‘50s science fiction through a 21st century lens

Critic and film historian Richard Schickel’s documentary “Watch the Skies!” (premiering tonight on TCM) draws its name from a line of dialogue in the 1951 film “The Thing From Another World.” Written, produced and directed by Schickel, “Watch the Skies!” (also the working title of Steven Spielberg’s 1977 “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”) is an adroit survey of 1950s science fiction films through the eyes of four A-list directors who were certainly influenced by them.

Schickel recruited Spielberg (“Close Encounters,” “E.T.”), George Lucas (“Star Wars”), James Cameron (“Aliens”) and Ridley Scott (“Alien”), all of whose careers got significant boosts from their own forays into sci-fi, to speak at length on the films from their youth.

In the age of synergism, it’s not surprising that the debut of “Watch the Skies!” comes just a week after the release of Spielberg’s “War of the Worlds,” or that the new film plays such a prominent role in the documentary. In what feels like product placement or something that would appear as an extra on a DVD, the last 10 minutes are devoted to Spielberg discussing what he did to set his version of the H.G. Wells novel apart from the 1953 George Pal-produced film.

Narrated by Mark Hamill, “Watch” mixes the interviews with scenes from numerous 1950s films -- some classics, others more obscure -- as the directors dish out observations on the genre and memories of seeing the films. All four are very effective at framing the cultural impact of the films and the films’ influence on them as filmmakers. Cameron is particularly good at the theoretical, characterizing the sci-fi film as “this dualistic dance, [a] love-hate relationship with technology,” while Scott expresses an early practical curiosity of “How’d they do that?” with regard to special effects.

“Watch the Skies!” is organized into thematic sections, allowing Schickel to explore ‘50s sci-fi in a broader way than if he’d proceeded strictly chronologically. Once the general tone is set with each director weighing in -- Spielberg calls sci-fi “Pilates for the brain” -- the film moves on to atomic-era anxiety, space exploration, alien invasions, the alien bearing wisdom and futuristic excursions subgenres.

The paranoia and genuine fear of nuclear weapons was evoked in 1957’s “The Incredible Shrinking Man” as well as giant-monster movies such as the 1954 “Them!,” which featured large, rampaging ants. The terrestrial threat represented by the “red menace” of communism was addressed in extraterrestrial-invasion flicks such as “The Thing From Another World” and “The War of the Worlds.” Space travel intrigued filmmakers with “Destination Moon” (which Spielberg suggests is the father to Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey”) and “Rocketship X-M,” both from 1950, and 1956’s “Forbidden Planet.”

Spielberg is the most enthusiastic of the interviewees, able to draw on his vast knowledge of the movies as well as recalling at which theater in his hometown of Scottsdale, Ariz., he saw them, and the effects they had on him. The 1953 “Invaders From Mars,” in which a young boy witnesses his parents and other adults being brainwashed by aliens, struck a chord as a metaphor for the dysfunctional family, which wasn’t being portrayed in traditional dramas of the time. A young Spielberg watched repeatedly, hoping that an abusive father’s behavior would somehow magically change.

Though far from revelatory, “Watch the Skies!” does make a fine appetizer for “The Thing From Another World” and “Forbidden Planet,” which air immediately following the two showings of the documentary. Presumably it will also spur a few more people to run out and see Spielberg’s movie.

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‘Watch the Skies!’

Where: TCM

When: 7:30 to 8:30 tonight

Mark Hamill...Narrator

Executive producer James Cameron. Writer, creator and producer Richard Schickel.