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Public Domain from Outer Space

Black_by_Pubic_Deman writes "It is a work of art that truly represents the nadir of film making; a movie so bad that it's good. It has been labelled 'The Worst Movie Ever' by the Golden Turkey Awards and is also the winner of two notable Razzies. Ed Wood's classic and every Slashdot reader's favorite movie Plan 9 from Outer Space is now in the Public Domain and available as a free download thanks to the fine folks over at Archive.org."

18 of 236 comments (clear)

  1. Maybe there's a Mistake by superpulpsicle · · Score: 4, Funny

    Plan 9 From Outer Space is better than half the movies available in the theatres now.

  2. Glen or Glenda by portforward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It was on TV late at night about 15 years ago when I was still a teen. I was wondering what that was until I saw the movie with Depp.

    Still, I don't know if Plan 9 is truly the worst movie ever. I have to agree with the MST3K crew that there are several others even worse, like Manos.

  3. "Karloff? Sidekick? FUCK YOU!" by wolfpaws · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Karloff did not deserve to smell my shit! That limey cocksucker can rot in Hell for all I care!"

    1. Re:"Karloff? Sidekick? FUCK YOU!" by alan_dershowitz · · Score: 4, Informative

      THIS SHOULDN'T HAVE BEEN MODDED FLAMEBAIT. This is a quote from Tim Burton's movie "Ed Wood", a dramatic account of the life of the director of Plan 9 From Outer Space.

      The joke here is that Bela Lugosi (of Dracula fame, and whose last role was in Plan 9) was constantly being asked questions about Boris Karloff (Frankenstein, and a somewhat rival), and it drove the already irritable old man into a angry frenzy. In the movie, he goes from happy to sign an autograph for a fan to nearly knocking the guy's head off.

      It was hilarious.

  4. Re:Oops by d34thm0nk3y · · Score: 4, Informative

    Why make one, http://isohunt.com/download.php?mode=bt&id=4612267 there already is one ;)

    sadly, it only has one seed and 2 leachers and frankly, it might not be the exact same as the version that was available freely...


    No, the truly sad thing is that even though this movie is now in the public domain that isohunt link is probably still illegal due to its source.

    Somebody is going to have to mirror the Archive.org version since they don't claim any copyright on their copy and hope they got it from the original source.

  5. Re:Never Seen it. by Vancouverite · · Score: 4, Informative
    Anyways, it couldn't be any worse than Battlefield Earth, could it?


    Oh dear.

    You have no idea.

    An MST3K of it? They couldn't do it. There was nothing they could do to it to make it (better|worse|funnier|stupider|more appalling). It would be like taking your absolute favorite meal *ever*, then adding caramel to it to "make it taste better".

    Remember - we are talking a movie where Bela Lugosi died, and was replaced by a chiropractor - younger, taller, and blond - as "the Ghoul Man", who played his part crouched down with a cape over his face, so people wouldn't notice.

    And the Octopus battle scene! This was conducted in a public park, at night (because they didn't have a stage, a budget, or a permit) with a *stolen* rubber octopus. Unfortunately, they forgot to take the motor(s) that made the octopus run, so "our hero" had to "battle" the octopus, in a shallow pool of water, under a car's headlights, and move the limbs of the octopus himself. It's really a classic scene.

    As is the scene where the giant zombie knocks over the obviously cardboard tombstone.

    As is the scene where they are "flying" in the "airplane" - the airplane never moves, but they bounce in their chairs to simulate flight.

    As is... well, just about all of the movie, in fact.

    And how can you beat this quote from the movie - "Future events such as these will affect us in the future" - absolutely classic!

    Nope. Sorry. Pass over that geek card, son, and walk away. Just walk away.

    And watch out for those future events.

    --
    We are the Music Makers, and We are the Dreamers of Dreams...
  6. Too Bad by alan_dershowitz · · Score: 4, Funny

    Too bad that it's actually not watchable. I mean, there's something cool about something so bad it's good, but this movie is so bad that it went straight through bad, PAST so bad it's good, and back into bad again, so bad it's undescribably unpleasant to watch it. I'm talking kicked in the testicles bad. but worse.

    The only movie I have ever seen that I disliked more was a tie between Joel Schumacher's Batman Forever and Batman & Robin. If there was ever a case for copyright extension, keeping those piles of shit out of the public domain IS IT.

    I am NOT kidding. This movie is BAD.

  7. This is probably the worst movie ever made! by 77Punker · · Score: 4, Funny

    Like anyone could even know that, Napoleon!

  8. Public domain? What's that? by uncoveror · · Score: 4, Informative
    I am surprised to learn that anything has gone into the public domain, as previously expired copyrights were reinstated by the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extention Act of 1998. One Example is Frank Capra's It's A Wonderful Life. This was on everywhere in the holiday season until then, but since is exclusively on NBC. Capra chose not to renew the copyright on that film, so it was his wish that it be public domain. We have all been robbed.

