Customer Reviews

Conquest of Space

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I'm delighted that George Pal's "Conquest of Space" has been released on DVD. Of course, I am a "baby boomer" who loves science fiction movies from the 50s--in fact, I have an interest in the whole history of sci-fi/fantasy films. It's possible that younger viewers, used to the current technological wizardry in film, will find "Conquest" dated and slow. If they give it a chance, though, there is much to enjoy.

After the spectacular "When Worlds Collide" and "War of the Worlds", George Pal returned to the almost "semi-documentary" style of his first big feature, which heralded the 50s sci-fi boom, "Destination Moon". Stationed above the earth in a huge, wheel-shaped space station, a group of astronauts prepare to fly a spaceship to the moon. They are then notified of a change in plan--the moon is no longer the target--they are to undertake a much longer, and more perilous journey to the planet Mars.

There are no big stars in this film--clearly most of the budget went on special effects. Most of the actors are quite stoic, including faces familiar to fans of vintage television--actors like Eric Fleming, William Hopper and Ross Martin. The leader of the expedition, General Merritt, is played by Walter Brooke, a no-nonsense commander who goes by the book, although he actually finds himself turning to the "good book". He finds strength in the Bible, although it creates doubts in his mind about Man's right to invade new worlds. Mickey Shaughnessy over-acts outrageously as Sergeant Mahoney, a stereotypical, emotional Irish American--although his performance is actually a welcome contrast to that of most of the other actors.

One other performance of note--Benson Fong plays Imoto, the Japanese member of the crew. With just ten short years since the end of the war between the United States and Japan, it is interesting and refreshing that George Pal decided on a Japanese character in this film. The message is obvious--we should put aside our past earthly squabbles--if we are to explore the vast unknown of space, we must all pull together. This is a theme that the Star Trek series was to champion later. I should add that Fong has a compelling speech about Japan's interest, and pride, in being part of the great adventure.

The theme of science and religion not necessarily being incompatible is raised here, perhaps not entirely successfully. It is a debate that continues to this day.

For 1955, the special effects are excellent--the space station--the interstellar vehicles--the astronauts going for "space walks"--you cannot help but wonder how much this film influenced the Kubrick masterpiece, "2001". Two renowned experts were on hand to add to the film's authenticity--Willy Ley was one of the world's foremost pioneers in rocketry--Chesley Bonestell was a writer and artist, famous for his paintings of other worlds and "spacescapes". His work enhanced "Destination Moon", and it is a major plus here. George Pal's frequent collaborator, Byron Haskin, directs with his usual professionalism.

The DVD is gorgeous--this is a very colourful film, and the quality here, except for the occasional strident flesh-tone, is excellent. There are no extras, except a trailer.

"Conquest of Space" is now some fifty years old, but it still captures our sense of wonder about the future, and the exploration of our solar system and beyond. If your idea of a sci-fi movie is loads of action, and plenty of aliens to battle, this film may not be for you. On the other hand, if--as I said earlier--you have a more serious interest in the history of the sci-fi film, "Conquest of Space" deserves a place in your DVD collection.

This DVD version of CONQUEST OF SPACE finally treats the movie with the respect it deserves and gets FIVE stars. The anamorphic 1:1.85 widescreen image is so great, crisp, and clean it's like watching the film in the theater for the first time. Three cheers for the technicians who did the transfer!

Never has the screen shown--before or since!--a better starscape than this picture (no, not even FORBIDDEN PLANET, 2001, or STAR WARS). The opening moments show a classic round von Braun space station hanging and spinning in space with an interplanetary vehicle parked nearby. Space has never been so black, nor the stars so scintillating. The score by Van Cleave underscores the sense of wonder--both eerie and majestic--inherent in these scenes.

I first saw CONQUEST OF SPACE when I was ten. This was at a time when our local theater ran Saturday "Kiddie Mantinees" for 25 cents admission during the '50s when the feature was almost always a science-fiction movie. That's how I saw INVADERS FROM MARS, EARTH VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS, 20 MILLION MILES TO EARTH and others for the first time. As much as I was thrilled by these movies, the one that touched me the most was CONQUEST OF SPACE.

