MovieChat Forums > Quatermass and the Pit (1968) Discussion > This movie is so bad, its great

This movie is so bad, its great

posted 14 years ago by sbutler0727
31 replies | jump to latest

This movie is one of those movies that is so bad, that its great. I saw it again on TCM on Oct. 22. That is the first time I had seen it since the early 80's. I saw scenes that I had completely forgotten about. The acting is terrible and the special effects are dreadful. That is what makes this movie so great. Of course this movie was made at the height of the Cold War and the Martians are a thinly disguised representation of the Russians. When you are a kid, this movie scares you. As an adult it is just silly. Like I said this movie is so bad ... its, its ... its great!!

[–] YouKnowMyName68 12 years ago

You are an idiot, SBUTT, therefore, IGNORED.

"You know, my name..."

[–] Strazdamonas 12 years ago

This movie is so good, it cant be bad.

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Applied Science? All science is applied. Eventually.

[–] warlordforever12 12 years ago

this was mystery science theatre 3000 horrible

[–] rarema 12 years ago

The Martians are disguised Russians and this is a Cold War film? Yes, well done, that's what this film is all about.

[–] 12 years ago

[deleted]

[–] InfernoJones 11 years ago

"Of it's time, it's a 10/10 no question"

^^^^^ ALL that ever need be said. ^^^^^

Thank you, Grayseph!

___________

[–] Jumbajookiba 10 years ago

What rot, great acting,great story, great film, the only weakness is the aliens, but, we are talking about a UK film in the mid 60's with a limited budget. however, spot on with the remark about climate change and came up with an excellent theory about Mars' atmosphere that has become a possible modern scientific theory (sans aliens) As for Breen, there is a military saying regarding some officers 'Could tell you the inside dimensions of a jam jar, but, couldn't tell you how to open it'.

I am a four eyed evil genius.

[–] Jasons_Argonaut 10 years ago

It's not bad at all. You just seem to lack the ability to appreciate things in the context of the era they are made in. It's a well made film overall, though yes the effects of the Martians are a bit weak, even for 1967. And no, that is NOT what makes the movie great. What makes it great is the really good story penned by Nigel Kneale.

[–] orbit56 10 years ago

One thing to remember (someone may have already pointed this out) is that this movie, like the previous Quatermass films, was adapted from a BBC six-part series. Certain plot changes were made to streamilne the story, and that may have weakened the script. Nevertheless, this is a fine movie, although the dead Martians in the BBC production were genuinely more frightening than the movie aliens.

[–] pundit-1 10 years ago

I found this movie a bit too slow in the 1st hour.
Not recommended for those who want their movies a little more fast paced.
It's only within the last 30 minutes that it started to really pick up.
It's not a film that has aged gracefully.
As the person who started the thread stated the special effects are terrible.
Those alien creatures that they removed from the spaceship looked as if they were paper mache dolls or made of foam.

It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere.

Voltaire

[–] ewaf58 10 years ago

It has nothing to do with the cold war - it's very well acted and they did their best with no budget and no CGI.

What a silly post - hopefully in the last 4 years you've been re-educated to have a deeper understanding of the film.

[–] christomacin (4529) 2 years ago

Quite so. The idea that it the Martians were a stand-in for the Russians would be just as absurd as the idea (espoused by Colonel Breen) that it was a propaganda stunt by the Nazis during World World II. The idea that the threat comes from outside the Earth is kind of the whole idea of the film. Nigel Kneale was sincerely interested in science fiction concepts.

[–] thingmakersback (1185) 2 years ago

Kneale explained something of the genesis of the idea in the BBC radio "The Quatermass Memoirs" (It was up on youtube recently). He was thinking of the British (and other) nuclears program when he wrote The Quatermass Experiment, of the climate of cold war paranoia in Quatermass 2 and for this one he was thinking of race riots and the general human tendency towards pogroms... The SF idea of the film is rooted in older concepts like H.P. Lovecraft in At the Mountains of Madness and farther back some decidedly non scientific nonsense of the Theosophists. As Kneale devised it his version is brilliant and explains the whole of alleged psychic phenomena, witches, ghosts etc with a single cause.