Outland (1981)

A lot of fun.

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Outland began so well. Great production design, intriguing storyline and Connery's presence as a mining moon marshall. But, soon enough a morality play ensues, that it fails to explore, so we are left with simply one man against invading forces. Underwhelming conclusion and some large plot holes.

Sean Connery is not a very convincing actor; he has made a career of playing Sean Connery and done it very well over a long period, but in this film he didn't even bother to try acting less wooden than normal. Stomping around scowling at everything and everyone, sounding extremely bored when talking with both his wife and child when he should be trying to convince both that he loves them (and what were they thinking - Connery has an accent, a distinctly Scottish accent, yet it must be assumed that his son didn't hang around with him much for it to have rubbed off because his accent is very much your all American kid's, like everyone else. I know America makes the movies but that doesn't mean that every person in space in the future will have an American accent!), and his speaking is both forced and telegraphed: you know what he was going to say before he says it. In fact the entire plot was forced and telegraphed, stolen from High Noon and with the mystery solved fairly quickly so that all that is left is to see how the hero wins the day - and he will, because he is Sean Connery and you know he will not be killed by a bunch of unknowns. The only, ONLY bright spot in the entire film was Frances Sternhagen as Dr Lazarus, the bad tempered and reluctant, motor-mouthed sidekick who is the only person on the colony to help Connery when he needs it; her name was obviously somebody's poor attempt at humour. Peter Boyle was unconvincing as the bad guy, instead appearing as though he had an earpiece hidden away and telling him what to say and how to react to Connery's stilted dialogue - he could have stayed home and phoned it in. Every other person in the film could have been a cardboard cutout for all the effect they made.Just how bad was knowledge about the rules of physics in 1981? Exploding bodies? Variations in gravity depending on which side of a bulkhead you are? And the shuttle arriving early - nice idea if you know nothing about getting from a to b (airliners on Earth fly great circles since you cannot fly in a straight line for thousands of mile, but they have headwinds to contend with). And heat - there appeared to be a thin wall between the pressurised interior and the great outdoors, certainly in those walkways, yet there was no mention of the potential of frostbite or getting frozen to the walls. This film just depressed me.

Apparently in the future all boardroom extras have taken up smoking and they are too cheap to turn the lights on. Oh and that we are going to mine titanium ore from one of Jupiter's moons, Io. They are crap at painting too. In the end this film was just like Alien (1979) but without the alien in it. The sci-fi had parallels with earth that did not test the mind. Pretty straight-forward and watchable space action-adventure.

Eschewing the fantastic likes of sci-fi such as STAR WARS, OUTLAND goes for a grim and gritty approach to man's exploration of the universe – it has a similarly realistic look to it as ALIEN. OUTLAND goes one step further, actually, seeming more like the prison planet of ALIEN 3 in its depiction of a corrupt and all-too-real world, where everybody wants a quiet life, nobody's on your side, and turning a blind eye is a daily event. Into this world comes Sean Connery in one of his best, non-hammy roles as a tough marshal who begins investigating a series of suicides and soon discovers a sinister conspiracy of silence at work.The film is regarded as a remake of HIGH NOON, with a few sci-fi updates; for instance, the hero awaits his killers who arrive by space shuttle rather than a train. Nevertheless it works very well as a western in outer space, as the story is universal and the location doesn't matter so much. Peter Hyams works hard as director, creating a convincing atmosphere of menace and really building the suspense well as the film leads up to the climax – this is light years ahead of the rubbish like THE RELIC that he ended up directing in the 1990s. The film also benefits from a spooky, outer-spacey score by ace composer Jerry Goldsmith.However, this film isn't perfect by any means. The pacing is a little too slow and the running time a little too long. Also, after the huge build up to the climax, it's a bit of a let-down – not action packed by any means. Connery resorts to trickery to take down his foes, rather than any face-to-face confrontations, so it's more of an anticlimax than anything else. The miniature special effects of the space station are very good indeed for the time, although the cheesy exploding heads made me laugh rather than wince (SCANNERS this ain't). Still, with Connery at the top of his game – he's never been so darned likable as he is here – and with great support from Sternhagen, Boyle, Sikking, Berkoff and a nice cameo from P. H. Moriarty – OUTLAND is a good and unusual thriller.