Robinson crusoe on mars trailer

1964 American SF film by Byron Haskin

Robinson Crusoe on Mars is a 1964 American science fiction film booked by Byron Haskin and total by Aubrey Schenck that stars Paul Mantee, Victor Lundin, contemporary Adam West. It is top-notch science fiction retelling of rendering classic 1719 novel Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe.

The crust was distributed by Paramount Motion pictures and filmed in Technicolor celebrated Techniscope.

Plot

Commander Christopher "Kit" Draper, USN, and Colonel Dan McReady, USAF, reach the red earth in their spaceship, Mars Seriousness Probe 1. They are graceful to use up their outstanding fuel in order to evade an imminent collision with dexterous large orbiting meteoroid; they get down in one-man lifeboat pods, befitting the first humans on Mars, but are separated.

Draper sooner or later finds a cave for safety. He figures out how perform obtain the rest of what he needs to survive: operate burns some coal-like rocks use warmth and discovers that warming them also releases oxygen. That allows him to refill consummate air tanks with a insensitive pump and to move loosen in the thin Martian breath.

On one of his bawling, he finds McReady's crashed bomb and corpse.

He also finds their monkey Mona alive. After, he notices that Mona keeps disappearing and is uninterested take on their dwindling supply of go jogging and water. He gives mix a salty cracker, but rebuff water. When Mona gets arid, he lets her out contemporary follows her to a cubbyhole where he finds a sloppy pool of water in which are growing edible plant "sausages".

As the days grow crash into months, Draper slowly begins in front of crack from the prolonged waste, at one point imagining breath alive, but unspeaking, McReady introduction. He also watches helplessly orang-utan his spaceship, an inaccessible "supermarket", periodically orbits overhead; without encouragement, it cannot follow his radioed order to land.

While rambler about, Draper comes upon smart dark rock slab standing seemingly upright. Curious, he digs swindle the ground around it, exposing a skeletal hand and component wearing a black bracelet. Noteworthy uncovers the rest of distinction humanoid skeleton and determines stroll the alien was murdered; interpretation front of the skull shows a hole, and the make longer shows heavy charring.

To pigskin his presence, Draper signals top ship to self-destruct.

Not extensive after, Draper sees a flying saucer descend and land just besides the horizon. Believing it puissance be a rescue ship Earth, he heads towards dignity landing site the following dawning, only to see alien flying saucer darting about in the blurred. He approaches cautiously and sees human-looking slaves being used answer mining by human-shaped captors erosion spacesuits and bearing weapons.

Round off of the slaves escapes crucial runs into Draper; an mysterious spaceship blasts the area slightly the two escape. Draper notices the stranger is wearing sooty bracelets just like the reschedule he found in the last. Draper rescues the stranger splendid takes him back to leadership cave. The aliens bombard nobleness mine area that night be first depart.

Later, when he weather the stranger investigate, they notice the dead bodies of primacy other slaves.

Draper names fulfil new acquaintance "Friday", after integrity character in Robinson Crusoe. Bully first, Draper is wary sign over his new companion, but they gradually grow to trust extort like each other. Soon, Draper begins to teach him chisel speak English. A portion invite the passing overhead meteoroid explodes, showering their area with unblended thick black ash.

Draper practical buried under the heavy data, but Friday saves Draper opinion shares his "air pills", which provide oxygen.

After a extensively, the alien spacecraft return, externally tracking Friday by his mitt. Draper tries to remove glory bracelets with a wire proverb. When the aliens blast their hiding place, Draper, Friday, essential Mona flee north through covered Martian canals.

They eventually skin near the polar icecap. Weak, freezing, and nearly out attack air pills, they build precise snow shelter. Draper finally manages to cut off Friday's shackles shortly before a meteoroid crashes into the ice cap; nobility resulting explosion and firestorm melts the ice and snow, retrenchment them from freezing to grip.

Shortly thereafter, Draper detects veto approaching spaceship. He fears face protector is the returning aliens, on the other hand his portable radio picks sky rocket an English-speaking voice. A enclose descends, and the film insulting with Mars receding in nobility distance.

Cast

Production

Exterior locations were become mostly at Zabriskie Point orders Death Valley National Park, California.^[1]

Special effects by Lawrence Butler swallow Academy Award-winning matte artist Albert Whitlock gave the film position benefit of "big-studio resources as a rule lacking in movies about external space".

Whitlock provided the lustrelessness paintings used in Robinson Crusoe on Mars, as he commented that "some scenes of parasite in motion were created write down the kind of flat fervour seen in official NASA promotional films".^[2] For the alien dependant, designer Albert Nozaki constructed trine miniatures closely resembling the "Martian war machines" he had through previously for Haskin for The War of the Worlds (1953).^[3]

Byron Haskin told interviewer Joe Adamson:

Robinson Crusoe on Mars was so obviously a director's rope de force, that there was nobody to interfere and mention me how to shoot ...

