This is a movie about a different planet.
That planet would be the Planet Earth of 1952. The Cold War was in full swing, and paranoia was at its height. Yes, it was "The End of History" (oh, really, again?) and everything was so important, and everyone was so self-important.
This pile of leavings disguised as a movie started off as a Very Serious Stage Play by A Very Serious Playwright. 60 years later, it is a joke to be laughed at and mocked. The worst of part of is not its religious orientation, its anti-communist propaganda, or its self-righteous attitude (although all those aspects of it are definitely awful).
The worst part of Red Planet Mars, from the perspective of a film viewer, is its insufferable self-seriousness and pomposity. That attitude sends this disaster flinging itself into almost Plan Nine From Outer Space territory. I'm sure the screenwriter thought his use of Jesus Christ references was subtle and restrained. If he was of such an opinion, he was way off. I'll spare the reader of this review any direct dialog quotes, since none of them were as funny as anything from Plan Nine From Outer Space, just overdone and ridiculous.
I'd like to also grouse about the plot point that these purported messages from Mars would destroy all industries almost immediately. Coal Miners would shut down profit making enterprises due to a few supposed technological advances that MIGHT be coming? The commodities markets would collapse due to food growing techniques on another planet that we on Earth could have no possible access to? I don't think so. As they say, follow the money. The Capitalists in charge would surely keep their businesses running until they had wrung out the last possible cent they could.
And if these industries were to collapse, I wouldn't have any problems seeing coal miners forced to do something else. It's a lousy job and it destroys the environment anyway. But I'm sure this was all to play into the paranoia of the contemporary audience, and I'm sure it was effective to some members of that audience.
Yes, this is a valuable piece of history as a blatantly Right Wing/Capitalist/Christian Science Fiction epic, which are admittedly rather thin on the ground. But this movie just proves why they are so few.
Right Wingers are very bad at comedy, but Right Wingers also produce some really overwrought and useless Science Fiction (also see: Heinlein, Robert; Rand, Ayn; Niven, Larry). Case in point here. Science Fiction is all about progress. Conservatism is about "returning to a better time" in the past, which never really existed. Therefore, science fiction and Conservatism/Right Wingism are NOT compatible. This movie proves that.
That planet would be the Planet Earth of 1952. The Cold War was in full swing, and paranoia was at its height. Yes, it was "The End of History" (oh, really, again?) and everything was so important, and everyone was so self-important.
This pile of leavings disguised as a movie started off as a Very Serious Stage Play by A Very Serious Playwright. 60 years later, it is a joke to be laughed at and mocked. The worst of part of is not its religious orientation, its anti-communist propaganda, or its self-righteous attitude (although all those aspects of it are definitely awful).
The worst part of Red Planet Mars, from the perspective of a film viewer, is its insufferable self-seriousness and pomposity. That attitude sends this disaster flinging itself into almost Plan Nine From Outer Space territory. I'm sure the screenwriter thought his use of Jesus Christ references was subtle and restrained. If he was of such an opinion, he was way off. I'll spare the reader of this review any direct dialog quotes, since none of them were as funny as anything from Plan Nine From Outer Space, just overdone and ridiculous.
I'd like to also grouse about the plot point that these purported messages from Mars would destroy all industries almost immediately. Coal Miners would shut down profit making enterprises due to a few supposed technological advances that MIGHT be coming? The commodities markets would collapse due to food growing techniques on another planet that we on Earth could have no possible access to? I don't think so. As they say, follow the money. The Capitalists in charge would surely keep their businesses running until they had wrung out the last possible cent they could.
And if these industries were to collapse, I wouldn't have any problems seeing coal miners forced to do something else. It's a lousy job and it destroys the environment anyway. But I'm sure this was all to play into the paranoia of the contemporary audience, and I'm sure it was effective to some members of that audience.
Yes, this is a valuable piece of history as a blatantly Right Wing/Capitalist/Christian Science Fiction epic, which are admittedly rather thin on the ground. But this movie just proves why they are so few.
Right Wingers are very bad at comedy, but Right Wingers also produce some really overwrought and useless Science Fiction (also see: Heinlein, Robert; Rand, Ayn; Niven, Larry). Case in point here. Science Fiction is all about progress. Conservatism is about "returning to a better time" in the past, which never really existed. Therefore, science fiction and Conservatism/Right Wingism are NOT compatible. This movie proves that.