Fast forward to the '80s and '90s. The only VHS version of the film that I'm aware of could not be more terrible. The blacks are washed out due to the positively poor resolution of the tape. Even more disappointing, when the opening title sequence begins a few minutes after the start of the film, the image on the pan-and-scan VHS suddenly and unaccountably reduces in size so that the titles run in a foreshortened box surrounded by black bars on all sides. As soon as "Directed By" finishes, the movie jumps back to fill the standard TV screen. Since this sequence is one of the more dramatic moments in the film, this VHS version completely destroys the film makers' intent. Fast forward again. A couple of years ago, I discovered a Japanese Laserdisc version of the movie on E-Bay. I bought the disc hoping against hope that the Laserdisc would be an improvement over the VHS. Unfortunately it is the exact same poor resolution pan-and scan version as the VHS. But all that is in the past now thanks to this practically perfect DVD, which has restored the title sequence to its original widescreen glory.

Since this is a George Pal film, the special visual effects are as good as they could get for their time. The story about a trip to Mars has many moments of spine-tingling wonder. But, due to studio interference and pressure, the script was rushed and could have been better. The depiction of the surface of Mars was dramatic and cinematically wondrous in 1954 and knocked my socks off, but has little to do with the photographs of martian landscapes that we are familiar with today from the various NASA Mars missions.

But now I'm quibbling. This DVD is a dream come true and is the best rendering of this film since its original theatrical release in 1954. For those who wish to learn more about the production of CONQUEST OF SPACE and George Pal's other marvelous science-fiction and fantasy films, check out the out-of-print book THE FILMS OF GEORGE PAL by Gail Morgan Hickman.

UPDATE: I first reviewed this movie in 2003, when it was only available on DVD. Since that time a DVD has been produced, and while it is lacking extras, the conversion to Widescreen was worth it to me to upgrade my copy. The print is clean, good color, sound is crisp. Now on to my original review.

This film is an example of great 50's sci-fi from special effects wizard and producer George Pal. The space scenes hold up well for me and are not corny at all 50 years later. I still get excited watching the space wheel over a decade before Kubricks 2001 version. There are no hokey monsters or aliens in rubber suits here, man is his own worst enemy. This movie goes far beyond most sci-fi films of its time, exploring many issues of the human spirit for exploration in the face of danger. For one thing, it has an international cast to people the space station and the mission that it launches to Mars. There is discussion of the danger ahead, disagreements, accusations, forgiveness, and sacrifice. Lots of suspenseful moments, and someone is trying to sabotage the journey.

The trip is fraught with danger including a realistic tethered spacewalk. This is the first film I know of that showed a space burial. There are some minor glitches here and there, like the gloves that are not sealed to the spacesuits, but other touches like loss of gravity are well done. Lots of great gadgets, and neat spaceships that "transform" without looking cartoonish. While the special effects are fun and look eye-popping for their time, the gift of this movie is in its most subtle moments. This is one to see more than once. The desperation when they are stranded without water is carried off very well, and when they are near death and denying that there is any higher power in the universe a miracle occurs in a scene straight out of "It's a Wonderful Life". The crew is very human, and has interesting interaction with each other.

The scenes of the crew preparing for the journey are comical, and light-hearted so that the film is not always weighed down with danger. The character actors are a fresh contrast to the usual cookie cutter crew in a movie of this type. I recommend this movie for its sincere efforts at realism for tis time, while never failing to entertain with a solid script, good actors, and terrific special effects. I heartily recommend to my fellow Sci-Fi buffs.

If you saw this movie when it was brand-new and you were a 10-year-old boy, it'll always have a special place in your heart.

This is actually two movies. The first half is the pedestrian, uninspired one as preparations are made inside an orbiting space station -- nicknamed the "Wheel" because of its shape -- for man's first flight to Mars. The situations and dialog here are laced with that oafish humor which George Pal apparently felt was necessary to sugar-coat the movie's more technical aspects.

