It was one of the few movies that was made in color instead of black & white. It has excellent picture quality, and the special effect are pretty damn good considering that it was made back in the 1950s.
Believe it or not, the science fiction movie, Forbidden Planet, is actually inspired by a play written by William Shakespeare, The Tempest!!!
Here is some more information about the movie.
The space ship, United Planets Cruiser C-57D, and Robby The Robot were props that have also been used in some episodes of The Twilight Zone.Forbidden Planet
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Forbidden Planet is a 1956 science fiction film in CinemaScope and Metrocolor directed by Fred M. Wilcox and starring Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis and Leslie Nielsen. The characters and setting were inspired by Shakespeare's "The Tempest", and the plots are very similar.
The film features a number of Oscar-nominated special effects, groundbreaking use of an all-electronic music score, and the first screen appearance of both Robby the Robot and the C-57D flying saucer starship.
United Planets Cruiser C-57D lands on Altair's 4th planet.
In the early 23rd century, the United Planets Cruiser C-57D is sent to the planet Altair IV, 16 light-years from Earth, to investigate the disappearance of a colony expedition sent 20 years earlier. Before landing, the ship is contacted by Dr. Edward Morbius, who warns them to stay away.
Upon landing, the ship is met by Robby the Robot, who takes Commander John J. Adams, Lieutenant Jerry Farman, and Lieutenant "Doc" Ostrow to Morbius' home. Morbius explains to them that an unknown force killed all of the other members of his crew and destroyed their starship, the Bellerophon. Only Morbius, his wife (who died later of natural causes), and his daughter Altaira, now 19 years old, survived. He fears that the crew of the C-57D will suffer the same fate. Altaira has never met a man besides her father, and is interested in getting to know the new arrivals and learn about human relations.
From Forbidden Planet: First Officer
Lt Jerry P. Farman talking with Altaira.
Morbius explains that he has been studying the Krell, the natives of Altair IV who, despite being far more advanced than humanity, had all mysteriously died in a single night 200,000 years before, just as they had achieved their greatest triumph. He shows them a device that he calls a "plastic educator". Morbius notes that the captain of the Bellerophon tried it, and was killed instantly. When Morbius used it though, he barely survived, and doubled his intellect in the process. He claims that it had enabled him to build Robby and the other technological marvels in his home. Morbius then takes them on a tour of a vast cube-shaped underground Krell installation, 20 miles on a side and powered by 9,200 thermonuclear reactors, which has been operating and self-repairing itself since the extinction of the Krell. When asked its purpose, Morbius admits he does not know.
The Great Machine, dwarfing the
three men walking on the platform.
One night, a valuable piece of equipment in the ship is damaged, though the sentries report they saw no intruders. In response, a force-field fence is set up to protect the ship. The protection proves to be useless; the unseen thing returns, shorts out the fence, and kills Chief Engineer Quinn. Dr Ostrow examines footprints left after the attack and is confused, saying that the creature appears to violate all known evolutionary laws.
The intruder returns the following night, and is discovered to be invisible - its appearance only revealed in outline by the beams of the force field and the crew's weapons. Several men are killed by the monster. Asleep in a Krell laboratory, Morbius is wakened by Altaira's scream. At that moment, the creature vanishes.
Later while Adams confronts Morbius at the house, Ostrow sneaks away to use the educator, with fatal results. Just before he dies though, he manages to tell Adams that the underground installation was built to materialize anything the Krell thought of, but they had forgotten "Monsters from the id!" Morbius objects, pointing out that there are no Krell left. Adams replies that Morbius' mind - expanded by the plastic educator and thus able to interface with the great Krell machine - subconsciously created the monster that killed his shipmates 20 years earlier, after they had voted to return to Earth. Morbius scoffs at Adams' theory.
When Altaira declares her love for Adams in defiance of her father, the monster comes for them. Morbius commands Robby to kill it, but the robot freezes, recognizing that the monster is an extension of Morbius. The creature breaks into the house and melts through the nearly-indestructible door of the Krell vault where Adams, Altaira and Morbius have taken refuge. Morbius finally accepts the awful truth and tries to renounce his creation. When he is mortally injured, the monster disappears. As Morbius lies dying, he directs Adams to press a lever which sets the Krell machine to self-destruct. Adams, Altaira, Robby, and the surviving crew take off and witness the destruction of the planet from a safe distance in space.
Each one of these props were use in one episode of The Twilight Zone.
Anyway . . . . . . .
Here are some You Tube videos of the movie. It's in 10 parts
Forbidden Planet 1956 Part 1 of 10
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8aIl03DTzg
Forbidden Planet 1956 Part 2 of 10
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gY3-xzHk ... re=related
Forbidden Planet 1956 Part 3 of 10
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrxl0oht ... re=related
Forbidden Planet 1956 Part 4 of 10
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0QUOX2b ... re=related
Forbidden Planet 1956 Part 5 of 10
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hDhfLMe ... re=related
Forbidden Planet 1956 Part 6 of 10
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OL2NPg7K ... re=related
Forbidden Planet 1956 Part 7 of 10
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfveNN2i ... re=related
Forbidden Planet 1956 Part 8 of 10
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBi8V9hH ... re=related
Forbidden Planet 1956 Part 9 of 10
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=en3pEeLh ... re=related
Forbidden Planet 1956 Part 10 of 10
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQwmKClC ... re=related
Yeah! This is one really bad-ass movie, it is so freakin' cool!!! I love it.
And now . . . . .
Here is some more information on The Tempest, a play that was written my good ol' Willy Shakespeare himself on which the science fiction movie Forbidden Planet was inspired.
