Anyone else get the sneaking suspicion that director Peter Hyams wanted to be Ridley Scott so bad?
I’m ribbing, of course (although, I wouldn’t minded seeing what Scott would have done with Timecop), but after you’ve barely gotten five minutes into Hyams’ defiantly gritty space/western, Outland, it’s pretty obvious that the director has something of an affinity for the world of Alien. To be blunt, they’re virtually the same, with chunky, tactile sets; a wardrobe that also strongly favors caps with patches on the front; and a blue-collar aesthetic that strongly leans on science-fact over fiction, Outland could easily pass as an official spin-off. Hell, it even contains a ruthless corporation and has Jerry Goldsmith on score duties!
However, strip away the fact that it’s trying to be Alien, but without the alien, can Hyams’ genre-blending epic thrive beyond the obvious comparisons?
Located on the moon of Jupiter known as Io we find Con-Am 27, a titanium ore mining outpost owned by the company Con-Amalgamated. It’s a fairly rugged business, drilling for minerals on a distant moon, but after putting in ridiculous days, the blue collar workers like to blow of steam in a myriad of different ways; but when one worker suddenly experiences explosive decompression after ripping of his suit on the moon’s surface after violently hallucinating – well, something’s gone a little south.
Enter federal marshal William O’Niel, who has been finding his current tour of duty as Con-Am 27’s top lawman fairly hard going. His wife simply can’t handle the dingy, cooped-up existence of living in a distant outpost on the edge of space and has abandoned him and taken their son in an attempt to convince O’Niel to return with them to earth. However, as O’Niel is one of those self tormenting hero types who believes in the greater good, he stays under the belief that one man can make a difference – even in a shit hole like this.
However, more strange suicides/accidents occur among the miners as one happily climbs into an airlock for a jaunty stroll outside, only to plaster themselves all over the interior of an external sevice elevator thanks to the vicious atmosphere; and another loses his mind and threatens to carve up a hooker. Obviously something’s going on and O’Niel believes the man behind it is general manager Mark Sheppard, who recently has been boasting about increased productivity and boosted profits.
However, in the cold expanse of space, uncovering a conspiracy may not be the wisest course of action; especially if no one, not even your own deputies, have your back and as the marshal waits for the inevitable push back, he’ll find that in space, no one can hear you sweat…
If ever the sum of a movie’s parts were greater than its whole, it’s Outland. There’s so many individual little things going on in Hyams’ sci-fi/cop thriller/western, that it’s incredibly intriguing to witness, but it’s also pretty tough to get fully invested in on the level that you’d hope. The first thing you notice, that Hyams has essentially remade a loose version of High Noon where the Gary Cooper now has to clean up the criminal element because people keep exploding like offal packed balloons. The reasons are simple; Hyams suggested making a western only to be told by the higher ups that the genre was deader than Jessie James, so the director simply thought “fuck it” and made a space western instead. While his nerve is obviously something to be applauded (let’s not forget that for better or worse, Hyams also had the brass balls to sequelize 2001), something doesn’t quite gel in the finished product.
Maybe it’s the fact that the movie doubles down on trying to be as mature a sci-fi as it can be in the midst of Star Wars fever. Not only does it treat space as the lethal frontier that it obviously is, but the movie seems to be itching to show as many people perishing in the void as it possibly can. As well as an opening moment that sees a poor bastard’s noggin expand and pop like someone pumped too much helium into a birthday balloon, there are countless moments of people vaporising, bursting or getting hollowed out by shotgun fire to guarantee that this is not the place for the kiddies. But obviously, the extreme violence is part and parcel of the whole western experience and Hyams makes many cool comparisons between the men and women who are willing to make their fortunes in the depths of space and the pioneers and prospectors who wandered out into the wilderness to do the same.
In the midst of all this is the surprising presence of Sean Connery; and I say surprising, because after enduring the red nappies of John Boorman’s Zardoz and the astronomical super-flop of Meteor, you’d think the charismatic Scot would give “shcience fiction” a wide birth. However, while he still looks slightly out of place in space, he gives a solid turn as a lawman who feels it’s his duty to end the corruption that’s all around him. It’s more of a downplayed performance that the usual, cocksure Connery we’re used to seeing as not only is O’Niel reeling from separating from his wife, but when the call goes out that hitmen are on the next inbound shuttle to take him out, the actor looks legitimately intimidated as the 70 hour countdown inexorably ticks down.
While not exemplary, he’s certainly solid as hell, and he’s flanked by both nicely sardonic dialogue and capable support in the form of Peter Boyle’s golf playing villain and Frances Sternhagen’s razor-tongued doctor who each prove to be nice, off-beat choices that go against the grain.
However; despite nailing the look of blue collar sci-fi and approximating the deliberate pace of a western, Outland never quite nails the “thriller” part of its tonal stew and is only ever genuinely exciting in spurts. Maybe its because the drug dealing conspiracy that’s handing out performance enhancing drugs that cause insanity is a weirdly relaxed criminal enterprise; or maybe it’s because the majority of exposition is gained by a hell of a lot of keyboard clacking.
Still, there’s always been something about Outland that’s intrigued me, but I’ve never actually decided if it’s because of its own merits, or hust because it plays in so much in the grim surroundings of Ridley Scott’s Alien sandbox. Ah hell, whatever the reason may ultimately be, Hyams still intrigues as he delivers the rarity of a classic western in sci-fi form.
High Noon? High Moon, anyone?
🌟🌟🌟
We Have Issues 