Nebo zovyot

1997: after a catastrophic atomic war, the Earth has divided into two rival nations, the North Hemis and the South Hemis, both sides locked in a battle to be the first to land on Mars.

Battle Beyond the Sun started life as a state-sponsored Russian sci-fi movie called Nebo Zovyat— a breath-taking, prophetic vision of the Soviet Union's journey into space; in the disrespectful hands of opportunistic producer Roger Corman and a young and eager-to-please Francis Ford Coppola, what was once awe-inspiring becomes laughable, the pair badly dubbing and drastically re-editing the original two hour epic to a mere 64-minutes of clumsy space melodrama (albeit it with impressive effects), 'enhanced' by silly inserts of space monsters that look suspiciously like genitalia.

It's dull going as the two nations race to the 'Red Planet' only to fail with the finishing line in sight, and the feel-good moral of the tale—that rival nations must co-operate if they want to achieve truly great things—does little to compensate for the sheer shoddiness of the whole cut-and-paste approach and the frustrating fact that the wonders of Mars remain unseen.

My giving this a score of 3 is NOT what I would give the original Soviet version of this film. It seems that American-International (a studio that specialized in ultra-low-budget fare in the 60s) bought this film and utterly destroyed it--slicing a two hour plus film into a 64 minute film! Plus, much of this 64 minutes was new material (such as the "monsters")--so you know that this film bears almost no similarity to the original. The original film appears to be a rather straight drama about the Soviet conquest of space--though I really am not sure what it was originally! For insight into the original film, read Steven Nyland's review--it was very helpful.

By the way, this was the third Soviet sci-film I've seen that American-International bought and then hacked apart to make a "new" film--standard practice to a company that was willing to put just about anything on the screen to make a buck--provided, of course, it didn't cost them much more than a buck in the first place!! This Americanized film was about two rival world powers (NOT the US and Soviets) trying to be the first to Mars. The tricky "bad guys" try but fail and the "good guys" rescue one of the idiot astronauts and then head to Mars. Unfortunately, they are temporarily stranded on a moon of Mars where they see some monsters (added by American-International) that are REAAAALLY cheesy and one does bear similarity to a certain part of a female's anatomy. Then, they are rescued--returning to Earth heroes.

The bottom line is that the film was butchered--turning an incredibly beautiful piece of art (for the time) being turned into a grade-C movie. Because of this, the Soviets really had a reason to hate America! I'm just shocked that the horrible job A-I did with this film didn't convince them to refuse to sell more films to these jerks! It's worth a look for a laugh, but the really bad moments that make you laugh are few and far between. So, the film is a dud--not bad enough to make it a must-see for bad movie buffs and too dopey to be taken seriously. I would really love to see this movie in its original form--it must have been some picture.

UPDATE--nietogimenez sent me an email indicating the original IS available and said you can just Google for it.

Although bearing the AIP logo and giving the characters all-American names like Craig Matthews and Paul Clinton the credits give the game away by revealing that it's actually a Mosfilm production in characteristically hot colours bought by Roger Corman's Filmgroup who engaged the services of his illustrious protege Francis Ford Coppola (credited as Associate Producer) depicting an international endeavour to colonise Mars; which seemed a far more imminent prospect sixty years ago that it does today, with a couple of monsters thrown in that manage to be both absurd and Freudian in equal measure.

One of my sci-fi/horror/fantasy reviews written 50 years ago: Directed by M. Karzukov and Aleksandr Kozyr (reworked version by Francis Ford Coppola); Produced by Tatyana Kulchitskaya for Dovzhenko Film Studios (reworked version by Roger Corman, released in America by American-International Pictures. Photography by N. Kulchiskiy; Music by Yuli Meitus (reworked version by Carmine Coppola). Starring Ivan Pereverzev and Alla Popova; plus voices by Andy Stewart and Aria Powell.

Another waste of a foreign sci-fi film (from Russia), chopped up, dubbed and voice-over narrated to no avail. Beginning with a boring prologue expressing the authors' inflated view of the film's historical importance, this set in 1997 tale of the race of Earth's two powers (North and South hemis) to claim Mars is virtually devoid of continuity or interesting stuff. Nothing really happens, and just to punch up the action, a foolish fight between a giant insect creature and a headless hulk with eyestalks is inserted amidst otherwise straight science fiction.

In anticipation of Megalopolis (2024) coming out next month, it's time for me to finally binge through the filmography of legendary filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola and that begins with his first movie, Battle Beyond the Sun (1959) and it was certainly interesting.

Positives for Battle Beyond the Sun (1959): It was interesting to watch a movie made by both Francis Ford Coppola and Roger Corman. The movie's premise is very simple in both concept and execution. The effects with rockets and shuttles for the most part are decent enough in this movie.

Negatives for Battle Beyond the Sun (1959): The movie is very low budget and it definitely feels like something that Roger Corman would make. The camera quality is very granny. And finally, there were times to where I lost interest in watching the movie.

Overall, Battle Beyond the Sun (1959) is a interesting start to the legendary career of Francia Ford Coppola.