# Why hasn't steampunk taken off cinematically? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 8, 2011, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-steampunk-taken-off-cinematically/595587 "2011-09-08T05:41:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2011, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-steampunk-taken-off-cinematically/595587/81 "2011-09-10T01:50:50Z")
> [@billfish678](#): > > You mean like this? > > [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ooo1m9A4S4Y](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ooo1m9A4S4Y) > > Safe for work, unless the darkness of space gives you the vapors… Or try [_Steam Trek: The Moving Picture._](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCUVT4bi4dU) ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2011, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-steampunk-taken-off-cinematically/595587/82 "2011-12-10T01:48:22Z")
Sorry to bump a moribund thread but I heard this song and thought of y’all. [Just Glue Some Gears On It (And Call It Steampunk) - YouTube](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFCuE5rHbPA&feature=youtu.be) ---
**Author:** ![infinitii](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e8c25b/32.png) [@infinitii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/infinitii)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2011, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-steampunk-taken-off-cinematically/595587/83 "2011-12-10T15:28:20Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > I would really like to see Windpunk - science fiction set in Golden Age Netherlands (mid 1600s). Sailcarts, land yachts, massive windmills powering vast networks of technology, etc. I’d like to see, well, sandpunk I guess, for lack of a better term. The concept being Islamic culture took over back in the 1200s or so, and all technology derived from that idea. ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2011, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-steampunk-taken-off-cinematically/595587/84 "2011-12-11T02:26:38Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Plots are fungible - they can be easily transferred between genres. Is _the Seven Samurai_ a samurai movie, or is it a western? Steampunk is a setting, not a story; you can fit any plot you want to it. I think you actually proved the opposite point. Despite having a completely different setting, Seven Samurai is immediately recognizable as a form of a Western. The Western genre was not about the cowboys, stagecoaches or gun battles. It’s about an ethos, a way of looking at the world, a certain kind of pacing and shot framing, specific archetypical characters, a relationship with nature and history, certain plots, etc. It’s not the “stuff” that makes a Western. It’s the story, characters and atmosphere. How would you recognize a “Steampunk” story without the streampunk window dressing? The idea isn’t even comprehensible. As for why it isn’t more popular…go back to the steampunk Nerf gun. A lot of steampunk fandom relies on _taking things and making them look pretty_. interior decorating, propmaking and costumes just aren’t ever going to be popular with a mainstream crowd. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2011, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-steampunk-taken-off-cinematically/595587/85 "2011-12-11T12:43:54Z")
> [@infinitii](#): > > I’d like to see, well, sandpunk I guess, for lack of a better term. The concept being Islamic culture took over back in the 1200s or so, and all technology derived from that idea. - The Years of Rice and Salt\*, Kims Stanley Robinson, although not so much with the tech/punk and more with the alt history. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2011, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-steampunk-taken-off-cinematically/595587/86 "2011-12-11T13:06:08Z")
[ol] [li]Most Hollywood Producers have never heard of it.[/li][li]Most Hollywood Producers won’t take a chance on new concepts inside genres they **have** heard of.[/li][li]Unoriginality is key–once a Hollywood Producer makes the first Steampunk film, the rest shall follow, like sheep. Sheep with cocaine habits.[/li][li]The Economy must mend first–everybody wants to put dough into sure things **only**.[/li][/ol] ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2011, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-steampunk-taken-off-cinematically/595587/87 "2011-12-11T13:13:35Z")
> [@even\_sven](#): > > How would you recognize a “Steampunk” story without the streampunk window dressing? The idea isn’t even comprehensible. I don’t think thats true. Part of the appeal of Steampunk is playing with the ideas of Victorian Sci-fi and adventure stories, and with the optimism in the possibilities of Science and rationality found in Doyle, Verne and Wells dialed up to 11. It has its own ethos, arch-types, settings, etc. Its not just gears glued to stuff. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2011, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-steampunk-taken-off-cinematically/595587/88 "2011-12-11T14:44:50Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > I’d like to see a [Frank Reade, Jr.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Reade) film! **[Those](http://www.bigredhair.com/airships/)** are some airships! And what could be more Steampunk than [The Steam Man of the Prairies!](http://www.bigredhair.com/steamman/index.html) The robot in this upcoming movie isn’t the Steam Man but he does look similar. [Boilerplate: The Movie](http://www.deadline.com/2011/11/paramount-bad-robot-set-scribes-for-boilerplate/) ---
