Review of Marooned (1969) by Anthony V — 31 May 2008

It's hard to believe this film won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, the year after 2001: A Space Odyssey, since the effects in this film absolutely pale in comparison.

Several other reviewers here seem to have found the film rather dull, but I think that's a bit unfair. It could perhaps have benefited from tighter editing, but there are some quite good performances, and it's a rather more realistic space movie than most - even presaging some of the physiological effects of prolonged weightlessness, which at the time had never been tested.

Would it be too irreverrent of me to suggest that when Pruett went out to try to fix the engine at the end, he should have said, "I'm going for a space walk. I may be some time.".