Quatermass and the Pit
aka
5,000,000 Years to Earth
The Mindbenders
1967
BEFORE THE FILM
Terms
Genre – sub genre, crossing genres
Magic
Science
Religion
Xenophobia
Evolution. Known pattern of
Earliest dates for humans at the time were about 1-2 million years (now about 5)
Australopithecus => H. erectus=> Homo sapiens (Neanderthals and sapiens)
Origin of life? On earth? Extra terrestrial?
Film is based on 1958 British TV program of same name.
This is the thrid in a series of Quatermass films based on a popular TV show in Britain. It is always regard as the best of the three and has a reputation for its "Quatermass and the Pit, Hammer Film's third adventure featuring the Bernard Quatermass character, is front-rank science fiction overflowing with ambitious concepts. As Five Million Years to Earth, it was released in the U.S. in the same year as 2001: A Space Odyssey, and concept-for-concept, is both less pretentious and more coherent than that landmark Kubrick epic."
"But despite its modest budget and - by today’s standards - low-grade special effects, Quatermass had something far more important in its favor: Nigel Kneale’s highly intelligent and suggestive screenplay. Like Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke’s 2001 script, it is concerned with extra-terrestrial participation in the process of human evolution. But while this influence is beneficent in Kubrick’s film, with beings from Jupiter elevating mankind to successively higher planes of consciousness, in Quatermass the effects of Martian tampering are completely evil."
Hammer Studios was a company that started to produce horror films in the mid 1950's. It filmed new versions of the old Universal horror films - Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy and so on with sequels as well. The company was virtually a repetory comany with the actors all used to working with one another. The main actors in the horror films were Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee.
Hammer also chuirned out some "prehistoric people" films such as 1,000,000 Years B.C., When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth and Creatures the World FOrgot.
GENRE VS FILM
The Genre question revisited: Do genres bring with them certain expectations for audiences?
What is a genre? Sub genres, cross genres
What can we say about this film?
Horror? Sci Fi? Disaster?
Different genres have different thematic content and film techniques. Horror for example often thematically is involved with repression and often has film techniques that involve "off screen" sounds and so on.
SOCIAL STRUCTURE
(a) Who is involved: (Participants)
1. Military, police, firefighters
2. politicians
3. scientists
4. religious persons and practitioners
5. media
6. civilians
Conflicts and cooperation – between whom?
Monolithic approach to groups?
New in this film for the course.
QUESTIONS OF BLAME, GUILT, REPONSIBILITY
MAGIC SCIENCE AND RELIGION
Belief systems
Magic: compare prestidigitation
Science: testability (sort of)
Religion
Religion is generally used to cover people's interaction with the supernatural. Magic is seen as that part of religion in which the supernatural is dealt with as a non-personified power, as opposed to what is "popularly" called religion which generally involves Gods, sprits and other divine beings with whom people have personal interactions.
The Quatermass and the Pit story somewhat complex.
Science in the film is pretty shakey – theronian analysis????? Ability to see and record mental images
Evolution. Origin of life. Long geological history
LOOK OF FILM:
Lighting
Camera work:
Shots, framing, movement etc.
Costuming
Music and sound
Visual effect
QUESTIONS TO THINK ABOUT DURING FILM
What is the genre of the film?
Who are the Protagonists? What are their social statuses? What kind of interactions do they have?
What does the disaster represent? From where does it come?
What kinds of sub texts can you find in the film? AFTER THE FILM<
Genre:
Disaster?
Science fiction?
Horror? (Scene in tenement buildings)
Is there a point to shifting genres?
What groups are evident? Are they monolithically presented?
Police: local man – does not clarify for military about houses which were abandoned not evacuated. Some contrast (especially in Britain) between police and military
(b) Who is involved: (Participants)
Scientists/Academics:
Politicians – minister of defense
Religion and religious practitioners
Magical events tied to Martians. Priest is helpful,protective
FILM TECHNIQUES:
Visual Special effects?
Sound
Lighting
BLAME GUILT AND RESPONSIBILITY
Military and Politicians
At another level the Martians are responsible
Does everyone have the memories?