Oh WOW boys and girls! Check this out!!!The Tempest
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The shipwreck in Act I, Scene 1, in a 1797 engraving
based on a painting by George Romney.
The Tempest is a play by William Shakespeare, estimated to have been written in 1610â??11, (although some researchers have argued for an earlier dating). The play's protagonist is the banished sorcerer Prospero, rightful Duke of Milan, who initially uses his magical powers to punish his enemies when he raises a tempest that drives them ashore. The entire play takes place on an island under his control whose native inhabitants, Ariel and Caliban, respectively aid or hinder his work. While listed as a comedy when it was initially published in the First Folio of 1623, many modern editors have since re-labeled the play as one of Shakespeare's late romances.
No obvious single source has been found from which Shakespeare may have derived his plot. However, the play does seem to draw on several then-contemporary accounts of shipwrecks in the New World, as well as the works of Michel de Montaigne and Ovid's Metamorphoses. The play's basic structure reflects that of the then-popular Italian commedia dell'arte. It is one of two Shakespearean plays which follow the neoclassical three unities (the other is The Comedy of Errors). Around the 1950s and 60s, The Tempest attracted much attention from post-colonial critics for its portrayal of Ariel's and Caliban's reactions to foreign control of their island.
It did not attract a significant amount of attention before the closing of the theatres in 1642, and after the Restoration it attained popularity only in adapted versions. Theatre productions began to reinstate the original Shakespearean text in the mid-19th century, and, in the 20th century, critics and scholars undertook a significant re-appraisal of the play's value, to the extent that it is now considered to be one of Shakespeare's greatest works.
Synopsis
The magician Prospero, rightful Duke of Milan, and his daughter, Miranda, have been stranded for twelve years on an island after Prospero's jealous brother Antonioâ??helped by Alonso, the King of Naplesâ??deposed him and set him adrift with the then three-year-old Miranda. Gonzalo, the King's counsellor, had secretly supplied their boat with plenty of food, water, clothes and the most-prized books from Prospero's library. Possessing magic powers due to his great learning, Prospero is reluctantly served by a spirit, Ariel, whom Prospero had rescued from a tree in which he had been trapped by the Algerian witch Sycorax. Prospero maintains Ariel's loyalty by repeatedly promising to release the "airy spirit" from servitude. Sycorax had been banished to this island, and had died before Prospero's arrival. Her son, Caliban, a deformed monster and the only non-spiritual inhabitant before the arrival of Prospero, was initially adopted and raised by him. He taught Prospero how to survive on the island, while Prospero and Miranda taught Caliban religion and their own language. Following Caliban's attempted rape of Miranda, he had been compelled by Prospero to serve as the sorcerer's slave, carrying wood and gathering berries and "pig nuts" (acorns). In slavery, Caliban has come to view Prospero as a usurper and has grown to resent him and his daughter. Prospero and Miranda in turn view Caliban with contempt and disgust.
Prospero and Miranda from a painting
by William Maw Egley; ca. 1850.
The play opens as Prospero, having divined that his brother, Antonio, is on a ship passing close by the island, has raised a tempest which causes the ship to run aground. Also on the ship are Antonio's friend and fellow conspirator, King Alonso of Naples, Alonso's brother and son (Sebastian and Ferdinand), and Alonso's advisor, Gonzalo. All these passengers are returning from the wedding of Alonso's daughter Claribel with the King of Tunis. Prospero, by his spells, contrives to separate the survivors of the wreck into several groups. Alonso and Ferdinand are separated and believe one another to be dead.
Miranda by John William Waterhouse.
hree plots then alternate through the play. In one, Caliban falls in with Stephano and Trinculo, two drunkards, whom he believes to have come from the moon. They attempt to raise a rebellion against Prospero, which ultimately fails. In another, Prospero works to establish a romantic relationship between Ferdinand and Miranda; the two fall immediately in love, but Prospero worries that "too light winning [may] make the prize light", and compels Ferdinand to become his servant, pretending that he regards him as a spy. In the third subplot, Antonio and Sebastian conspire to kill Alonso and Gonzalo so that Sebastian can become King. They are thwarted by Ariel, at Prospero's command. Ariel appears to the "three men of sin" (Alonso, Antonio and Sebastian) as a harpy, reprimanding them for their betrayal of Prospero. Prospero manipulates the course of his enemies' path through the island, drawing them closer and closer to him.
In the conclusion, all the main characters are brought together before Prospero, who forgives Alonso. He also forgives Antonio and Sebastian, but warns them against further betrayal. Ariel is charged to prepare the proper sailing weather to guide Alonso and his entourage (including Prospero himself and Miranda) back to the Royal fleet and then to Naples, where Ferdinand and Miranda will be married. After discharging this task, Ariel will finally be free. Prospero pardons Caliban, who is sent to prepare Prosperoâ??s cell, to which Alonso and his party are invited for a final night before their departure. Prospero indicates that he intends to entertain them with the story of his life on the island. Prospero has resolved to break and bury his staff, and "drown" his book of magic, and in his epilogue, shorn of his magic powers, he invites the audience to set him free from the island with their applause.
Notice the uncanny resemblance between Dr. Edward Morbius in the movie Forbidden Planet, and Prospero in The Tempest as depicted by the 19th Century painting.
I believe that this is no mere coincidence, that they actually selected an actor for the movie, Forbidden Planet, who just happens to bear a resemblance to Prospero in the painting.
This is way too cool!!!
I'm fat and sassy! I love to sing & dance & stomp my feet & really rock your world!
