Forbidden Planet [HD DVD]
by Fred M. Wilcox
![Forbidden Planet [HD DVD]](/images/Forbidden-Planet-HD-DVD-B000I2J2W2-L.jpg)
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Anne Francis, Jack Kelly, Leslie Nielsen, Walter Pidgeon, Warren StevensDirector: Fred M. Wilcox
Brand: Warner Brothers
DVD: Region Code 0
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Dubbed); Spanish (Dubbed)
Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.40:1
Running Time: 187 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-11-14
Audience Rating: G (General Audience)
Studio: Warner Home Video
Movie Reviews of Forbidden Planet [HD DVD]
Movie Review: An over-rated classic.
Summary: 2 Stars
Let's be honest here......had it not been for the jaw-dropping special effects (at least for the time), this mundane flick would have been quickly forgotten. As another reviewer pointed out, most of the money for the production seems to have gone for the effects, with only a token amount devoted for the cast and soundtrack. Robby the robot alone cost some $100,000 to create...not a small sum for the mid-1950's. I like Leslie Nielsen, but he was just getting started here. A bit green and it shows. Walter Pidgeon, an otherwise fine and gifted actor, was far past his prime by the time he did 'Forbidden Planet'. Leggy Anne Francis comes off more as dingy blonde prick tease than anything. And I can only assume that a booze-guzzling Earl Holliman was inserted as comic relief.
The politically correct crowd will find a lot to gripe about with this film. There wasn't a single African-American in the entire cast. And apparently, females had not yet been trusted to operate, much less travel in, interstellar spacecraft, since Nielsen's crew is entirely male. And even they begin acting like immature teenage boys as soon as they get an eyeful of Anne Francis. As the only female character, she didn't do much to advance the feminist cause. This sort of thing could be found in any number of films from the 1950's. 'Forbidden Planet' most certainly was not the only one.
The most annoying thing about this film is the soundtrack. OMG...what were they thinking? An overheated theremin (along with some creative use of reverb and echo) pushes out a near-constant stream of bleeps, warbles, shrieks and other noises that don't sound anything like music. Imagine a pair of white-hot sewing needles being inserted into your eardrums. This film would have been so much better served by a soaring, orchestra-based soundtrack.
All in all, this is NOT a bad film, but it has some bad qualities. Worth watching at least once, if for no other reason because it's a classic. But not worth the tons of praise I've seen heaped on it over the years.
Summary of Forbidden Planet [HD DVD]
A dutiful robot named Robby speaks 188 languages. An underground lair provides astonishing evidence of a populace a million years more advanced than Earthlings. There are many wonders on Altair-4 but none is greater or more deadly than the human mind. Forbidden Planet is the granddaddy of tomorrow a pioneering work whose ideas and style would be reverse-engineered into many cinematic space voyages to come. Leslie Nielsen portrays the commander who brings his spacecruiser crew to the green-skied Altair-4 world that's home to Dr. Morbius (Walter Pidgeon) his daughter (Anne Francis) the remarkable Robby...and to a mysterious terror. Featuring sets of extraordinary scale and the first all-electronic musical soundscape in film history Forbidden Planet is in a movie orbit all its own.Running Time: 100 min.Format: DVD HD Genre:?SCI-FI/FANTASY UPC:?012569792104 Manufacturer No:?79210This 1956 pop adaptation of Shakespeare's The Tempest is one of the best, most influential science fiction movies ever made. Its space explorers are the models for the crew of Star Trek's Enterprise, and the film's robot is clearly the prototype for Robby in Lost in Space. Walter Pidgeon is the Prospero figure, presiding over a paradisiacal world with his lovely young daughter and their servile droid. When the crew of a spaceship lands on the planet, they become aware of a sinister invisible force that threatens to destroy them. Great special effects and a bizarre electronic score help make this movie as fresh, imaginative, and fun as it was when first released.
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