Review of Saturn 3 (1980) by Jason C — 01 Mar 2009

Though Saturn 3 plays like a 50's B-movie nowadays, it was slightly ahead of its time in 1980 (though Alien had completely beaten it to the punch) as a dark and brooding sci-fi thriller that featured 3 very established actors including Kirk Douglas, Farrah Fawcett, and Harvey Keitel, as well a very well-established director in Stanely Donen (the same director of such classics as Bedazzled, Seven Brides For Seven Brothers, and Singing in the Rain).

In the future, there is no singing, or clean living on planet Earth as most people reside in space. There's not much of a storyline behind this, or Harvey Keitel's menacing psychopathic character, who kills a fellow major and infiltrates a spacecraft with a superbrain to take to Saturn 3 where Kirk Douglas (up there in years, but really plays against type) and Farrah Fawcett (Douglas' trophy fuck toy) reside where they grow food and stuff for the space population.

Keitel's character is infatuated with Fawcett and wants her sweet stuff, which he plans to take after building a super robot to take over the station and replace Douglas' character. Things get screwy when Keitel puts his intellect into the robot and gives it a murderous edge, as well as a lustful edge towards Fawcett.

And then the madness begins as the robot starts hunting them all down. Not a bad sci-fi film, but could have been so much more if they had developed it out into a tense 2, 2 and a half hour thriller instead of an 88 minute slightly comical thriller.

The best part of the film involves the robot, which is actually pretty creepy at times. The dubbed voice of Harvey Keitel is also creepy. Seriously, that cannot be HIS voice.