Classic Science Fiction Movies: Lost Horizon

Lost Horizon

Is it Science Fiction?
Many people would say this movie is not science fiction but I think it has enough elements of science fiction to count. You have a mysterious utopian hidden society, people living for hundreds of years, and a group storing humanities knowledge so that it can rebuild civilization after it self destructs.  It sounds like science fiction to me.

The Plot.
The story centers around writer, soldier, and diplomat Robert Conway who has one last mission to complete, the evacuation of the last few westerners from a Chinese village that is about to be overrun by revolutionaries. Once that is accomplished he will return to England to become the next Foreign Minister. What he and the other westerners don't know is that they are all about kidnapped and taken to a mysterious mountain community called Shangri-La. 

Once in Shangri-La, the survivors soon come to love their new community and lose all interest in going back to their own lives except Robert Conway's younger brother George who wants nothing more than to get back to his old life. Soon Robert Conway learns Shangri-La's secrets, people in Shangri-La live for hundreds of years and that Shangri-La's propose is to save all the art and literature that it can to help rebuild civilization when it collapses.   

I will leave the rest of the story for you to see for yourself.

My thoughts. 
When you think about the time period one can see why people would be pessimistic about the future. The book was written in 1933 and the movie was released in 1937. By the time the movie came out, Japan had already invaded Manchuria, Italy had invaded Ethiopia, and Hitler was in power in Germany. To Europeans, Chinese, and many people Africa it might have looked like the end of the world was around the corner. The sad truth is for millions of people it really was right around the corner but not for the planet as a whole, thank goodness. It is not hard to see the idea of a peaceful, beautiful, last bastion of learning and culture as a wonderful dream. 

In my youth, I thought that Shangri-La sounded wonderful.  I wanted to go and live in Shangri-La and spend my days learning and living in a beautiful peaceful valley removed for the cares of the world. Today, I can not help but feel that it is the act of a coward. If Robert Conway is such a great diplomat and leader shouldn't he stay in the world and help save the world instead of giving up and hiding? Isn't it also a bit elitist to hide while the world self destructs only to come out after all is ashes to take over and "lead" the survivors in creating a new and better world in your image? Doesn't that sound like something a James Bond villain would do?

I really love this movie and it is a true classic. I may not think that hiding from the world in Shangri-La is a good solution for the world's problems, but I would love to retire there. The fantasy of Shangri-La has become embedded in modern culture since the book was published in 1933 to this very day. 

The 1973 remake.
The early 1970s was one yet another period of time when people seemed to be ready to give up on humanity. The fantasy of Shangri-La must have seemed attractive enough to do a remake. Of course Hollywood had to add a twist to the remake, they made it into a musical! The cast was actually full of great actors but the movie was a disaster. It just didn't work and was a flop. You can find it on YouTube but it is chopped into 10-minute segments. I have included the movie's trailer so you can see just how awkward it is for yourself.  Tibetan monks singing 1970s Burt Baccarat songs, what could go wrong? 

I suggest you skip the remake and enjoy the 1937 version for yourself. Maybe you will want to live Shangri-La or maybe you will feel like I do that we can fix our world before it self destructs if we do not give up. Of course, it is probably true that we all dream of our own Shangri-La, After all, isn't the Federation of Star Trek in many ways a Shangri-La like place. Where there is no want, sickness, or war? Well at least until the bad guys show up and try to mess everything up.

FDR's joke and how the USS Sangri-la got its name.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States was desperate to strike back at Japan.  The Army and Navy came up with a very daring plan to attack Japan with large land-based bombers flying from an aircraft carrier. On April 18th, 1942 sixteen B-25 Mitchell medium land-based bombers launch from the deck of the United States aircraft carrier USS Hornet and attacked the home islands of Japan. The Japanese at first were shocked and could not understand how the bombers could have reached Japan since the United States did not have any bases in range.  During a speech before congress, FDR made a joke that the attack was launched from the United States secret base in Shangri-La. As the war progressed and the United States started to mass-produce the Essex class aircraft carrier it was decided to name one of the new carriers the USS Shangri-La. As far as I know, that is the only United States warship ever named for a fictional place. 

Classic Science Fiction Movies: Flash Gordon, Space Soldiers from 1936

Pretend that you are living in the 1930s when you watch this.

The Complete Adventures of Flash Gordon

A classic late 1930s serial.

To really enjoy this you need to step back to the 1930s, television was something you saw at the World's Fair, only the rich flew on airplanes, the fastest airplane in the world went 400 MPH, and radio was the high tech gadget that everyone wanted. Jet engines, transistors and computers had not been invented yet and the idea of flying in space was pure fantasy. Science fiction was the stuff of comic books and was for kids, not adults. Serials were a low budget short that of course always ended in a cliff hanger to get people coming back to the theater each week. Special effects are primitive to say the least and the he plot is a straight forward morality play with good guys, Flash Gordon the athlete, Doctor Zarkov, and Dale Arden vs the bad guy, Ming the Merciless emperor of the planet Mongo.

There was no political correctness in the 1930s but it is not as bad as it could have been.

The villains of course look like Asians and not just any Asian but the most flamboyant image of an evil Mandarin one could imagine. The women are all pretty and in secondary roles and are often the damsel in distress. On the bright side the some of the bad guys change sides. It seems that Ming was a dictator that oppressed and enslaved the other races in the empire through terror. Of course Ming, Doctor Zarkov and Dale help them to free themselves in the end, or at least until the next serial starts.

Don't forget Buster Crabbe.

Buster Crabbe won a gold metal for swimming at the 1932 olympics which he combined with his good looks to become a movie star. He started off as Tarzan before he became Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers!. He was the king of the movie serial and later went on to star in westerns.  

Kick back and have some fun.

Kick back, make some popcorn and pop in the DVD and have fun. The stories are fun and of course to modern viewers extremely campy. When watching it and thinking how silly it all is, try to remember that the men and women that built the US space program where watching Flash Gordon and dreaming of building space ships. There is one more thing I have to add to this post.

If the 1930s is too far back in time you can jump to the late 1970s

Flash Gordon - Saviour of the Universe Edition

It is still campy but fun.

The band Queen did the sound track and the story is very close to the original serial but updated a little. If you think the 1930s look from the serial is dated just wait till you see how badly the 70s has aged.  I loved this version as a kid, it was fun and is still worth a watch. The movie kept the 1930s style for planet Mongo right down to cool gold art deco spaceships, but the music is pure classic Queen.