**Author:** ![mack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mack)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2011, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-steampunk-taken-off-cinematically/595587/89 "2011-12-11T15:21:58Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > From that point until the early 1990’s the term was used to mean any fiction set in the Victorian period with some technology that didn’t actually exist then but which could conceivably have been built with great difficulty that might mimic what can only now be built efficiently with modern technology. The 2002 version of The Time Machine (such as it was) would fit in there, and I suppose the 1960 version to a lesser extent. ---
**Author:** ![UFC\_Is\_Sux](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/46a35a/32.png) [@UFC\_Is\_Sux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UFC_Is_Sux)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2011, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-steampunk-taken-off-cinematically/595587/90 "2011-12-11T18:35:12Z")
Steampunk is doing just fine in my little universe, thank you very much. But I get my dose mostly on the big screen from a source no one else seems to have thought about - Hayao Miyazaki’s animated features such as _Hauru no Ugoku Shiro_ (or _Howl’s Moving Castle_), _Kurenai no Buta_ (or _Crimson Pig_ or _Porco Rosso_), and _Tenkū no Shiro Rapyuta_ (or _Laputa_ or _Castle in the Sky_). I liked _The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen_ as well, but I seem to be only one of around 7 people in the US who actually saw it. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2011, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-steampunk-taken-off-cinematically/595587/91 "2011-12-11T18:40:21Z")
My impression is that, aside from a fanatical bnch of people who like to dress up, there isn’t much depth to the movement. Sure, it is neat to re-create giant machines with large gears, but the trend (has always been) is toward fewer moving parts. And mid-Victorian clothing is a pain to put on-too many buttons, hooks, etc. I like the optimism about technology though. ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2011, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-steampunk-taken-off-cinematically/595587/92 "2011-12-11T20:12:23Z")
> [@Teufelblitz](#): > > I’ve always preferred cyberpunk. I have been waiting for someone to make a good Shadowrun game or movie for a long time. The last time we had anything worth playing was back in the sega genesis/super nintendo days. I was sad that the only thing they did with the concept recently was a half baked FPS game a few years back. They are coming out with a new Shadowrun game: Shadowrun Online, which will be a browser-based game. I’ve seen some of it (I’ve freelanced on several SR books, so I was able to wangle myself a beta invitation and might actually get to be involved with the project once it gets to the point where they’re looking for content and stories). It’s not very far along yet, but it looks like it might be a lot of fun when they get it ready for prime time. Definitely better than that travesty of an XBox game (to SR fans, that game is kind of like Highlander 2–it didn’t exist. No, it didn’t. We don’t care what you saw. 🙂 ) [Here’s a little update](http://cliffhanger-productions.com/content/list/details/id/65) from the company that’s producing the game. [Here’s a Q&A session](http://www.cliffhanger-productions.com/scripts/forum/index.php?topic=242.0) about the game from the official forums. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2011, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-steampunk-taken-off-cinematically/595587/93 "2011-12-11T20:47:15Z")
Steampunk can be amusing in little bites, but as others have noted it’s more of an aesthetic interest and fascination with the style of steampunk that drives a lot of the interest in it. People who are huge steampunk fans are all about the look. Unlike other types of science fiction, where there is more solid technical and philosophical underpinnings and people engage in serious discussions about the philosophy of that genre. What “philosophy” is there behind steampunk? Who discusses the technological and moral significance of steampunk science the way Star Wars and Star Trek fans go at it in their genres? Steampunk which starts out not making any kind of historical or technological sense and proceeds from that point. At it’s root steampunk is an affectation, and it is being used precisely as it should in movies. It’s a spice you can add to movies and TV to make them more visually interesting. ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2011, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-steampunk-taken-off-cinematically/595587/94 "2011-12-12T04:11:13Z")
> [@PlainJain](#): > > This, I believe, is it. Steampunk is the dressing - not the story. I think that this says it best. It’s like the girl with 3 breasts in Schwarzenegger’s “Total Recall” movie: breasts are good, and three breasts were a shocker, but, the next time they are in a movie, I would go yawn; and, the time after that, I would start looking to kill me a director. Same with steampunk. Again, I have to say that breasts are very good. hh ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2011, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-steampunk-taken-off-cinematically/595587/95 "2011-12-12T04:28:08Z")
