I'm reading the morning paper when I see that today's date is December 7th. What is it about this day, besides the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941?On December 7th, 1979, I stood in line for some movie that ended up disappointing many people -- even though it went on to make a lot of money -- but became the favourite film 'in the series' for some.
Star Trek - The Motion Picture was a polarizing piece of celluloid... still is, or can be. Get over it, Trekkies. (The dirty little secret is a lot of fans do not like ST: TMP for the simple reason that there are virtually no "starship battles". Boo-effing-hoo!)
One thing's for sure, it is still the biggest budget Trek of the bunch (not that it means anything outside of trivia circles). That is the reason why Paramount was not happy; even though the film brought in the bucks it was not really "profitable", which is proportion of money made compared to money put in. That is also the reason why studios love movies like The Blair Witch Project -- insane amounts of money made in relation to the initial investment in the film. Juno (2007) is another good example.
Star Trek - The Original Series is almost entirely out on Blu-ray with the upcoming (December 15th) release of the third and final season. (The dirty little secret is that I have only the first season on regular DVD... and I do not even have a Blu-ray player, with no plans to buy one at this point in time. Strange, eh, considering I have long worked in 'imaging' in film and video, including home-video.)
Mark A. Altman wrote a 30 year anniversary tribute for ST:TMP...
http://trekmovie.com/2009/12/07/december-7th-1979-star-trek-the-motion-picture-began-30-years-of-star-trek-movies/
3 comments:
Apart from the costumes, which look odd now only because they retconned them out of existence with the following Trek movies and ST:TNG, the first Star Trek film is a pretty good film. Unlike today's sci-fi blockbusters, it actually dared to have an IDEA at its core.
Yes, the oath of celibacy was a fantastic idea. And to reflect it in the conceit of a machine seeking its creator was nothing short of brilliant!
There are ideas in that film, which has been noted.
I like ST:TMP much better now than I did 30 years ago (and saw it 3 times). I read a comment by someone who feels that this film has survived the passage of time best out of all the Trek features -- I am inclinded to agree.
For all its reputation of being an aloof or cold/clinical flick I find there is an entrenched humanity... which carries over to V'ger; which is a machine. Through the conduit of a replica Ilia -- who speaks in a desperate and almost frightened tone, by the way -- we get to learn about what is effectively a big lug of a machine hanging off the port quarter. Composer Goldsmith swings his "V'ger theme" into a major key by coming up with what I call a "warm V'ger theme" (the human side of its being)... which morphs into the "Enterprise theme", as the ship flies out of the cosmic fusion of Ilia and Decker, near the film's end.
The music score is a major contributor to making the film's payoff work as well as it does (for some of us). One of the great film scores of all time (see, they aren't always from equally great films).
There are many brilliant moments and ideas, within this one.
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