This is a good concept for a movie re-make. A modern major city evacuated in advance of an invading robot army. With a few looters left behind.
Update the robots with more realistic arms & legs, but keep the size and especially that original head design with the disintegrator beam from its face tube. Loved that.
Provide flying saucer landing craft for the invasion as like those in "Earth Vs The Flying Saucers".
And add color.
Larry
Remake it? Naah. This movie scared me when I was a kid. So did "Invaders from Mars." "Invaders..." got remade. The remake wasn't scary. Remakes are too often lousy. What DOES need to be done with this movie is to get it into the rotation on the SciFi channel, in a series on 50's SciFi movies. That would be a good thing.
-Leo
Why do some people who like the premise of a film immediately shout "re-make" just because it is from a year long before they were born. Are older looking cars, etc. not acceptable to them ? The coming of CGI was when sci-fi films "jumped the shark"...
Oh Lord, you gave them eyes but they cannot see...
I don't think a remake in this day and age would turn out well. For starters, the filmmakers would overdue the CGI effects and add all kinds of explosions and grand scale mass destruction, thus losing the jolting intimacy which makes the movie so strangely compelling and fairly plausible. Moreover, the characters wouldn't be half as realistically drawn; you'd have a cute young couple played by a pair of hot TV show stars for the kids in the audience and probably some cynical smartaleck type who constantly cracks cheesy one-liners throughout the movie. And the beautifully eerie and enigmatic opening third would be a lot more rushed and hence less effective. I think this film is fine the way it is. Why fix it if it ain't broke?
"Warren Oates died for our sins"
A very cool sci-fi film of the 1950's and DEFINITELY not needed to be remade. Let current day Hollywood get their own ideas for a film and let these remain as they are....look at the fiasco of the remake of that true classic - "Invaders From Mars" from 1953(was there any kid NOT scared upon viewing this...maybe a kid from Mars!).
share[deleted]
Nah, I say don't try to do a remake. They usually turn out a lot worse than the originals. This was a pretty good film as it was.
shareGo watch that Tom Cruise monstrosity...
I hated this movie. I want my 75 minutes back.
remakes are for losers. they are never better than the original and stop new ideas being used because hollywood (i assume they would be the re-makers) is all about the money. don't get me going on sequels either.
shareThey would have to update the script quite a lot too. Take out some of the "crazy dames should stay put and should up" dialogue out. But I think this movie could be remade with better effects. Of course I would still like the old cheezy version. I think the movie is more about interactions between the people than the actual enemy. If they could keep that a remake would be welcome.
share"Stop! I won't hurt you!" (Slap!)
shareI love this movie! Rather than a remake, this would make an excellent stage drama. Also (not to give anyone ideas or anything) but a good amateur director could remake this movie while keeping the same feel. (I would definitely update the Maytag... er, robot... costume.)
shareIt would, indeed, make a good stage drama. In the original story ("Deadly City" by Ivar Jorgenson) it is about people adapting to everyday and extraordinary events. It's a "people thrown together into a jar" story. "Let's see if what happens if we shake the jar!"
The invaders are rarely seen in the book but set the very eerie scene where people are left in a ghost city to make up their own rules.
The movie version veered off a bit in order to produce some answers that the original story does not bother to address. Things happen -- that's all.
Jorgenson wrote it in the hard-boiled, pulp fiction narrative, so the "Get them dames outtta here" sort of dialogue is de rigueur.
A stage show! Not easy, but possible. A good idea.
I plan to simply RE-WATCH this movie - with my two grandsons, aged 6 and 7!
We will do it in the dark on their Big Screen TV with popcorn and a quilt on the couch to hide under... AND on a double bill with "Unknown Island"!
The boys have led a pretty "sheltered" life up 'til now . . . . (heh-heh) . . . and I, Gramps, LOVE to act scared!
'
YE must be born again
Well, now, that sounds like fun. Seeing how they respond will keep the "magic" alive.
Let me tell you that some years ago I brought home The Atomic Submarine (1959), a movie I loved as a boy and hadn't seen in decades. I wanted my children to watch it with me. Well, their sides were splitting from laughing so hard over the gaffes and cheap sets but I had to laugh along with them.
I was a bit disappointed, not so much with their reactions, but with the movie itself. But I still liked it. We had a good time but in a way that was different from my experience watching it on TV on Chiller, the Saturday afternoon horror broadcast on KTTV in Los Angeles.
I hope you and your grandchildren have fun with the "re-watch" of this low-budget title.
And, Amen.
So I am a little late to this party, but what the heck.
First off, a re-make...well if done right, that's fine. Bleak and low key like The Road. Not flashy and in-your-face-stupid like the gawd-awful Transformers Series.
Secondly, I too show some (well, a lot) of the oldies to my kids. My daughter is only 3 and a half, but she can quote Lugosi's Dracula quite well. We regularly watch Jason and the Argonauts, Dracula, Batman ('66), The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms and Forbidden Planet. My 1 and half year old son seems to have taken a liking to The Beast With a Million Eyes. Whenever I stream it on Netflix he comes and makes himself comfortable on the couch.
I don't show them to my kids for scares. Mostly just so that they simply learn that just because it's old, doesn't mean it doesn't still have something to offer. Some are grade-z quality, but there's still always something there for a young imagination.
Those old movies do offer a lot, even the heavily trashed favorite of your one year old, The Beast With a Million Eyes.