Once the ship is launched, however, things markedly improve and the movie's second half contains scene after scene which still linger in the memory even after more than 40 years: the encounter with an asteroid, the burial in space, the landing on Mars, the snowfall during a Martian Christmas, etc.

Three members of the cast went on to greater renown. Eric Fleming soon starred in TV's "Rawhide" series with Clint Eastwood. William Redfield piloted a miniature submarine through the human body in "Fantastic Voyage." And Walter Brooke later said one word in "The Graduate" to Dustin Hoffman -- "Plastics."

In this follow-up to "Destination Moon" producer George Pal wanted to show how, possibly, our life in space would look. He used the book THE CONQUEST OF SPACE by Willy Ley and Chesley Bonestell as his basis and created a story of the first manned expedition to Mars. While the technology is deeply rooted in the 1950's, it interesting to note that the rotating space station that figures so prominently in the first half of the film is built as a combined project of the US, UK, Germany, Japan, Russia, etc., the same as the soon-to-be-launched ISS. While the film is not nearly as good as some of Pal's other works, such as "War of the Worlds" or "When Worlds Collide," it's still definitely worth a look.

Sadly, the producers of the video decided to release the tape in the EP/SLP format, resulting in a picture that is OK, but very grainy and sometimes hard to keep on track. It does have Hi-Fi sound, which is nice and clear. END

This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of this remarkable film. If you were born before the start of the Space Age it is a real nostalgic blast from the past. If you were born later, then it gives you a window into the minds of the visionaries of space flight. Both Chesley Bonestell and Willey Ley were advisors on this project, so you know that both the visual design and the technical background must be first rate. In fact, it is absolutely amazing how non-dated much of the film is after all these years. Plus, you get that indefinable positive spirit from the Age of Optimism. This is the sort of film that fueled the dreams of many a young scientist and engineer.

A pleasant additional aspect is seeing all those great old familiar faces in the cast that would later go on to television fame: Eric Fleming in "Rawhide", William Hopper in "Perry Mason", Ross Martin in "Wild, Wild West", and even Vitto Scotti in "Laverne and Shirley."

As for this release of this film, the "Master Sharp imprint" makes this the sharpest, brightest, clearest version since the original theatrical release.

For me this was the great unseen film that I had seen stills from since childhood. After avoiding the VHS tape I had heard so many bad things about, I got the DVD the day it went on sale. I had heard that this was one of the many many science fiction films Stanley Kubrick watched with Arthur C. Clarke during preproduction of "2001: A Space Odyssey," but I was unprepared for some eerie similarities that I cannot write off as mere coincidence. "Conquest of Space" is a film in which a civilian scientist arrives by transport on a wheel-shaped space station orbiting Earth, astronauts watch TV from Earth and watch one-way messages from their loved ones, a spacecraft's mission is prepared in secrecy and its destination changed just before launch, an astronaut is killed while making a repair to a spacecraft antenna and his body must be retrieved, and the crewmember in charge of a space mission goes insane and tries to kill other crew and sabotage the mission...

...and this was in 1955, not 1968.

But I don't want to build this up too much for those of you unaccustomed to 1950's science fiction movies. This isn't as good as "Forbidden Planet," but if you've enjoyed George Pal's other '50's films such as "Destination Moon," "War of the Worlds," and "When Worlds Collide," then you will probably see a great deal of the charm in this admittedly lesser though perhaps more ambitious work.

On so many levels this is the quintessential gee-whiz 50's sci-fi movie, and the corny characters, dopey dialog and absurd plot angles are all a part of that.

When you think about it, all the characters in this movie behave like little boys. Check out especially the belligerent Irish Sergeant. He's a classic bully's henchman. Loyal beyond reason, and always shooting off his mouth. This movie was intended to be a boy's adventure. The only women in it at all are seen at a distance in broadcasts from earth. One is a cartoonish girlfriend played entirely for laughs, and the other is somebody's mom. These guys are like boy scouts going off to summer camp.

