Death companion The end of the 70s of the last century, namely the triumphal procession across the screen of the whole world of George Lucas' Star Wars tape, gave the genre of space fiction a grandiose impetus for development. Thus, filmmakers of a variety of directions began to adjust their creative plans and began to release their films in wide rental, in the plot of which travel was mandatory if not to the stars, then to orbit for sure. Just at that time, the series of films about James Bond was replenished with a picture called “Moon Rider”, and Ridley Scott thundered around the world with his horror “Alien”. However, these are only the most famous ribbons of the 70-80s. Against their background, a fantastic detective "Peter Hyams" in 1981 was somewhat lost under the name "Alien Land". The director is famous for the domestic viewer primarily due to his joint work with Jean-Claude Van Damme on a couple of tolerable action films, including “Time Patrol”, as well as because of the enchanting box office failures of “Judgment Day” and “Thunder burst.” As you can see, Hyams always had a special awe for the genre of fiction and the very origins of his career turned to this genre. In 1977, he already dealt with space flights in the film Capricorn One, which received good ratings from both viewers and critics. And naturally, the director decided to consolidate his success with another man-made fairy tale. Having received a rather considerable budget of $ 16 million by old standards, Hyams enlisted the support of Sean Connery himself, who, after saying goodbye to the canonical James Bond, decided to try himself in a variety of areas of cinema. Thus, we have a director who managed to make a name for himself, a legendary actor and an entertaining plot, the action of which unfolds in space. However, the masterpiece still did not turn out and “Alien Land” is now remembered only by devoted fans of the genre or Sean Connery.
So, narrative tells us about the lush satellite of the majestic gas giant Jupiter, Io. On its surface, a powerful corporation built a mining complex, the main task of which is the extraction of titanium ore. Among the thousands of workers, the vast majority are unreliable strata of society, for whom the path to civilized Earth is closed forever. Of course, among murderers, terrorists and thieves, it is very difficult to maintain discipline, which makes the production authorities led by Sheppard (Peter Boyle) turn a blind eye to minor offenses and promote the spread of prostitution, light drugs and other forbidden pleasures in order to increase the production of valuable ore. Of course, it was impossible to leave this colony without a local police chief, so the leadership sends Chief O'Neill (Connery) to Io. Brutal policeman is not exchanged for trifles and does not accept any offenses, even if they are designed to increase economic performance. Conflict with the superiors was simply inevitable, misunderstanding of corrupt subordinates is quite logical. And when O’Neill was ready to come to terms with the impenetrable system, one by one, workers begin to die in the mines. Everything points to suicide, but the experienced instinct of the policeman finds traces that such deaths are far from accidental.
By technical standards, “Alien Land” is a rather outdated film, although there are a couple of special effects, which in our time look at the proper level. However, the performance of miniatures that should look like huge production facilities and the screaming installation of people, sculptures and animation instantly tells us that the picture was created at least a few decades ago. And not in Hollywood, because their specialists could make such a significant budget tape an order of magnitude higher technological level. But at the same time, I want to note the good moments with levitation and especially with blood dripping up. This is really fascinating even in our time, when there are no restrictions for the flight of fantasy.
The main problem of the film is its slowness. Hyams was unable to keep the tension at the proper level and the film very often sags. For lovers of detectives, it will not be a special problem to calculate all the villains and corrupt personalities involved in the story, and Sean Connery’s hero could unravel the tangle of crimes in a standard hour and a half of timekeeping, without stretching both our own and our torments to almost two hours. Peter Hyams decided to saturate his film with multiple conversations and reflections of the main character about the injustice of the world and arguments about an unhappy family. And indeed, it is the conversations that ideally make us understand what Sean Connery's character breathes. We understand that this is an honest, uncompromising and tough police officer, whose principles prevent him from significantly advancing his career. Also because of him suffers and his wife and son, who want to finally find personal happiness, and not wander with the head of the family in the gloomy corners of our solar system. But we understand all this in the first 20 minutes of viewing. The director should not have stretched his philosophical reasoning for a good hour or more. And since the main character frowns and fights with the “airmills” of the system, which he alone will never defeat, the main detective line of the picture is significantly limited in rights, although it was worth making absolutely all the plot emphasis.
What really pleases in this film, is a few foot chase hero Connery for the offenders. The scenes are long and demonstrate the full potential of the decorators, who created a lot of corridors and a variety of rooms for the picture, in which there are several dozen extras demonstrating the scale of what is happening. The chase itself contains no compromises and is a purely male spectacle with hard punches and crunch of bones. Therefore, for me personally, these scenes are the main decoration of the production. As for the soundtrack, the maestro Jerry Goldsmith (“Alien”, “Moth”) was responsible for it. The famous composer has always been famous for his memorable melodies, as well as his old-school colleague John Williams, but Alien Land can not boast of particularly memorable motifs. Here, the music simply complements the main action, without switching the attention of the audience to themselves.
In the end, I want to say that Alien Land is a fairly average fantastic detective, the decoration of which is Sean Connery and some well-staged chases. But in general, the picture of Peter Hyams is not able to attract into its plot without a trace and often the viewer will have to miss long minutes of viewing, for the sake of a couple of more or less dynamic episodes. So I can only recommend this film to fans of classics or fans of Connery’s talent. Still, the rest of the audience is better acquainted with more eminent representatives of the genre.
6 out of 10