    Here is an interesting tidbit. In its day, that film was considered communist propaganda for making a common man the hero and a banker the villian. Now, the entertainment industry would have us believe that the public domain is a communist plot, and that "intellectual property" (pure vapor) is worth more than tangible things. Well, it's not!

    In the near future people might literally ask, "Public domain? What's that?" and only historians will be able to explain the concept. It will be as extinct as the Dodo Bird.

    --
    The Uncoveror: It's the real news.
  9. Re:But how does it compare with... by alan_dershowitz · · Score: 4, Informative

    Who keeps modding these comments down? "Gay Niggers From Outer Space is a REAL MOVIE", and asking which one worse is on-topic. To answer your question: It's bad, but not even as bad as Plan 9 From Outer Space.

    You heard me right, if forced at gunpoint to choose between watching Plan 9 and Gay Niggers, I'd watch Gay Niggers From Outer Space. God help me if it ever comes to that.

  10. Re:Wood rocks! by hunterx11 · · Score: 4, Funny

    The truly sad thing about your post is that I am entirely unable to discern whether or not you are being serious.

    --
    English is easier said than done.
  11. Re:Oops by typical · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What I'd like to know is why archive.org, king of bulk data transfer, doesn't automatically provide bittorrents of all of their larger files. It would have to save them some stupidly large amount of money in bandwidth costs.

    --
    Any program relying on (nontrivial) preemptive multithreading will be buggy.
  12. Re:Oops by Radix37 · · Score: 4, Informative
    What I'd like to know is why archive.org, king of bulk data transfer, doesn't automatically provide bittorrents of all of their larger files.

    I asked them this very question recently.

    Here's your answer:

    Too cpu intensive unless we dynamically start and stop trackers dynamically for popular shows... Its physically impossible for each of our collections machines to run a tracker and be a seed for all shows that fit into a 1.6tb node....

    For specific shows or new content it could work, and it would work especially well if we ran the trackers on a really high powered node and had the collections machines just be seeds... I would love it.

    --
    Speed Demos Archive - Lots of speed runs!
  13. Ed Wood redefines "genius" by Allen+Varney · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Everyone talks about Ed Wood, Jr. being a totally incompetent filmmaker, but that is incorrect. Wood was selectively incompetent, which is far more interesting.

    Genuinely incompetent films are incomprehensible; they're so badly written, filmed, lit, recorded, and edited you can't tell what's supposed to be happening moment to moment. They're dull. Ed Wood's films are interesting because he so weirdly mixes okay technical competence -- in the sense that you can follow the storytelling from scene to scene, because he tells it with acceptable narrative cohesion -- with utterly whacked-out, surreally incompetent plotting. He couches nonsensical ideas in the most portentous yet tone-deaf language. He displays a glorious ignorance of taste -- not "bad taste" in the too-conscious John-Waters sense, but a genuine vacuity of any informed sensibility at all.

    Ed Wood is, in fact, an interesting filmmaker. This is true. If you've ever sat with an audience watching Glen or Glenda?, they stay all the way through, and the final scene has them cheering. Wood disastrously fails to engage his audience on the emotional level he intended, but he nonetheless engages them. A genuine incompetent couldn't do this.

    I think Ed Wood is a telling case study that illuminates what we really mean when we talk about "genius."

  14. Time for a big budget remake! by yndrd · · Score: 4, Funny

    The best news of all is that this script--pure Hollywood gold--is now available for Michael Bay or the Wachowski brothers to work their magic.

    Tom Cruise as Jeff Trent! Jennifer Lopez as Paula Trent! William Shatner as Inspector Dan Clay!

    Money in the bank, I tell you. Ka-ching!

  15. Bittorrent Download by ppcvidz.com · · Score: 5, Informative

    I have made the MPEG2 1.78 GB version of this file available via bittorrent. You can download the torrent from the following locations:

    http://www.bogaa.org/details/185874
    http://www.bitenova.org/index.php?idx=details&id=6 86368294eb5b9226a60534a442b497351c8b7c5
    http://www.torrentspy.com/directory.asp?mode=torre ntdetails&id=356075
    http://www.mininova.org/tor/73675

    I distribute the MPEG2 files from Archive.org via http://torrents.pdmdb.org/ but can bet that Slashdot would kill my webserver too. Hopefully it can at least handle the tracker.

  16. Congrats!!! by PsiPsiStar · · Score: 4, Funny

    You've managed to get a GNAA post modded +1 informative!

    I tip my hat to you sir.

    --

    ___
    It's the end of my comment as I know it and I feel fine.
  17. Re:Oops by bani · · Score: 4, Insightful

    What about the new trackerless torrent protocol though? They wouldnt need to run any tracker at all.