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Forbidden Planet: A Review.

204.196.181.41

Posted by AudioHead on September 20, 1999 at 09:55:08

The 1956 movie, "Forbidden Planet", was the first science fiction film
produced for $1 million by a major studio, MGM. It excels in every aspect,
production, directing, acting, special effects, muscial score and screenwriting and is still revelant today, being the prototype for the
Star Trek Series, among others.
The film is based on a story/screen-treatment, "Fatal Planet", by
special effects expert, Irving Block and his writing partner, Allen Adler.
They, in turn, based their story loosely on Shakespeare's "The Tempest", with Walter Pidgeon (Doctor Morbius) similar to Prospero, the exiled Duke
of Milan; Anne Francis (Altaira) as his beautiful daughter like Prospero's
daughter, Miranda; Morpheus' Robby The Robot similar to Prospero's dutiful
servant, the spirit Ariel; Leslie Neilson (Commander Adams) analogous to
Ferdinand, the Prince of Milan; and Morbius' subconscious "Monster of the
Id" paralleling Caliban, the Witch Child. The final screenplay was written
by Cyril Hume; the movie was directed by Fred Wilcox. Filmed in CinemaScope and Eastmancolor.
"Forbidden Planet" boasts of great technical achievements and set
designs for that time period: Art Lonergan's sets of the spaceship, Morbius' home and the Krell laboratory were lavish, massive and stunning.
The planet, Altair IV's strange but beautiful atmosphere, was achieved by
through a 10,000 ft cyclorama painting. Special effects designer, created
the 6'11" Robby The Robot, while Disney Animator, Joshua Meador, created
the Id Monster. The eerie, all-electronic score by Louis and Bebe Barron,
was a first, originally planned to be only a special effects subpart of
Harry Partch's traditional score. Under the patronage of avant garde/
expermental composer John Cage, the Barrons created a score more experimental than compositional - modeled on emotional reactions of human
nervous systems through cybernetics. The Original MGM Soundtrack with
23 selections is now available on Compact Disc.
The story, set in 2257 AD, involved Commander Adams and crew travelling
from Earth to Altair IV, some 17 light-years away, to investigate the
whereabouts of an Earth colony sent there 20 years earlier. They find
only Dr Morbius, his daughter Altaira, and their trusty Robot, Robby. Morbius tells Adams that the colony died at the hands of a mysterious,
invisible monster. Morbius tries to discourage the investigation but to
no avail; matters worsen when Adams and Altaira become romantically involved. Suddenly, various members of Adam's crew are mysteriously murdered; it turns out that Morbius, having gained great knowledge and power through the technology of the Krell, a super-advanced civilization
who once lived on the planet, then mysteriously disappeared thousands of
years earlier, is once again subconsciously creating via psychokinetic
materialization, the very monster he claimed to have killed the Earth
colony. In the end, Morbius is destroyed by his own evil creation (and it
with him), while Adams, Altaira and the remaining crew return safely to
Earth as Altair IV blows up.

Analysis - Similarities and differences between characters of "Forbidden
Planet" and "The Tempest": Morbius and Prospero both live in remote locations, the first on a planet and the latter on an island. Both have
sheltered daughters who have had little human contact and are to be romantically involved with suitors from afar. Both men have acquired great
power and knowledge, Morbius through advanced alien technology and Prospero
through magic. Both men have non-human faithful servants, Morbius has
Robby and Prosperous has the airy spirit Ariel.
Commander Adams is the suitor of Altaira and Ferdinand, the Prince of
Milan is the suitor of Miranda, both are honorable men with titles.
Altaira and Miranda are similar young women who have been raised soley by
their fathers for many years and know little of the world, especially the
other gender.
Morbius' "Monster of the Id" and Caliban, the Witch Child, are analogous
insofar as the are evil, elemental, bestial entities. Both are called
monsters in respective dialogue.
Some of the differences: Morbius is fatally flawed, while Prospero is
not. Morbius' deep jealously, possessiveness and resulting rage, both of
his daughter and the Krellian knowledge and technology, ultimately proves
his undoing. OTOH, Prospero uses his knowledge and power to punish and
discipline in a constructive way to the ulimate benefit of all, including
his enemies. Morbius' monster and Caliban are different in that one is an
internally projected materialization and the other is strictly external and
a true entity unto himself. Prospero always has Caliban under control,even
to the end, while this is not always the case with Morbius, most of the time he does keep the monster repressed and contained, but sometimes it
rears it's ugly head and wreks havoc and destruction.
It is interesting to note that in "The Tempest", Ariel oscillates between visiblity and invisibility, while in "Forbidden Planet", it is the
monster Id. (The Id, of course, being a Freudian conception, a instinctual
part of the self that always seeks pleasureable gratification, regardless
of consequences to others; e.g., Caliban attempting to rape Miranda, in
spite of previous kindness from her and Morbius.)
The stories end differently due to character differences in Morbius and
Prospero; "Forbidden Planet" on a bittersweet note, and "The Tempest" on
the happy note of a fairy tale.

Concluding Comments: There remain nagging questions about what happened
to the Krell, whom Morbius called, "a mighty and noble race". How could
such an advanced civilization suddenly disappear thousands of years earlier
without a trace, leaving much of their technology and culture intact? Did
they just pack up a few clothes and skeedaddle abruptly for some unknown
but compelling reason? The answer may lie in Morbius and his monster, the
subconscious beast that was "powered by 2700 thermonuclear reactors which
could recreate itself microsecond after microsecond". It is possible that
the Krell, like Morbius, were destroyed by the dark side of their nature,
in spite of their nobility and great intelligence.
To me, this seems the most plausible of the possible answers to the
mystery of the Krell, and thus, would be the central, underlying theme of
"Forbidden Planet" - the theme of human nature and it's capacity, for good
or bad, to handle power. Perhaps the super-advanced Krell weren't so
fundamentally different from us humans after all.

- AudioHead

This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:

Herbie's Audio Lab

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