Warner Home Video takes another almost forgotten film from the vaults and gives it new life on Blu-ray. Outland was a science fiction film that took place on a mining colony on Jupiter’s moon Io. The production design owed a huge debt to Ridley Scott’s Alien from two year’s earlier, with it’s grimy, cramped mining base standing in for the grimy, cramped spaceship Nostromo. Of course after Alien, movie-goers probably expected that a movie taking place in the outer regions of the galaxy would certainly have alien beings somewhere on the mining colony … but there aren’t. In fact, if you look real close, Outland is only science fiction in its setting; in reality, it’s just a Western that happens to be set in outer space.
The story is a pretty (stereo)typical Western story — a new, idealistic sheriff comes to town, the police already there are probably corrupt, there’s a fat cat who believes he’s above the law running the place, and there are hired gunslingers brought in to take care of the new sheriff. There are shootouts and even a saloon, except instead of dancing girls there are male/female couples writhing around in laser lights dancing/simulating sex. Yeah, it’s not exactly your grandpa’s Western, but it’s close enough. Sean Connery plays Marshall William T. O’Niel, an officer who works for the mining company and it’s assumed he’ll just come there and do his time and go off to the next location (his wife, fed up with the moving from place to place heads back to earth with their son, who’s never set foot on earth). Except the mining workers begin to die mysteriously, or rather kill themselves under strange circumstances (John Ratzenberger is the first victim of what happens to the human body when a space suit is depressurized), and O’Niel discovers there is an illicit drug trade on the station that pretty much everyone but he and the doctor (played by the wonderful Frances Sternhagen) know about. O’Niel must take the high road and put an end to the situation before more people die.
I remember seeing Outland when it was released, and the big draw (besides being a space movie) was the new special effects process used in the film called Introvision. This process allowed a director to compose a scene with special effects all in camera without the use of timely and costly optical compositing. Models and rear projection could be viewed through the lens to make sure the effects worked without having to wait for the film processing. Now this was all before CGI could create entire worlds, and it was supposed to be the next big thing in special effects. Unfortunately, as technically impressive as the process is, you rarely get the feel that you’re looking at anything but a miniature model, and an image projected on a background. There’s never any real depth to the scenes that take place outside the colony, like one moment when O’Niel is tracking one of the hired killers on the outside structure of the facility with space and Jupiter practically right over his shoulder. But the process was deemed a success, and was used in a handful of films, most successfully in the runaway train scene of The Fugitive (the last film to use the process before digital compositing became the norm).
The cast does their best with what they’re given, but they are all Western stereotypes. Peter Boyle is the bad guy, and even though he has a full beard he does manage to refrain from twirling his mustache. Connery is the stalwart good guy out for justice and he does get to kick some ass. The movie could have used more Sternhagen. She’s really the “comedy relief” and delivers all of the zingers with great nonchalance that makes the lines funnier than if she actually played them for laughs. Of course, she’s also the one other “honest” person on the facility, so she helps O’Niel when needed. Is Outland a great piece of science fiction? No, not at all, but it is unique enough and for a generation that has never seen a Western, they’d probably never realize that’s what they were watching (a commentary track by director Peter Hyams tells the story of how this actually went from a Western to a “Space Opera”). Interesting effects, a couple of heads exploding, and a great line-up of actors makes this worth seeing at least once.
For the new Blu-ray edition, Warners delivers a very nice, film-like image with light grain throughout (what a film is supposed to look like). The effects process doesn’t compromise the original film elements with various layers of optical printing since everything was done in camera, so the image remains sharp even in effects shots (perhaps too sharp). The cinematography is on the dark side, but appropriate given the setting and doesn’t detract from the film. Jerry Goldsmith provides a solid score. The video is presented in full 1080p high definition with a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 English track. Other audio options are Dolby Digital 2.0 in French, German, Italian, and Castillian Spanish, plus a DD 1.o track in Latin Spanish. Subtitles are available in English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Norwegian, and Swedish. The audio commentary with Peter Hyams is apparently new to the Blu-ray edition, and he talks about the making of the movie and working with Sean Connery. There is also a theatrical trailer.
If you remember Outland from back in the day, or if you’ve never seen it and are looking for something a little different from your modern day science fiction spectacle, the new Blu-ray is definitely worth your time.
Clacked by Chuck Duncan 
on Jul 20, 2012 @ 10:00 EST5EDT
