Science fiction films of the early '60s were often bursting with the commies-under-the-bed-nuclear-nightmare ethos of the time. Consider such epics of paranoia as The Earth Dies Screaming and Village of the Damned. One 1964 film, however, stands apart from the others, both in ambition and point of view.
Robinson Crusoe on Mars (aside from being saddled with one of the worst movie titles of all time) captures the optimistic side of the Space Age. Just like the original Defoe tale, Robinson Crusoe on Mars is the story of a voyager who finds himself marooned far from home and must create a new life for himself. In this version, the voyager, astronaut Christopher "Kit" Draper, triumphs over his environment through a combination of will and luck. Draper is not only endlessly resourceful, but endlessly driven to survive and work. He ends up not only finding a way to live and breathe in the thin Martian atmosphere, but also becoming a hero by rescuing Friday from alien slavers. Robinson Crusoe on Mars is an undiluted and unselfconscious hymn to American ingenuity and the best Jimmy Stewart/Frank Capra impulses of fairness and equality. It also has some beautifully evocative moments of alien weirdness: spaceships flitting around like insects, the burning surface of Mars.
As usual, this Criterion Collection disc from Voyager contains great supplementary material, including interviews with the principle actors and production team, the original film trailer, and production sketches and excerpts from the original illustrated script for the film. This last is especially fascinating, showing the huge ambition of the film (which originally included Friday as a three-fingered alien as well as encounters with weird Martian flora and fauna). It's a fine thing to be reminded occasionally not only of our lost optimism, but also of the ambitious science fiction cinema that predated Terminator 2, and even 2001.
Robinson Crusoe on Mars: US$100. The Voyager Co.: (800) 446 2001, +1 (212) 431 5199.
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