{"id":244801,"date":"2025-12-21T20:00:18","date_gmt":"2025-12-21T20:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/244801\/"},"modified":"2025-12-21T20:00:18","modified_gmt":"2025-12-21T20:00:18","slug":"the-raunchiest-sci-fi-adventure-of-the-60s-has-yet-to-be-topped","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/244801\/","title":{"rendered":"The Raunchiest Sci-Fi Adventure Of The 60s Has Yet To Be Topped"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBy Jonathan Klotz<\/a>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t | Published 35 seconds ago\t\t<\/p>\n

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Science fiction dominated the box office in the 50s, but in the 60s the genre cooled off until 1968. That year, three films came out that changed everything: Planet of the Apes, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and lastly, Barbarella. The campy classic starring Jane Fonda is the only one of the three never to receive a sequel, and with how chaste modern sci-fi has become, any rumors of a remake are hard to believe until the moment we see Sogo again with our own eyes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Psychedelic Space Adventure Broke All The Rules<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Barbarella pushed the envelope when it was first released, though today there have been episodes of Criminal Minds that show more skin. Jane Fonda played the Earthling Barbarella on her mission to prevent the widespread destruction of the solar system. With a naive, wide-eyed innocence, the Earthling becomes part of a revolution against The Black Queen, befriending a benevolent catchman (a kidnapper, but don\u2019t worry, the children are evil), teaching an angel that he can love again, and saving the galaxy through the power of empathy. It\u2019s a bizarre movie that embraces the 60s sexual revolution, but it\u2019s so earnest and frank that it still stands out compared to mainstream sci-fi<\/a> of the last 30 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The scene with the catchment sticks out not only because he takes off his furcoat to reveal enough body hair to make a second furcoat, but because our heroine explains how physical intimacy has been deemed inefficient in the future and replaced with pills. Barbarella managed to predict the chaste sci-fi of today, where even couples holding hands are few and far between. Under the direction of Frenchman Roger Vadim (also Jane Fonda\u2019s husband during filming) and the Italian megaproducer Dino De Laurentiis, it\u2019s also an inventive psychedelic trip with set design and costuming that helped influence later comic strips turned camp classics, including Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Barbarella Is An OG Cult Classic<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Barbarella was so far ahead of its time that the only film to pair its colorful, abstract take on set design with a knowing wink and nod to the audience is The Fifth Element<\/a>, another sci-fi classic directed by a Frenchman, Luc Besson. Nearly 30 years separate the two films, and you\u2019d be hard-pressed to find anything in the last 30 years that mixes camp, adventure, and a heroine who saves the galaxy through emotion and not beating someone to a bloody pulp. Which is still satisfying, though nothing has been able to top Aliens putting Sigourney Weaver\u2019s Ripley in the power loader, but it\u2019s also different, and these days, that\u2019s a dirty word to studio executives.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Against the odds, Barbarella survived box-office failure and savaging by critics to become a fan favorite alongside Star Trek<\/a>: The Original Series, helping inspire the first sci-fi conventions. The film may include Fonda in torn, skin-baring outfits, but it became a hit among women, and cosplaying as Barbarella was a common sight at conventions throughout the 70s and 80s. Enduring popularity and status as one of the greatest sci-fi cult classics have kept the film\u2019s legacy alive for decades, while attempts at sequels and remakes have fallen flat.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We May Finally Get The Barbarella Remake<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Dino De Laurentiis himself tried to make a sequel in the 90s, and a remake in the 2000s, with Charmed<\/a> star Rose McGowan tapped to fill Jane Fonda\u2019s shoes. That never happened, and today it\u2019s been reported that Sydney Sweeney<\/a> signed on for a remake to be directed by Edgar Wright. On paper, the actress and the sci-fi comedy maestro sound like the perfect pair to bring the classic back to life, but as with most Hollywood remakes, it\u2019s so far been a lot of sound and fury signifying nothing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Barbarella is nearly 60 years old at this point, and it\u2019s still influencing science fiction today, which is an incredible legacy for what was once cast aside as a cheap exploitation film. It is, but it also has style, inventive design, and a deceptively wholesome heroine, resulting in a one-of-a-kind film. Jane Fonda has had a long, historic career in Hollywood with countless awards and critically adored roles, but to a massive swath of sci-fi fans, she\u2019ll always be the Queen of the Galaxy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Jonathan Klotz | Published 35 seconds ago Science fiction dominated the box office in the 50s, but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":244802,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[263],"tags":[128338,128339,78739,18,117,19,17,47672,1892,327],"class_list":{"0":"post-244801","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-1960s-movies","9":"tag-60s-movies","10":"tag-barbarella","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-ie","14":"tag-ireland","15":"tag-jane-fonda","16":"tag-movie-news","17":"tag-movies"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115759338303267877","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244801\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}