Robinson Crusoe on Mars (The Criterion Collection)
by Byron Haskin
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Adam West, Barney (IV), Paul Mantee, Victor LundinDirector: Byron Haskin
Brand: Image Entertainment
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Color, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 110 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-09-18
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Criterion Collection
Movie Reviews of Robinson Crusoe on Mars (The Criterion Collection)
Movie Review: Smarter-than-usual mid-60s SF story triumphs over some hokiness in this beautiful Criterion edition
Summary: 5 Stars
A spaceship orbiting Mars - man's first mission to another world. Two crew members, Colonel Dan McReady (Adam West) and Commander Christopher Draper (Paul Mantee), and a monkey named Mona. A meteor heads towards them and they have to take evasive action - they have to use up all their fuel, and both astronauts eject and land on Mars, as they no longer have the fuel to return to Earth. We follow Draper, who with Mona lands on the edge of a mountain range and spends the first part of the film trying to stay alive and to find McReady ("Mac") who has landed some distance away on the other side of the mountains. Draper's hopes of companionship are quickly dashed when he finds Mac dead, but he gains a reprieve from a quick death by asphyxiation or lack of water and food thanks to some strange burning rocks that give off oxygen, and through Mona's instinctual location of food and water.
The film does a good job at trying to keep scientifically accurate - according to the standards of the day. There was still a belief in 1964 that the Martian atmosphere was a little denser than we now know it to be - so we find Draper able to breathe it for a short period. Water and vegetation seemed unlikely, but not impossible; Draper finds both after an extensive search, but no animal life. Most of the planet is depicted as a stark desert, warm enough for a man to go about in normal clothes during the day, cold enough that heat is needed at night.
The largest suspension of disbelief required comes when Draper encounters an alien mining expedition manned by slaves and rescues one of them - his "man Friday." Friday (Victor Lundin) is completely human, looking like a native Central or South American tribesman in loincloth; it turns out that he isn't Martian but from somewhere else, a captive slave. During the last third of the film, he and Draper form a friendship and partnership, trying to break Friday's shackles which are a homing beacon for the slave-mining ships which continually harass the two as they make their way towards the pole and more water after being rousted from the source they have. Yes, Friday is far-fetched - but I think the filmmakers made a wise choice by just having him human, and not relying on the hokey effects of the day; there also isn't really any reason to believe that Friday and his tribe couldn't have been taken from Earth at one point or another, something the film doesn't really explore but, in my opinion doesn't really need to.
The point, after all, is survival, and this is one of the better such adventure films that I've seen; Draper is quite realistically presented as a resourceful man with vast training who never gives up and manages to construct a life for himself for months in a hostile environment. Certain experiences are of course heavily condensed, like his teaching of English to Friday, but the film thus manages to pack an awful lot into less than two hours with no wasted space -- it trusts us to fill in the blanks.
I don't remember the novel, Robinson Crusoe, published in 1719 by Daniel Defoe, all that well. Obviously it described the shipwreck and life on an island, not on another planet, but in many regards this adaptation by screenwriters Ib Melchior and John C. Higgins and director Byron Haskin manages to be faithful to the basic concept of the novel while managing to be an excellent piece of (mostly) smart science fiction as well. It's gorgeous shot in Cinemascope by Winton C. Hoch, who seems to have specialized in science fiction both on film and TV - the bright and pastel colors may seem excessive at times but they sure are pretty and they definitely contribute to a feeling of alienness - and Paul Mantee brings real intelligence and determination to his role with just enough pathos, though this element is definitely reigned in. Director Haskin had made "The War of the Worlds" and "From the Earth to the Moon" within the previous decade and got his start as a special effects technician; he too brings great commitment to the project.
I suppose it will seem hokey or silly or boring to many now; judging from its average rating, I'm fairly certain of that. It's too bad; there are few big-budget science fiction films that really attempt anything like what this film does from this era, and it should be remembered better. Clearly it has some admirers, as the handsome Criterion edition shows. I urge anyone with a serious interest in the genre to check it out.
This disc isn't the most exciting of Criterion discs in terms of supplements, but the featurette on the science and making of is well done; I haven't listened to the commentary track yet. The transfer seems exceptional though never having seen the film theatrically I of course can't say for sure.
Summary of Robinson Crusoe on Mars (The Criterion Collection)
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