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Wilcox with Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis, Leslie Nielsen, Warren Stevens Beyond the limits of representation and the technical means available at the time (and a certain naivety, also physiological), inevitable in a 1956 science fiction film, the Forbidden Planet boasts merits that still make it, in its own way , a milestone in genre cinematography. We are in about 2400 (year plus, year less) and humanity is launched to explore and colonize the Cosmos, and the spaceship C-57-D - a real flying saucer - reaches the remote planet Altair 4, at search for settlers who left the Earth twenty years earlier and of which news has been lost. Upon arrival they are greeted by the distrust of the only survivor of the Bellerophon crew, Doctor Morbius (Walter Pidgeon), who tries to warn Commander John Adams (nothing less than a very young Leslie Nielsen) of the dangers of the planet. , who refuses offers of help and finds himself having to grudgingly accept their presence on Altair 4. Morbius, while showing the technological marvels he has created (including the clumsy but very powerful robot, Robbie), gives unclear explanations about the end of the other colonists, while the daughter Alta, born on the planet and totally inexperienced of men, finds herself the object of the wishes of the young members of Adams' crew, for long months alone in space. Between the amorous skirmishes and the commander's perplexities, disturbing phenomena begin to manifest themselves, and an impending and invisible presence, the "planetary force" feared by Doctor Morbius as responsible for the massacre of his colleagues, targets the spaceship and the crew , claiming the first victims. Cornered by Commander Adams, Morbius gradually reveals the planet's tragic past, dominated by a super-technological race, the Krells, who, pursuing the dream of freeing themselves from the constraints and limitations of their material body, have become extinct prey to dark forces, the materialization of one's nightmares and negative fantasies. Beyond the more or less predictable epilogue (no spoiler), the Forbidden Planet is a decidedly honest, albeit naive film: it naturally reconciles the adventurous plot (with romantic implications) to the basic thesis, developed gradually and without excesses: on guard against the “monsters of the ID”, on guard against our own unconscious, where powerful, and often negative, destructive forces lurk. Our deep feelings, not by chance imprisoned and limited to that invisible sphere (like the mysterious "planetary force", in fact), when they unknowingly emerge and materialize, overwhelm our cultural and ethical resistances, sowing pain and death. Erano gli anni della guerra fredda e del Maccartismo, anni in cui si fronteggiava un ‘nemico’, l’Unione Sovietica, esterno, altro e diverso da ‘noi’ (l’Occidente), ampiamente e platealmente oggettivo. Questo contesto storico, per quel che vale, suggerisce l’ipotesi che questo film voglia rivolgere l’attenzione al nemico “dentro” di noi: l’inconscio profondo, il che è ‘nobile’. Ma anche forse quelle correnti sotterranee di dissenso, di ‘anormalità’ che pure (scomodamente) già circolavano nella società americana. Sintomatico di questo intento ‘didattico’ e non troppo nascosto, è quindi il personaggio del comandante Adams, molto diverso dal Dottor Morbius: il primo è, se non algido e distaccato (tantomeno dalla bella e fresca, giovane Alta – una fiammante Anne Francis), è comunque, più del Dottor Stevens - Warren Stevens, una sorta di Dottor Spock ante litteram – comunque un osservatore lucido e razionale, una sorta di coscienza vigile, testimone degli eventi. Il secondo, Morbius, è invece propriamente epico, passionale, pur riuscendo a non finire sopra le righe (del copione). Quale che sia l’interpretazione ‘storica’ da darsi, è di per sé gran merito del film l’ambizione, se non la capacità, di trascendere il puro intreccio avventuroso (che pure rimane, e ben gestito) per suggerire e alludere ad una riflessione etica e culturale di ben altro spessore, con toni e modalità teatrali e quasi tragiche: spesso non a caso riferito alla “Tempesta” di Shakespeare, il Pianeta proibito ha proprio per questo ancora molto da dire, anche a distanza di quasi sessant’anni. Davide Benedetto Rubriche Recensioni Film Teatro Arte e Letteratura Speciali Buon Umore Incontri e Ritratti Team Archivio