Death, blame and redeption
Disaster films are often rather conservative in that they "punish" people whose behavior is unacceptible. Watch for this in further films (especially those with large casts amd 2 dimentional figures).
Summary
The films shifting genres serves to relate magic and other "supernatural" evils such as witchcraft to the "thing in the pit" which triggers the ability to perform these actions. From the very start the film hints at supernatural horror - Hob's Lane sign over a funeral parlor; the linking of the devil and horned demons, gargoyles to the image of the arthropod-like Martians. Hence supernatural evil and human proclivities to attack "the other" are linked to the Martians. The purging of the Martian hives to maintain a fixed society is a conservative position which the military in the film adheres to in Breen's unwillngness to change his opinion about the ship being a German propoganda weapon. As a result, Breen as a representative of the military and the Minister's secretary die. Roney becomes a kind of sacrifice to save the world. In the film, religion is often seen positively (in the priest in the church, fr example), while magical practices are evil.
More importantly the film takes a kind of shot ot the British by first specularizing the skull found in the excavation. The skull is very much debated like the Piltdown man skull found in England which was a forgery, made to give England so claim to having prehistoric people there as had been found on the mainland of Europe (e.g. Heidleberg man, etc.).
The film also looks at the problem of colonialism - something which the Martians did in the film but the British did in real life. One can equate the British with the Martians in this respect. The Martian "racism" and the purging of the Martian hives is directed at British racism and the rejection of the colonized peoples.
While the film starts off as horror both visually (dark poorly lit street and a discussion of Hob/Hobb as a word for the devil) it shifts into a science fiction gear when Quatermass says that the term "ghost" is used for natural phenomenon badly explained. AT the point the scientific and supernatural become linked. This linkage continues when Quatermass and the priest conclude they are both talking about the same thing.
The problems of colonialism are the root of evil. People are not bad, it is the memories placed into their heads by the colonizing Martians. In this sense, human evil is not intrinsic, but rather the result of outsiders.
While in most science fiction, the aliens represt foreigners, here they represent us. In some ways the film parallels 2001: A Space Odyssey in that it looks at human evolution as something which has been produed by some outside being and with Richard Matheson's I Am Legend (made and remade as Last Man on Earth Omega Man and I Am Legend)in that the bad guys turn out to be us.
How to they regard each other?
1. Military:
a. Col. Breen, Capt. Potter, Sgt. Cleghorn, Tech officer
2. police
a. Police Sgt. Ellis
3. politicians:
a. Minister of defense
b. aide
4. scientists and intellectuals:
a. Prof. Bernard Quatermass, Dr. Matthew Roney, Barbara Judd, “abbey librarian”
5. religious persons and practitioners
a. Vicar, priest
6. media:
a. various reporters
7. civilians
a. workers
i. driller
ii. electrician
Military:
Breen (compare “Preen”) pompous arrogant. Anathema to Rooney
Others friendlier and more tolerant
Upper levels are problematical
Quatermass
Roney
Judd
Librarian (looks askance at Quatermass for inability to read Latin
Secretary: somewhat sympathetic
Again – upper levels are problematical
Religion/magic
Good/bad
Human/Martian
Iron is devil’s enemy
Image of Martians like devil
Telekinesis linked to “thing in the pit”
collapsing buidings
levitation
off screen sounds (train, squeaking door shutting, scream from inside ship,etc.
darkness before real event happens, lights go out, police sergeant takes flashlight before going into dark buildings, Duncan Lamont goes for tool box and lights go out - makes joke about beingin the dark.
Eash of these is followed by moments of "real" tension - possible appearance of goblins, start of levitation in ship, etc.
At one level military and politicans are responsible. They refuse to listen to scientists
Are all the military “bad”?
Martian memories – what do they cause?
Cleansing of the Martian hives – race purges on earth - genocide
Violence
(These are things, says the film, are not intrinsically human – but rather are Martian.
No. Need to be purged (you aren’t one of us) XENOPHOBIA
Links between Martians and magic
Compare with preist
Link calling of event with Duncan Lamont as “evil” Science is in agreement with religion here
Martians are not human, violent bad human emotions are result of Martian implanted memories
Martians are cause of human “evil”
Military and politicians are bad. They refuse to see the truth