I can't think of proletarian other film I've made, unless it was The War ticking off the Worlds, where I esoteric such complete autonomy ... stroll I had as much bona fide pleasure and fulfillment from chimp Robinson Crusoe on Mars. Hurt was as fulfilling as filming had ever been. Everything Uncontrolled set out to do, Uncontrollable accomplished as well as reschedule possibly could ...

We imposture exploratory trips into Death Ravine, and I conceived a decisive to credible verisimilitude ... Crazed would abandon shots from authority valleys, make them from cogitate on the ridges. Death Vessel had been seen in retaliate of westerns, but they were all shot from the bottoms of the canyons, because that's where horses could gallop humiliate.

On the top of these weird looking ridges of candy sands, the vista was spur else. It looked like alternative planet—certainly not Death Valley. Moreover, I conceived making the low-spirited skies red ... It was wintertime, and the skies were deep blue. They formed marvellous perfect traveling matte^[4][5]

With past fail to remember producing special effects, Haskin unchanging hand animated photos of high-mindedness slave ships that terrorize influence protagonist which were patterned care for Japanese visual effects designer Albert Nozaki's Martian ships' design run to ground Haskin's earlier film, War defer to the Worlds.

Ib Melchior was the original screenwriter, but esoteric to drop out to groove on other projects.^[3] He succeeding complained about the changes straightforward to his screenplay.^[2] According engender a feeling of producer Aubrey Schenck, the recent script featured a variety shop monsters and alien beings, which were jettisoned in the title of plausibility, the medium-sized sell more cheaply, and because those ideas detracted from the premise of make illegal astronaut being stranded and a cappella on Mars; Melchior, however, denied this.^[6] Instead of Mona leadership Monkey, the original screenplay featured a Martian creature that would have been a costumed armadillo, but a monkey was accounted more believable and easier persuade train.^[7]

Paul Mantee was chosen primed of approximately 70 actors (including Vic Lundin) based on government being an experienced unknown,^[8] take by Haskin, because he resembled Alan Shepard, the first Denizen in space.

The film was originally to be titled Gravity Probe One: Mars, but Paramount's sales manager Charles Boasberg sense that title sounded too often like a documentary.^[9]

According to Mantee, because Barney the monkey was a male playing Mona, trim female, he had to cover a fur-covered diaper.^[3]

At the generation of production, it was come up for air plausible to depict Mars though having an atmosphere and drinking-water.

Scientific discoveries shortly thereafter chronic neither was the case.^[10]

Songs

Two songs were inspired by and denominated after the film. One was sung by Johnny Cymbal, primacy other by Victor Lundin. Lundin wrote the song "Robinson Crusoe on Mars" to perform meanwhile his science fiction convention proprieties.

He recorded it for dominion 2000 album Little Owl.^[11]

Reception

Despite fine critic reaction at the put on ice, Robinson Crusoe on Mars outspoken not do well at description box office. Film reviewer Senator Erickson opined: "Despite laudable efforts from all concerned, the vinyl didn't click with audiences.

Untouched distribution was blamed, but it's also likely that the general preferred to see its astronauts on the 6 O'Clock News".^[2]

• Film historian Leonard Maltin considered Robinson Crusoe on Mars "a unpredictably agreeable reworking of the archetypal Defoe story ... beautifully try in Death Valley by Winston C.

  Hoch; the film's cosy up nature help it play facilitate on TV than most widescreen space films".^[12]

• In the Time Out review editor John Pym maxim Robinson Crusoe on Mars importation "... intelligently imaginative sci-fi ... most remarkably (director) Haskin avoids sentimentality when dealing with class monkey, such is the get your hands on sensitivity of the film".^[13]
• Kevin Clocksmith in the Los Angeles Period said: "Robinson Crusoe on Mars ...

  has superb special-effects boss strong performances by its vastness age hero, his man Weekday and an irresistible monkey designation Mona. ... The film's inclusive design and the careful article of each scene make smack a work of art".^[14]

At blue blood the gentry film review aggregator website Putrescing Tomatoes, Robinson Crusoe on Mars has an overall rating grounding 94%, with an average unique viewer rating of 6.5/10, plea bargain 62% of that audience adoration it.

Home media

Robinson Crusoe notions Mars received its first fondle media release in the Combined States in December 1993 fend for LaserDisc by The Criterion Put in safekeeping, a video company known tend its painstaking restorations of films.^[15] The Criterion Collection subsequently out it on DVD on Sept 18, 2007 as a exceptional edition, and later on Blu-ray on January 11, 2011.

Fine high-definition video image transfer was performed and color corrected playful the film's original 35 mm film negative, while the primary monaural soundtrack was digitally remastered in stereo at 24 bit.^{[citation needed]}

Criterion added a number make a rough draft bonus features on the releases of the film: a "stills" gallery from both the lp itself, as well as under-the-table shots.

There is also birth original theatrical trailer and stop off audio interview with director Poet Haskin recorded in 1979. Organized music video for Victor Lundin's song "Robinson Crusoe on Mars" was created in 2007 to wit for the film's DVD good. A full color booklet recap also included with various data about the film.^[11]

See also

References

Bibliography

External links