A genre of film that has been dismissed for decades by parents as silly futuristic nonsense is science fiction. Many artists know a simple way to discuss taboo subjects of any nature is to weave them into a fictional story. It is said that the Grimm Fairy Tales were used to help unify Austria. How you might ask? By telling the same stories to the same generation of children helped create a basis for a familiar culture, which that group could identify with. George Orwell witnessed the rise of Communism after WWII. His book 1984 paints a dark (yet sadly accurate) future of government control and violence forcing both physical and mental submission of the individual. The 1950’s was awash with cold war era fears and artists used science fiction as a vehicle to exploit the public’s’ anxieties, with movies such as The Day The Earth Stood Still, Fail Safe, The Thing From Another Planet, Invasion Of The Body Snatchers.
After the turmoil of the 1960’s audiences looked to the hero’s journey in space with the infamous Star Wars franchise. A long space opera weaving the rise and fall of the German National Socialist Party (A.K.A. Nazis Party) into its backdrop. In fact the final scene of Star Wars was a shot for shot remake of a famous Nazis propaganda film Triumph of The Will. You can read more on this here http://www.swifteconomics.com/2010/11/11/star-wars-fascism/
Through the 1980’s to the present sci-fi fans have been over saturated with anti-capitalist, anti-corporation, pro Marxist themes. It started with smaller subversive suggestions and has evolved to blatant implementation of political theory. The landmark sci-fi film Alien portrays a blue collar group of minors who encounter a vicious alien. Once the corporation that employs said miners realizes the possible value of the alien specimen they are quick to sacrifice their employees in order to obtain the alien. The “evil” corporation theme is constant through the entire Alien franchise, portraying any capitalist as bloodthirsty and willing sacrifice anyone in order to make a buck. The Robocop franchise attempts to tie in “evil” corporations with National Socialist politics, using Nazis Party imagery and having the poor being forced out of Detroit. A city which has been bankrupted not by capitalists, but by socialist/Marxist ideology in real life. Nevertheless filmmakers paint the capitalist as the antagonist. In recent years this anti-corporate/anti-capitalist theme intensified with the Resident Evil franchise and Avatar.
Today Sci-fi has pushed beyond simple underlying themes to the realm of political propaganda. The political theory of Vladimir Lenin is this “the belief in the necessity of a violent overthrow of capitalism through communist revolution, to be followed by a dictatorship of the proletariat (working class) as the first stage of moving towards communism, and the need for a vanguard party to lead the proletariat in this effort—developed into Marxism–Leninism, a highly influential ideology.” That being said what are the major concepts of Elysium, In TIme, Snowpiercer, The Day After Tomorrow, Contagion, even The Matrix trilogy? For Elysium, Snowpiercer, and In Time it is almost verbatim to Lenin’s political theory. Violent overthrow of the upper class in order to establish a communist system. Sounds pretty sexy? That is until you read about the actual history of communism and the amount of death that followed. A fact that hollywood will never portray is that communism is responsible for more human carnage throughout history than any war or revolution, more than the crusades, more than the holocaust. People will respond well it is a good movie, or I just wanna see the effects which is anyone’s right to do so. I endorse the free market of ideas and all ideas are always welcome, no matter how great or terrible people think they are. I do however fear the overwhelming tide of marxist ideology being washed over audiences in recent years and as Mr. Orwell foretold. I too fear the future. I close with this quote from one of the greatest propagandists of the twentieth century. “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.” – Joseph Goebbels
scarletcinema 