Written by Peter Hyams
Directed by Peter Hyams

Movies come and movies go, but some themes seem to come up time and again.  Outland takes the theme of many westerns and puts it in a different setting with some pretty good results.

In the future, mankind has colonized space. Miners are dying in a mining colony on one of Jupiter’s moons. They aren’t just keeling over, but essentially committing suicide in quite odd ways. Sean Connery is Space Marshal Bill O’Neill. He’s been assigned to the colony, with his family. They all hate the assignment. His wife and son leave him, even though she declares her love for him.

Bill begins investigating the deaths, although everyone else seems to be unconcerned. Even the administrator of the colony downplays what’s happening and tries to deter him. He learns there is a common thread of a drug in the blood of the deceased. It’s a synthetic drug that speeds up a worker’s productivity.

The problem is that the administrators of the colony don’t want anything ruffling their perfect operation, nor does the company. The chief administrator, Sheppard (portrayed by Peter Boyle) tries to bribe Bill the same way they have with marshals in the past. When that fails, he has the company send a detachment of security officers to deal with him. One by one his men abandon him. It appears that when the shuttle carrying the security detail arrives, Bill will be assassinated, and all will go back to how it was.

In many ways, Outland is just a typical spaghetti western set in space. Connery is portraying the new law enforcement officer coming into town to shake things up. Those who hold the power want to keep the status quo. The result is a set-up that seems more like a showdown at high noon in the center of the main strip rather than outer space. It also co-ops the theme of the futuristic corporation which controls everything and seems to have no morals, as was seen two years prior in Alien. Outland definitely doesn’t get points for originality.

Most of Outland works and credit here goes to Connery. I could tell he was having a lot of fun with the role. He takes the role seriously enough to make it believable, but it’s also obvious he was interested in the role rather than it just being something he took for a paycheck, although at this point he was in between the two very successful periods in his movie career. He’s good when he’s facing the angst of dealing with his personal life; of a family that doesn’t want to be there and places all of the blame squarely on his shoulders. He’s even better when he is the noble law enforcement officer who can’t be corrupted despite multiple attempts.

Opposite him is Peter Boyle. He is excellent here and it shows how underrated he was as an actor in general. Possibly best known for his most recent work as Raymond’s father in Everybody Loves Raymond, I’ve seen a few pieces where he’s played a character with all drama and no comedy and the versatility really is astounding. So many actors try and fail to cover both genres, but Boyle pulls it off and quite well in Outland. His untouchable superiority and arrogance hardly reflect the character I grew to know and love on television.

Rounding out the cast are a few notable stalwarts, such as Frances Sternhagen as the Doctor in the colony who ends up aligned with O’Neill as she is instrumental in figuring out exactly what is going on. James B, Sikking is one of O’Neill’s men. The cast really does a terrific job.

Where Outland fails a bit is in the stunt department. The special effects aren’t bad, especially by 1981 standards. However, whoever planned out some of the fight scenes should have their head examined. Fighting in space suits may be something suspenseful since the principle of the space suit being breached is in play. However, it really isn’t all that interesting – at least, not the way it’s handled here. It’s terribly confusing trying to see just who is who. I do recall when Star Trek First Contact was in the planning stage, one of the obstacles faced was this exact issue and it was overcome by redesigning the spacesuits to allow a better view of the actors’ faces. It’s a pity no one thought of that here as it’s really a hindrance to getting the full impact of these scenes.

The DVD release is pretty good quality as far as the actual film goes. The print is excellent and the sound is good, even if you don’t get the full impact of the short-lived enhanced sound that Warner Brothers released for a number of its films, including this one. I was somewhat disappointed with the special features. They are all slideshow special features (with the exception of the trailer) which seem sorely lacking, especially for a Sean Connery film.

If you haven’t caught this film before now, it’s worth checking out. It’s not Connery’s best work but he does give the best performance I can imagine. In anyone else’s hands, I doubt the film would get the same high ratings from me or most other reviewers.


SPECIAL FEATURES:

• Stars
• The Making of Outland
• The Perfect Model For the Future
• Designs For the Future
• Introvision
• Theatrical Trailer