That's what I liked best about it. The over the top juvenile nature of all the characters. It's all about absurd performances! Check out the dive across the table that the Sergeant takes when the "Wheel" gets shaken up... I think he sweeps the whole thing clean! Or that horrible condescending speech they put in the mouth of the Japanese character. Even the religious nuttiness of the General fits this film perfectly. And it just wouldn't be complete without the wisecracking Brooklyn guy who is a whiz at electronics. That's like a 50's stock character almost. They don't even give him a name here, they just call him "Brooklyn".

The effects are almost surreal in their simpleness. They and the story and the acting all fit perfectly. Sure it's unlikely that a guy who is smart enough to lead the space program wouldn't be dumb enough not to guess that the rocket plans he's been given are more appropriate for Mars than the moon. Sure the Japanese guy takes his glove off to plant a seed in Martian soil with his BARE HAND!!! You can't look to this movie for sceitific accuracy or Oscar Nominated Acting. Look to it for what it does have:

An unexplained space station shake-up!
The obligitory Asteroid!
Neato toys based on classic Bonestel/Von Braun/Ley rocket dreams!
The obligitory face stretching scene!

MST3K ready dialog!
The obligitory accidental weightlessness scene!
The first ever (I think) astronaut killed by a micrometeorite in film!
The first ever burial in space!
The first ever snowfall on Mars! (Later used in the classic Star Blazers animated series, and I'll bet it's a conscious nod there.)
A cast of international steriotypes, ie. a loud obnoxious Irish guy, a louder, more obnoxious Brooklynite, a momma's boy German (or could be Austrian I guess) guy, a dignified Japanese guy who, despite the fact that the filmmakers were obviously trying to be enlightened about, still manage to give the most uncomfortable speech to, the overbearing whitebread American and his oppressed but dutiful son.

If all of that sounds like alot of retro flavored fun to you, then you won't even mind so much that this tape is cruddy EP. It's cheap, it's a gas, and you should get it.

I for one would love it if there ever is a great DVD version made. Something on par with the awesome "Destination Moon" disc. Until then, if you want a little better glimpse at what the effects in this film really look like, check out the DVD of "The Fantasy Film Worlds of GEORGE PAL", track 15. They've got the scene where the astronauts jump off the shuttle rocket to float toward the Wheel, the ENTIRE asteroid sequence, including the German (or Austrian) guy taking a fragment to the gut, AND the famous burial in space. The image quality on these clips is top notch, and it'll make you weep in comparison to the miserable EP video tape.

I'd have given this tape 5 stars if it hadn't been in EP mode. But don't wait for the DVD, we may never get one. If it sounds like fun, and you like 50's sci-fi, get this tape AND the fabulous "The Fantasy Worlds of GEORGE PAL" DVD, and have a good old fashioned Space Blast!

IN A SENTENCE - WHAT'S RIGHT ABOUT "CONQUEST OF SPACE"

This film is quite an amazing character-driven spectacle in deep space, and even more so when we recall that the continuous stream of terrific special effects it showcases were created over 50 years ago -- REEL WOW!

WHAT'S NOT QUITE RIGHT:

A slow methodically paced beginning which then races into an unplanned flight to Mars brings forth the unmotivated spewing of biblical interpretations by the General, out of the nowhere, which lead to near disaster.

STRIKING A BALANCE: [skip down to the "Bottom Line" if you wish to avoid knowing too much about the plot]

This film seemed set up for a lengthy epic voyage. The cast was there and we got to know them a little, while they were on "the donut". The effects which illustrated the donut were first-rate as were the depictions of deep-space, near collisions with asteroids, space-walks, and the Martian surface. Even the astronaut's equipment looks good even today, and after all, there was NO Space Exploration equipment designs that had been utilized in 1954 for this film to draw from.

SO HERE WE ARE:

We are twenty minutes into the film, we are getting to know an eclectic group of international astronauts with actors like Ross Martin and William Hopper to assure us that this is a the real deal. The actors were on a Space Station that was so realistic inside and out, that I truly wondered if the sets were functional or could have been. I mean, George Pal and Byron Haskin seemed ready to embark on their own Space Program after they shot the movie. The Space Station simply referred to as "The Donut" was that good.

