Review of Outland (1981) by Gabriel Arthur P — 20 Oct 2013

When I first saw this in 1981, I loved it. It felt very realistic, and I was extremely impressed by the surround sound. I remember turning around in the theatre to shush the people behind me, only to discover it was the movie's sound effects. Having seen it again recently, I have to say it's still fun, still High Noon in space, but it's age is showing.

First, by today's standards this film is slow paced. It really does have the story structure of a Western. Sean Connery is the new Marshall at a mining base on Jupiter's airless moon of Io. He discovers a drug smuggling ring whose product is slowly killing the miners and decides to put a stop to it. The drug smugglers don't take kindly to this and hire some assassins to come to the base and take out the Marshall. Connery does his best to prepare for the showdown with no help from the unsympathetic miners and staff. That's really all there is to it, but it takes a long time to get there.

The mining base has a realistically gritty look to it. The film makers took some liberties with the effects of vacuum on the human body. A few characters get exposed to vacuum and immediately blow up like balloons and explode. Hardly realistic, but nicely gruesome. Most of the performances are kind of flat, although I liked James Sikking and Frances Sternhagen. They have minor roles, but flesh them out nicely. Connery in the lead role is kind of two-dimensional.