I must agree withyou about a re-make of Target Earth. It was never really about the robots anyway it was about th epeople and how they are thrown together and the human conflicts, differences, that we must live with in the world today.
I have referred to this movie as a "bugs in a jar" story. Like a child putting bugs in a jar ans shaking it up to see if they will fight. The robots invasion made for a common enemy but the people selfishly decide to continue in their previous lifestyles as if the robot threat didn't exist.
For an old movie it does the job pretty well.
And showing these movies to you children may seem strange to some, they are the modern day fairy tales and as with the Grmm Brothers and Aesop, there is a moral to the story.
For people interested only in Captain Whiz-Bang movies even the very wonderful Forbidden Planet may seem too talky to them.
But, even as you say, blcmitchell, these films require imagination and having that of a young child even as an adult is not a bad thing.
"Please use elevator, stairs stuck between floors."
Yes, Beast With a Million Eyes does carry a pretty decent story. The execution is rather poor (to put it politely), but there is a neat little story there, and like you say, a moral as well. Nothing wrong with that. My son must have good taste.
I am going to have to make a point of watching Target Earth again. I have not seen it in over two decades, but your description intrigues me. The Road stuck with me because it was such a wonderful story of a father and son learning from one another as opposed to what one might have expected; a father and son surviving the apocalypse. Very few answers are given (even the boys fate is left up to the viewer) but there is a great story there about passing the torch from a father to his son.
Great human drama amid some sort of cataclysmic event that does not require explanation.
Your description of Target Earth makes me somewhat think of Panic in Year Zero with Ray Milland. A great people vs people vs morality flick that is surprisingly gritty.
Thanks for renewing my interest in TE. I will actively seek out another viewing.
Kudos to your son. He's inherited his Old Dad's good taste!
The Beast With a Million Eyes has a very good story but it was made on the cheap and the viewer is required to add a soupçon of imagination to the mix to make it palatable.
Target Earth was a lot of fun -- I have not seen it in decades either -- and I've read the short story on which it is based. I think anothe rmovie like it was George Romero's Night of the Living Dead which was not about the zombies, it was about the people in the house.
Panic in Year Zero freaked me out as a youngster, living through those "Duck and Cover" days. I thought that my Dad should buy a rifle just in case. It was very thought provking though people who see it now seem to think we over-reacted and such movies are "corny". Another such title is This Is Not A Test, different from Milland's movie, but very effective on its own terms.
I'll be interested in hearing your reactions to seeing Target Earth again, when you find it and get a chance to see it. Actually, I'd be most interested in hearing what your children think of it!
"Please use elevator, stairs stuck between floors."
I will most definitely keep you posted with my (and my kids!) thoughts on Target Earth.
Very funny that you should mention This Is Not a Test. That particular movie was a sort of watershed moment for me in terms of my movie viewing tastes. I watched it very late one night after some pick-up hockey. I put it in thinking I was in for a long cheesey haul, but I was hooked very early on. Afterwards I realized that there were alot of great stories out there that may not have been transferred to celluloid very well, but could still be enjoyed as long as your head is in the right place.
In fact that movie watching experience was so unique, that I could even tell you what beer I drank while watching it (Spitfire Ale). Weird.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xmsl8p_target-earth_shortfilms
"Please use elevator, stairs stuck between floors."
Excellent!
Isn't the internet great?!
I watched Flight to Mars (1951) on the inter-tube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7c51HqmqGc. I had never seen that title so I sat through it in front of the keyboard. An OK experience, but I prefer watching on the TV screen.
This is an old man talking.
"Please use elevator, stairs stuck between floors."
I agree. I have a nice modern home theater set up to watch my not-so modern movies, but I think I can stomach the small screen enough to watch this classic again.
Thanks for the link, again. I will probably have it watched by the end of the week.
I'll look forward to reading your comments, blcmitchell.
I think the less a person knows about this movie, the better it goes. It has some very creepy moments.
"Please use elevator, stairs stuck between floors."
Well, here we are, three years later and I finally got around to watching the entire movie. Life keeps you busy!
I attempted to watch the link you provided, but the sound and video would not sync and I felt the movie deserved better than that. I blame my failing lap top for that! I managed to get ahold of a good copy of it and watched it in parts after returning from work early in the mornings, before the kids woke.
The movie is right up my alley, in terms of set-up - a small group of people banding together to survive some sort of plight. The unfortunate part is that none of them are all that likeable. The main male character introduces himself in a rather unfriendly manner and quickly slaps the main female character. Then they soon meet a couple of bickering lushes that tag along. I can't say I was really cheering for any of them, but the movie did have some tense moments and the introduction of the gun-toting Davies helped the group band together.
I guess the real hero was Whit Bissell. Gotta love that guy.
The end came too conveniently and quick for my taste, but over-all I really enjoyed the movie. I didn't include the kids because I felt some of the scenes weren't all that...ummm...chivalrous. However, we have used the simple alien robots as fodder for drawings...
No complaints from me and I'm grateful to read your comments on this title.
It has been a while since I viewed it and so I'll put it on a short list.
I did see a picture in recent days that was very similar to Target Earth, a British production called The Earth Dies Screaming (1964), another what I call "bugs in a jar" situation.
I'd heard of it but had never seen it. If you've seen Day of the Triffids, another British film made the year before The Earth Dies Screaming, you might sense some similarities.
(also, The Earth Dies Screaming brought to mind The Andromeda Strain, the 1971 version, but just for a moment)
Thanks, again, for writing, blcmitchell.
"Please use elevator, stairs stuck between floors."