ODD THINGS STARTED HAPPENING:

By odd, I mean somewhat out of character for this type of campy fun film. It starts when William Hopper shows up at the Donut and reveals rather bluntly that the mission for the ship was going to be changed. The Moon was scratched in favor of a maiden manned flight to Mars. Benson Fong as "Imoto", the Mining expert, stood-up to volunteer and delivered a speech supporting the risky mission change, that went something like this; "I support going to Mars because as a Japanese adult I know what it means to be deprived of raw materials. We [Japanese] live in paper huts and without enough metal to make utensils or food to use the utensils. We live on chop-sticks and rice. This has caused the Japanese people to shrink and become smaller [physically]. I want to go on this mission because I don't want "Japan's today" to be the "world's tomorrow". Imoto also made some kind of reference to Japan's past aggression being provoked by this "chop-stick" and "paper-hut" society. Imoto concluded with something like, "I am a small man not worthy to be on this mission, but I volunteer".

While I am thinking about how I have a big problem with this, the leader, General Samuel Merrit [Walter Brooke] says something like; "your not a small man" and Imoto is on the team.

Then, Phil Foster as Sergeant Jackie Siegle, stands up and in support of Imoto says something like, "I don't want NO chop-sticks." So Siegel's going too, and Ross Martin as Andre Fodor from the former third reich, volunteers to join the others along with the General and his son Captain Bamey Merrit, played by Eric Fleming.

OK - SO IT'S "SPACE OPERA":

We realize now as our intrepid explorers embark for Mars that Stanley Kubrick did not direct this film. It is "Space Opera" NOT "Science-Fiction", which is still okay. We have a near-miss by a giant, red-glowing asteroid and the maneuver executed by the spaceship is neat, with the huge asteroid in the same frame. Very good stuff! We have a space-walk outside the speeding Mars bound craft for repairs and we have a fatality. Andre Fodor [Ross Martin] is struck by meteor fragments and he remains hanging in space apparently motionless.

THEN - "GEORGE PAL: WE HAVE A PROBLEM":

From the moment the General reads some passages out of the bible over the dead crewman, he becomes some kind of religious psychopath. He starts by suddenly, out of the blue, past mid-way in the film, spewing biblical quotes that resonate the message that, "for man to be in space is a blasphemy". He goes on ranting about how the bible says, "that man shall be cast to the four corners of the Earth. Nowhere in the bible does it say man should be in Space".

This sudden change in behavior by General Merrit is completely unmotivated and out of character, as the bible just suddenly appeared along with all the overused platitudes. It was ridiculous, but then it got worse as the General sabotaged the mission by trying to crash the ship on Mars, and then, by dumping all the potable water after landing on Mars. General Merrit was only stopped after his son inadvertently contributed to the General's death at which time a long-time friend [Mahoney] of the General, who had stowed away on-board, declared that Captain Merrit had murdered his father. He further demanded that a "rope would be put around Captain's Merrit's neck" after his court-martial on Earth.

HAD ENOUGH:

When they finally get off Mars, with Captain Merrit being the principal hero, Mahoney declares that the General had died as a hero and that's how he'll be remembered. Apparently he no longer felt a court-martial and a rope was the way to go for the Captain.



THE BOTTOM LINE: [skip to here to avoid having the contents of the movie divulged]

There was good stuff mixed in with some of the really far-fetched and unmotivated character/plot twists. The special effects and the settings in general are all first rate and the acting is certainly more than adequate despite the script. The atmosphere and the promise of a deep-space planetary voyage is still exciting stuff and this was technically well executed. Nevertheless, there is the feeling here that this could have been a true classic, like "War of the Worlds" which Pal and Haskin had completed only a year earlier.

This film is worth seeing and getting for the ambitious realisation of the incredible Chesley Bonestell and his paintings. This is the way man might have gone to space given an unlimited budget and a ten year head start on Sputnik and Gagarin. The film is a little corny even by 1950's standards, and having the Commander of the expedition go a little loony AND ultra-religious is somewhat jarring. But I do like this film, for it is visually well-done and it is what it is: a product of it's time.