Science fiction as a storytelling genre spans decades, but Jack Arnold's films in the 1950s truly modernized and popularized sci-fi cinema for American audiences. Arnold encapsulated the hopes and anxieties of the era, and although he is not as well-known as his contemporaries, Arnold helped establish the most significant trends in American sci-fi and defined the genre for years to come.

Before the 1950s and the start of the Cold War, science fiction was mostly intertwined with the world of fantasy and horror. Sci-fi writers imagined spectacularly advanced futures or dystopian nightmares, while movie theaters showed space opera serials like Flash Gordon alongside Universal's monster pictures that often featured mad scientists. However, it wasn't until the Atomic Age that hard sci-fi became popular and widely accepted, first in literature and then in film, as filmmakers combined technological pondering with social commentary to form the modern conception of what makes a science fiction movie.

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The advent of widespread nuclear energy, the growing possibility of space travel, and the perceived looming threat of Soviet influence all sparked a surge in speculative sci-fi concerning the bright hopes and dark despair of human advancements. Meanwhile, Jack Arnold started his career in 1950 with the Oscar-nominated documentary With These Hands, which re-enacted the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire and displayed how unionization improved the industrialized workplace. The film proved that Arnold had a deft eye for identifying and exploring social changes, an element that would reappear in his sci-fi films.

Jack Arnold Defined Science Fiction Cinema in America

jack arnold on set creature from the black lagoon

Jack Arnold's prolificacy helped him build a diverse filmography in a variety of genres, but it was his science fiction films that are the most well-known and influential. It Came From Outer Space, based on a massive script treatment written by legendary sci-fi author Ray Bradbury, was Arnold's first sci-fi feature and already proved the director's ability at forming intelligent yet fantastical narratives when it was released in 1953. The film is significant for subverting the anti-Soviet, McCarthyist tendencies of its contemporary sci-fi pictures, revealing in a twist that the aliens are merely misunderstood strangers looking to repair their crashed ship.

Arnold proved that he could craft contemplative parables with It Came From Outer Space, but the following year provided evidence that he could handle big-budget blockbuster material, as well. Creature From the Black Lagoon became a sensational hit for Universal for introducing a new monster to stand alongside their older icons. Arnold once again explored the complexities in his monsters, imbuing the title creature with a sense of mystery and menace, romance and tragedy. In 1955, Arnold directed a sequel, Revenge of the Creature, as well as Tarantula!, both of which have the unfortunate legacies of being co-penned by notorious McCarthyist sympathizer and Hollywood blacklister Martin Berkeley.

Still, Arnold helmed The Incredible Shrinking Man in 1957, co-written by and based on a story by the much more-beloved Richard Matheson. The director used his experiences in the Creature movies to form a thrilling action-adventure odyssey that is also notable for its emotionally compelling themes about hope in the face of annihilation. The film's tiny protagonist must fight off an increasing number of threats and deal with the existential realization that he will continue to shrink into nothingness. In the end, however, he accepts that he will always retain his humanity despite disappearing from the normal-sized world. Perhaps the relatively obscure but highly influential Jack Arnold, who proved how sci-fi films could be used to examine human nature, saw a bit of himself at that moment.

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