Description:
The late 1950's could be considered the golden age of Science Fiction cinema. Even though there were SF films from earlier decades, the late 50's produced a plethora of SF movies. Most of them were completely devoid of any serious artistic value, and almost all of them were considered "B" grade movies by the studios that produced them, but looking back we can see that a few of these films stand out as examples worthy of actual praise. 'The Incredible Shrinking Man' was such a film. Based upon Richard Matheson's novel, 'The Shrinking Man', it was also one of his finest screenplays. Director Jack Arnold insisted upon changing the ending of the story used in the novel, and apparently Matheson resisted at first, but then decided that if it was to be changed that he should be the one to do it. Rarely, in filmaking, is revision of the original work a good idea. But in this case Matheson's changes resulted in a poetic soliloquy for the dying character of Scott Carey. The original novel utilized an existential ending, but the screen play's conclusion transforms the film and story into a fitting metaphor about the process of death. As Carey fades from existence, he accepts his fate in the finest literary tradition of other terminally ill characters that preceded him. In one sentence, Matheson captured the essence of modern man's conceptual struggle with death, "That existence begins and ends is Man's concept, not Nature's." And even though Carey proclaims with his last words, that "I still exist!", we realize that he does not exist in the sense of a living being. Visually we can no longer see him. He is gone from our sight, and no longer part of the world we live in. But the metaphor is complete, and we realize that as far as the God of Nature is concerned, "There is no zero...". Existence does not specifically require consciousness, but being human does.
The scenes included here are well known to the giantess fan community and require no further explanation.
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