Outland... Loin de la Terre

One of the best, if not the only, space opera thriller ever, directed by a very sci-fi oriented film director Peter Hyams, remember him with the terrific CAPRICORNE ONE and the lesser 2010, plus several films made decades later: STAY TUNED, END OF DAYS, A SOUND OF THUNDER.... Plus many films with nothing to do with science fiction, thrillers for most of them. So here, Sean Connery is excellent in the marshall role for this HIGH NOON in outer space. Very well done, very exciting. That's one of the best of the director, besides CAPRICORNE ONE, before he loses most of his ambition with the likes of JCVD for instance.

Outland (1981)

Plot In A Paragraph: Marshall O'Neil (Connery) stationed at a remote mining colony on the Jupiter moon of Io uncovers a drug-smuggling conspiracy, and gets no help from the people there, when he finds himself marked for death.

I still vividly remember watching this with my dad, the night he rented it on video. It was the first Connery movie I had watched since Diamonds Are Forever. As nothing he made in between that time interested either of my parents for them to rent the video or watch it on TV.

Essentially this is High Noon in space. A heavily tanned Connery is the new Marshal who does what a man must do. There are a number of parallels. Killers are on their way to kill the Marshal, who is abandoned abandoned by his deputies, and with none of the residents willing to stand by his side. As the arrival time approaches, Connery enters the cafeteria/saloon and speaks to the townspeople, repeating the classic Cooper line, "I could use a little help," receiving none. He must decide between fleeing and joining his wife and son, or staying and facing almost certain death.

Away from the parallels of High Noon, the plot here is an intriguing one, The miners were being given an illegal drug, which increased their output for 11 months and then drove them insane. Connery actually delivers a good performance, that seems to have been forgotten about by the masses, which is a shame as it still holds up today, and Connery does some great acting in a scene where he doesn't utter a line of dialogue, as he watches a video of his wife. Connery was not happy at this movie going over schedule, as he lost a major extended cameo role in Chariots of Fire due to it.

All in all, I find Outland to be an enjoyable movie, with good pacing and a good atmosphere, that I usually watch every couple of years.

Outland did fair business for a Connery non Bond movie grossing $17 million at the domestic box office. Slightly more than its $16 million budget.

Many other reviewers have characterized this film as "high noon in space". They're right. Connery, at 51 when the film was made still exudes the qualities that made him in my opinion the best Bond! He portrays a principled federal space marshal crossing swords with a corrupt mining director. Frances Sternhagen rounds out the cast as a grumpy yet effective medical officer. The film is darkly shot and gives you the impression that you are in space. After the first 15 minutes things quickly deteriorate boy with the central character's personal life and his professional one. The film keeps you engaged right up to the pivotal climax. I highly recommend it!

Let me say up front that any film with exploding people advances to the head of the class. "Scanners" ...awesome. "Robocop" ...grossalicious. "Spinal Tap" ...ahh, a moment of silence for Mick Shrimpton.

"Outland" shines (or should I say 'pops') with the best of them. And it's a great film to boot. More of a western than a scifi--its story has been compared to "High Noon"--it might be light on spaceships and laser battles, but it's definitely heavy on mood and atmosphere. If you like tense, dark, claustrophobic mood films like "Alien", "Das Boot" or even the recent "Pandorum", this is worth checking out.

Sean Connery plays a great character, not quite the perfect hero as James Bond whom he had played a few years prior, but instead he plays a very human, fallible and slightly vulnerable (if not scared) character reminiscent of the great Jimmy Stewart or Gregory Peck in their roles as reluctant heroes. So don't expect Sean to clean house the way Schwarzenegger might. Here he's clearly outnumbered and outgunned which adds to the chills of this suspenseful story.

Director Peter Hyams was at the peak of his game. Films like this, "Capricorn One" and "2010", all filmed within a 7-year stretch, exhibit the same dark, heavy vibe perfect for science fiction. Again let me repeat, you won't get a ton of flashy action scenes, but what you will get is a thick, suspenseful mood.

If you like old school scifi like the films I've mentioned, or if you like westerns, or if you like moody thrillers, I think you'll like this. You might like it so much your head will explode. And then you too will be awesome.

After leaving the James Bond franchise in 1971, Sean Connery gave a number of notable performances in films such as The Offense and The Man Who Would Be King but Outland is really the film that started him on the comeback trail that culminated with his Oscar acceptance speech 6 yrs later for The Untouchables. No one seems to recall this but at the time of Outland's release, no one had seen or heard from Connery for a few years and most of the reviews, while not kind to the film for a variety of reasons--chief among them being the fact that most movie critics (at least back then) harbored serious prejudice against sci fi--the main comment was "It is good to see Sean Connery back in action again".

This film has one of the best production designs ever.Phillip Harrison did a superb job. Obviously the look was copped from Alien--blue collar workers in space--but it works remarkably well. I was often reminded of OUTLAND during my seven year prison term; the housing was remarkably similar--as was the company. But I digress...

Nothing special about the plot-- it's routine cop show or western movie stuff--but who cares? Sean Connery gives a splendid performance and the whole film moves at a nice clip. Very enjoyable.