> [@handsomeharry](#): > > I think that this says it best. It’s like the girl with 3 breasts in Schwarzenegger’s “Total Recall” movie: breasts are good, and three breasts were a shocker, but, the next time they are in a movie, I would go yawn; and, the time after that, I would start looking to kill me a director. > Same with steampunk. > > Again, I have to say that breasts are very good. > > hh **John Carter Warlord of Mars** is coming. Doesn’t Tars Tarkas’s daughter have four? That would set the bar a little higher… ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2012, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-steampunk-taken-off-cinematically/595587/96 "2012-03-20T05:08:08Z")
Hey **elfkin**! Since you’re the OP of this thread, I thought you’d want to know about this movie, [Thelomeris](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVhQM0HRxAs). It’s a Hungarian production and is undeniably steampunk. [Here’s the wiki article on it](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thelomeris). Note that Mark Hamill is involved both as an actor and as a consultant. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2012, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-steampunk-taken-off-cinematically/595587/97 "2012-03-20T07:23:31Z")
> [@Bosstone](#): > > Okay. > > I guess my response boils down to: so what? People have issues with the 30s that they dpn’t with the Victorian era. They’re understood today as a cultural Black Plague: nothing but depression and totalitarianism. People are wrong, of course, but there’s no good way to tell them. Playing big band music at them just reminds them of the war. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2012, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-steampunk-taken-off-cinematically/595587/98 "2012-03-20T12:16:22Z")
> [@Bosstone](#): > > I don’t really understand the distinction. > > Sky Captain/dieselpunk/pulp adventure is sci-fi set in the 1930s. Steampunk is sci-fi set in the 1800s. Neither is possible, and I’m fairly sure folk in the 1930s knew their pulp sci-fi set in ‘modern’ times was just as implausible as anything set in the past. I’m answering a slightly fresh zombie thread, but I hadn’t seen this before now. I made no claim about how “real” the stories were, in either csase. But _Sky Captain_ really does look like the product of the period it’s set in. The story and the visuals look sand feel as if they come from one of those 1930s pulps. A lot of the lok of the Disney _20,000 Leagues_ is a 1954 nostalgic look back at what they imagfined as “Victorian Times”. The film is arguably a founding moment in Steampunk – as I’ve noted before, designer Ivan Goff came up with his extravagantly knobbed steampunk Nautilus for that film precisely because he wanted something interesting to look at. He complained that Verne’s deswcription of the Nautilus was an unornamented smooth heedle of a ship, like a weaver’s shuttle. And it was, and the period illustrators depicted it that way. Aside from a couple of decorative animal heads in an engine room illustration, and a Victorian parlor for Nemo’s study (which wasn’t so different from real Victorian parlors, and not as elaborate as films have made it out to be), Verne’s book and the period illustrations aren’t all that “steampunky”. so the distinction, and my point, is that _Sky Captain_ is a pretty faithful realization of the yay things looked in the minds of their creators at the time the film is set. 20,00 Leagues isn’t – it’s the nostalgic imagining of a later era imposed on a story from Victorian times. ---
**Author:** ![xnylder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/bbce88/32.png) [@xnylder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xnylder)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2012, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-steampunk-taken-off-cinematically/595587/99 "2012-03-20T15:17:50Z")
As long as we’re reanimating this thread, I’d like to point out that the central conceit of [Hugo](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0970179/)is a Victorian-style automaton (even though the movie itself is set in the diesel era). The film won five Oscars (including one for Art Direction) and was nominated for several more. Perhaps the steampunk aesthetic has found its first cinematic hit… ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2012, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-steampunk-taken-off-cinematically/595587/100 "2012-03-20T16:58:47Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > _Sky Captain_ really does look like the product of the period it’s set in. The story and the visuals look sand feel as if they come from one of those 1930s pulps. Ex-graphics guy here to say “except for the type.” The printed matter, and most of the signage, is all done with the most common Microsoft-compatible laser fonts. Lots of Times Roman, which nobody but The Times was using yet, and a diferent looking one at that. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-steampunk-taken-off-cinematically/595587.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-steampunk-taken-off-cinematically/595587.md?page=6)