Analog Visions, Digital Futures: The Sci-Fi Cinema of 1984

Introduction

Why look at 1984 now? 

For starters, the year saw the release of a remarkable number of science fiction films, offering audiences a variety of visions of the future. Some were concerned with the contemporary world and its fears and hopes, while others applied a more telescopic view. With the Cold War still dominating the political imagination, smack in the middle of the Reagan era, movies reflected the existential angst the nuclear world. But if you flipped over to the business or technology section of the newspaper, you might have seen another world in the making. 

Personal computers were becoming increasingly common. Cable television was offering more programming choices. Video games were starting to shape pop culture in subtle ways. For anyone following the news closely, whether in the user-friendly USA Today (ubiquitous in 1980s cinema), watching the Nightly News with Tom Brokaw, or tuning into the relatively new 24-hour news channel CNN - the media ecosystem was shifting. 

Then there was Orwell. 

The arrival of Orwell's year haunted the cultural discourse of the year. Every pundit seemed to have a take on it. 1984 was once again a staple of the college syllabus. The themes George Orwell had written about - individual freedom, repression, surveillance, and governments perfecting new methods of control were far from fantasy. A major film adaptation was produced. Apple's famous Super Bowl ad reframed the year entirely differently, presenting technological innovation as a check against Orwell's dystopian vision.  

Science fiction was uniquely positioned to process all of this. 

This isn't intended as a nostalgia trip of the 1980s, or a longing for the analog era.  I'm more interested in what these films reveal about the moment in which they were made - and what they reveal to us now. The Sci-Fi films of 1984 offered alternative futures, giving audiences plenty to think about. Their variety is particularly striking. Some films offered humanism and hope. Others presented bold new technological and social possibilities. Some brimmed with trepidation. In a way, the films were speaking to each other. 

That's what interests me about 1984. 

Here's the list of films I'll be covering for this 10-part series.

1)The Terminator/Runaway

2) Starman/Iceman

3) Nausicaä Valley of the Wind

4) Ghostbusters/C.H.U. D/The Brother from Another Planet

5) Star Trek III: The Search for Spock/2010: The Year We Made Contact

6) Dune/The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension

7) The Last Starfighter/Wargames (1983)

8) Repo Man/Night of the Comet

9) Firestarter/The Philadelphia Experiment/Dreamscape

10 1984/Apple Ad/ Brazil (1985)

The list of films is by no means definitive. Other films from 1984 and the surrounding years may find their way into these posts or become subjects of their own in the future. Future articles might also take a closer look into the larger cultural landscape of the era, whether through television, video games, technology, politics, gender, or consumerism. 

This isn't an argument 1984 was the year "everything changed." It did not. Nor am I attempting to make a definitive argument about the science fiction of the year. Instead, this series is an exercise in looking, comparing, and asking questions. Rather than beginning with a fixed argument, other than a notion 1984 marks an inflection point, I'm just going to keep watching and keep writing, bounce these movies off each other, and see what emerges.