Himmelskibet

I saw this film from 1918 recently at our local Helsinkian film archive. It seems that the Danish Film Institute has reconstructed it in 2006 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Nordisk filmcompany, which was one of the largest in the world in the early 20th century. I believe there are several copies with English translations circulating around Europe at the moment.

I found the film fascinating and the trip to Mars well thought out. The plot line is certainly original, but I really don't want to reveal any more of it at the moment, as now the danger of spoiling things for you really exists ;-).

The film is also available on DVD, query the Danish Film Institute (Det Danske Filminstitut) web pages at dfi.dk with 'Himmelskibet' to get more info.

The view of the world in this movie is clearly dated, but as the movie is from 1918, it's hard to put it against it. What is more impressive is everything it does right. This is not a movie using science fiction as a gimmick - it uses the genre to explore ideas about the time it was made. In the end of the first world war, here's a movie exploring if mankind can live in peace, how we treat our prisoners, how life in a submarine (here: spacecraft) can affect ones mental health, how pushing science forward is a global affair, and can unite different parts of the world, and so on.

While I am not sure just how much the general public knew about astronomy - this movie presents the mission to mars in a way that seems realistic. It takes time, people doubt it, and it takes a toll on the members. They point out where mars will be as they leave Earth, and where it will be when they arrive. The spacecraft itself is like a submarine with a propeller and wings. Mars itself I am sure was quite a mystery back then, so the fact that they made it Earth-like is very understandable. It also opened up for them using Mars and Martians in a way that let the film makers comment on the people of Earth.

The movie is not subtle in the message it is conveying: people on earth should stop with wars and violence and rather go with love. In the end of the most gruesome war in world history up till that point - that sounds like a good message.

The worst part about this movie is the one evil character in it. He serves little purpose, and undermines the underlying message of the film that humans are capable of being good.

Sci-fi is a rapidly changing genre. It loses impact even more rapidly than horror. Therefore it's virtually impossible to see a sci-fi movie from the past (from the pre-space period, i.e. late 50s) that isn't laughable in some sense. First serious sci-fi epics appeared in the very early 50s, and bearing in mind the first space yarn was filmed by Melies in 1902, we get about 50 years of sci-fi without the very basic concepts of space travel. Where The Trip To The Moon can be dismissed as a funny experiment, The Trip To Mars cannot. This is a serious film. The makers didn't know about weightlessness or the absence of atmosphere in space, plus about a hundred more things we know today. That was the period, when everybody was raving about the channels on Mars, so they naturally assumed there was intelligent life on that planet. Melies shows frogmen and other strange creatures on the Moon; in 1924 there appears the still popular tinfoil dress for Martians in Russian film Aelita. So, in between, we get the Egypto-Greek fairy-tale world of this film: wise old priests being wise; and virgins prancing around, praising virtue in the world, where virtue obviously is as normal and unnoticeable as metabolism. Enter the Earthlings, introducing death and sin. Well, nothing spectacular follows: they soon are "cured" and learn the ways of the righteous. This film is a total orgy of enjoyment. The double feature released by the Danish Film Institute (together with a disaster film from 1916, The End Of The World) boosts their usual superior quality. The Danes began storing and archiving their films very early, so you get a very clean second generation copy from a period when most of US films withdrawn from circulation went to the glue or comb factory. It's a pity this film with so many different locations isn't color tinted. The rather uninspired piano accompaniment, another trade mark of the series from the DFI, tends to grow a bit tedious too. But nevertheless, a remarkable film and something you can show to your friends without being afraid that they'll think you're a weirdo.

I don't know of any other full length science fiction film that was made before The Trip to Mars. So in that sense it's the first. I watched other silent sci-fi films from the beginning of the 20th century but all of them were no longer than 15 minutes, and this one was the first of that era that I took seriously.

It held my attention through the movie and it has some very nice and moving scenes. Despite being silent the makers managed to pack it with an interesting and engaging plot, good actors play, science fiction, drama, adventure and a love story. It has an amazing well-built spaceship and special effects are fairly good for the time. The film has very strong religious and Christianity-rooted undertones with a message of hope for humanity plagued with murder, hatred and deceit. Another surprise was that the film was nothing like many other sci-fi movies, most of which came out of Hollywood - just clichés that were about either aliens being vicious monsters, or some oversexed alien women, or an imbecile earth superhero. This one does offer the viewer a chance to engage his brain and heart which is probably more important that the above mentioned infantile and unintelligent consumer rubbish.

So it was quite an unexpected surprise to see such an old and yet very good film and I very much recommend it to any lover of science fiction who can be interested in the oldies just as much as the modern cinema and likes to get something out of film.

The only time I've seen this rare Scandinavian foray into sci-fi territory mentioned anywhere - prior to its DVD availability courtesy of the Danish Film Institute - was in a literate appraisal of the genre by noted critic Philip Strick (who, incidentally, passed away recently). This alone would make it interesting and a film to seek out - but, alas, while undeniably good to look at (a traditionally Danish quality, I might add), dramatically it turned out to be a major disappointment!

Apart from being technically stilted and plagued by the exaggerated gestures of the actors (a well-established liability of most Silent-era product), it also presents a totally different view of Mars and its inhabitants to the one we've grown accustomed to seeing in later American films tinged by paranoia. Not only is there no concentrated effort to show an alternative landscape for the red planet, but the Martians themselves are merely benevolent humans fitted in Roman-era attire (with the addition of some outlandish accoutrements): apparently, they were once as 'barbaric' as us but have gradually attained enlightenment - and, though their language is different from that of their earthly visitors, they're somehow able to transmit their thoughts to them! In essence, it's clear that the film is infused with the last remnants of 19th century Romanticism (some of the title cards are unbelievably hokey) which Weimar Germany and, then, the Wall Street crash helped eradicate - leading to a change in the general attitude of cinema.

The ultimate intent of the picture, obviously, was a general plea for tolerance and understanding (WWI was still raging when the film emerged); however, while certainly watchable (and short enough at 81 minutes not to lapse into boredom), the almost total lack of tension between the inhabitants of the two planets - where, back home, it's represented by the ripe but highly amusing villainy of a Mephistophelean character who, eventually, gets his just desserts by way of a lightning bolt! - makes for an altogether dull narrative. Besides, virtually none of the occupants of the vessel - which itself constitutes nothing more fanciful than an airship - who have been assembled from all over the world (and are contemplating mutiny against their stoic captain when the journey takes longer than expected!) get to do much of anything once they land on Mars!!