., burning all symbols of science, including the doctor). During the day he races around in abandoned cars and looks for the family's nest so he can kill them in their sleep. Instead, he finds a groovy girl and discovers a cure. (1971)
  
• Soylent Green - Another Charlton Heston flick (after 2 years "living" in dystopic worlds it's no wonder he became president of the NRA). Lots of cool ideas: stationary bikes generate electricity for home, food is manufactured from a combination of soybeans and lentils (with a secret ingredient! yum) since overpopulation and heat have made natural food scarce, and furnished apartments for wealthy men include couches, tables, and women! Yes, just another piece of furniture. Hard to believe this one was made in 1973.
• Rollerball - Women aren't rented as furniture in this one, but they do receive "assignments" of which the main character, Jonathan E, goes through plenty after the Energy Corporation - his employer - takes his wife away. He's the star gladiator in a game created by the corporations to teach society that independent effort is futile. A most excellent font is used throughout the movie - I'd love to recreate one of the Houston or Tokyo team jerseys. (1975)
  
• Silent Running - For its time, amazing special effects that must have inspired Lucas, but (yawn) the story could use some action. Forests are gone from earth and several space ships preserve the last of the trees (and bunnies!) until the astronauts are ordered to jettison the greenery and return to earth. I totally identify with the emotional desire to save the forests, but I don't think many people were converted to environmentaldom with: "but...but they're so beautiful!" When this argument doesn't convince his crewmates - who've never had and aren't interested in eating cantaloupe - the conservationist kills them and then teaches the robot drones to bury the dead. Interesting tidbit: the robot drones are played by amputees in specially designed costumes. I hope someone makes a sequel - 100 years later the last dome is found floating in space full of healthy (gasp!) trees?? Why, we haven't seen a live tree in generations! And, Huey is a magical creature from the past carrying the wisdom of the trees. (1972)

All-in-all, a handful of dire predictions for our future - many of the lessons should still be taught and others were good predictions of the direction we've taken in the last 3 decades. The storytelling pace was so much slower back then - wow. It will be fun to watch how the genre evolved throughout the 80s and 90s - more subplots or just more action? Although that will have to wait: after a couple more scifi flicks the next batch of movies in my queue are jazz documentaries.

identification

On the sides of the coffins are photographs of the deceased as they were found, special attention paid to jewelry or tattoos, anything that can help in identifying who they once were.

Keven Sites, Paradise Tossed

While gruesome to consider, if those photos had been taken with a camera phone and blogged with metadata (descriptions of jewelry, tattoos, and other unique characteristics), perhaps family and friends who are overseas could search for their loved ones.