Review of Outland (1981) by Stuart K — 01 Mar 2010
From director Peter Hyams, whose career includes such sci-fi films as Capricorn One (1978), 2010 (1984) and Timecop (1994) comes this thriller whose plot was inspired by High Noon. It has all the thematic tones of a western, but it has the visual look of Alien (1979).
Despite this, it's a gripping and exciting film, and it's actually one of Sean Connery's better parts, it was this which helped put him on the road to a comeback. Set on Jupiter's largest Moon, Io.
It follows Federal Marshal William O'Niel (Connery), who has been signed on to do a one year tour of duty on the moon's ore mining base, Con Am 27. No sooner than he gets there, he discovers corporate corruption surrounding the grisly deaths of some of the miners.
They were given a drug which left them psychotic. O'Niel confronts the bases General Manager, Sheppard (Peter Boyle) about it, turns out Sheppard has been bribing the base's police to turn a blind eye, and argues that everyone seems to like the drug.
But, O'Niel won't stand for it, and decides to bring Sheppard and his assassins down. This is a very good and very suspenseful action sci-fi film, it's got brains about it, and it hasn't really aged that much, and Connery makes a good action hero in this.
It's a world away from High Noon, but it shares the same message, the greed of the corporate class will prevail.
This review of Outland (1981) was written by Stuart K on 01 Mar 2010.
Outland has generally received mixed reviews.
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