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FORBIDDEN_PLANET
June 30, 2004
Somewhere along the way, it became
popular to say that "Forbidden
Planet" is a science fiction SPOILERS
version of the Tempest.
This is grossly overstated.
Yes, it's about an encounter with a
ship-wrecked magician (of sorts),
and yes he has a daughter, and there
are some spirits/monsters in his Morbius, Alta, Robbie...
employ. And the "Monsters from the Id"
But there's very little thematic
overlap between the film and
the Shakespeare play.
The magician gives up
his magic? Perhaps.
Consider, however, that
the name of the ship is
the Bellerophon:
In "The Iliad" there
is the tale of "brave
Bellerophon, a man Most characters in the Iliad
without a fault". have these kind of associated
catch-phrases, something like
He had a few kings "the caped crusader" or "the
plotting against him man without fear".
(they were set on him
by a spurned jealous TAKEN_LIGHTLY
woman by the name of
Antea, no connection
to Alta, I presume).
One of these kings sets
Bellerophon a task:
"he ordered Bellerophon to kill the Chimaera --
grim monster sprung of the gods, nothing human,
all lion in front, all snake behind, all goat between,
terrible, blasting lethal fire at every breath!"
"Hector Returns to Troy"
Book 6, line 210
Homer's "The Iliad"
(Robert Fagles translation).
A number of aspects
of this film are
worthy of note.
The soundtrack: Louis and Bebe Baron's
non-deterministic electronics. There's a persistent
myth that they were
A truly great using therimens, but
work of music. that's just wrong.
They hacked their own
electronics.
There's a strange element ("The Day the
imported from fantasy: Earth Stood Still"
the virgin that can calm An ability is a better
the beasts. she loses example of a
once she's therimen
been "kissed". soundtrack.)
But then, Alta's
degree of naivete Not only does her
is literally an tiger suddenly try
impossibility, to kill her, but In a fit
given her Captain Leslie of jealousy?
familiarity with acts like it
literature. should be Because she's
*completely* no longer
The only plausible obvious why this magically pure?
explanation is that has happened.
she really is "You really don't
putting them on, know, do you?" The artist
giving them "the tried to
business". Duh, everyone knows outline
your tiger tries to an image of
Though there kill you if you fool the beast:
isn't much around behind its
to suggest back. Dangerous,
that in the savage...
film. prone to
When we next jealous
What a strangely see Alta rages.
repressed time again, she's
that was... no longer in It's obscured
a white gown, by these strange
Not just a instead she overtones of
delicate lack wears a black unicorn tales.
of mention of mini-skirt.
sexual details,
as you find in
films only ten
years earlier,
but a complete
faking of human
nature.
The bald, hypocritical lie And this in a story
replaces restrained hints... about the inevitability
of the beast within for
people that have risen
up from beasts.
There's something going on
with visual motifs that
puzzles me, and I don't expect
to ever understand:
The crew of the Bellerophon wear
a design of concentric circles as I'm not sure if
their logo, their badge. this was a sign of
ship or service.
Targets? I guess it might
Orbits? have been rank:
Orbitals? circular stripes.
layers within layers
At the movie's climax, a hand
pushes down the destruct
plunger, and the visual motif
reappears: the plunger is
located in the center of some
glowing concentric circles... A complex
vagina?
The real core of the film
has to do with the dangers
of powerful technologies and
the need for safety features.
The Krell technology amplifies
human power to the point where
unconscious impulses can have
immediate, worldwide effects.
It unleashes the
"monsters of the Id".
This by itself might be taken
as a warning that human spirit
and technology are ultimately
incompatible...
But opposed to this is
the example of "Robbie" -- Robbie does pretty
a hybrid-technology, built well with a 6-bit
by humans using Krell electro-mechanical
capabilities. With Robbie accumulator.
the need for checks
on power was not overlooked.
In true "Asimov's Laws"
fashion, the robot is
incapable of harming So, which is it?
human beings. Is it a forbidden
planet, or not?
"No, no, I deny you!
I give you up!"
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