Battle Beyond The Sun (1959) aka. Nebo Zovyot (Russia)

The late 1950's represented something of a cross-roads in human history. The US was past World War 2, rock and roll began to surface, and a new dawn in scientific discovery was just around the corner.  Now that the world had defeated the Nazis, there would be a new threat to peace: The Atomic Age. This was due in no small part to the race to be the first country to explore space.  The first moon landing would not be complete until 1969 (that is, unless you are part of the conspiracy movement who believes we were never there, but that's another blog).  President Kennedy challenged the U.S. to be the nation leading the way to this new frontier of scientific achievement. While we were told that the advancement of knowledge was the endgame, make no mistake: It was about defense.  And at the moment, the Russians were whipping our tails. 

I really will get to the movie; bear with me :-)

In 1957, the Soviets launched Sputnik, officially kicking off the Space Race.  The same year, they also launched Sputnik 2, the first spacecraft with a living animal on board, the ill-fated dog Laika.  I've said before that B-movies, and in particular science fiction B-movies, often reflect cultural and social issues that people don't like to discuss.  For some reason, against the backdrop of space and set in the future, the issues are much more palpable. Film makers give the best social commentary, a fact still true today. I would make the case, for example, that Bryan Singer's X-Men is just as much about gay rights as it is a series about mutants fighting the bad guys, but I digress.

Enter Battle Beyond the Sun.  This Russian-made science fiction movie came out in 1959 in the U.S.S.R. and was brought to America in 1964.  The story is about two superpowers racing to the planet Mars. The two political factions presented to us are separated by hemispheres.  They go by the very creative North Hemis, and South Hemis.  The North Hemis sent a team of astronauts to their space station to prepare for the first flight to Mars. While there, they notice another ship coming in. They identify it as a South Hemis ship, which is in need of repair.  The two astronauts get permission to land, and we learn that their ship is in a state of disrepair.  The North Hemis scientists decide that science is above politics, and they help them repair the ship.  While there the South Hemis scientists learn that their political adversaries might be the first to get to Mars, and national pride takes over.

They decide to take their ship out despite the fact it's not 100% ready for the flight. They choose to take the risk of certain death in order to be the first team to Mars.  Naturally, they experience difficulty, discovering that their boosters are inadequate to counter the sun's gravitational pull.  It is up to the South Hemis team to rescue them.  They do manage to extract them from their doomed ship, and they all try to make it to Mars. They do, sort of, by landing on a moon or planetoid orbiting the Red Planet, but lack the fuel to make it to Mars itself.  Still, the scenes on the rocky moon are the best in the film. The sets are large, atmospheric, and moody.  The scene that sticks out in my mind the most is the one in which the men watch the horizon as Mars rises, much like we would watch the sun come up here, except they are right next to Mars, so the planet is large and overwhelming. For a movie from the late 1950's, the scene is well-done, and for a geek like me, kind of moving.

They also discover two monsters (one shaped like a giant space vagina and the other sort of phallic looking) on the moon which battle each other, but from what I can tell, were not a threat to the humans.  There was also a sub-plot about them needing a fuel ship to come and deliver rocket fuel which crashes on the surface.  One of the astronauts ventures out by himself and is critically injured somehow.  The plot here, believe it or not, gets a little weird.  He dies, but one of the scientists speaks of how he "gave his life up for them".  The print of the movie that I observed is missing some scenes, so it is never clear what the guy did to save the crew, or how they miraculously now have fuel to get back home, despite it being established that the fuel ship crashed and was useless to them.  Anyway, they return home to a glorious heroes welcome, roll credits.  OK. Grab a glass of wine and get comfortable, I have lots to say about this one.

The first thing I noticed about Battle Beyond the Sun is the pace of the movie.  Today, we like our movies with quick, stylized cuts and a fast beat with the dialog.  This movie will absolutely try your patience if you are part of the MTV generation who enjoy fast pacing.  They absolutely take their time to deliver dialog and exposition. The scenes which involve the NASA-like commander have a woman talking on the radio at a very slow, deliberate pace.  Another odd thing to Americans now would be the uncomfortable distance between the male leads.  Today, especially in America, we have a very solid concept of personal space. You stay in your space, this is my space, don't come near my freaking space.  In this movie, everyone seems like they are inches away from each other, especially during emotional scenes.  Also, there are several instances of older mentor types talking to their younger counterparts.  During these segments, you see things like the younger guy sitting, while the older father-figure type seems to hover over them in an uncomfortable way.

This will make American viewers today a little uncomfortable.  There is no need to be though, as it's a cultural thing.  In much of Eastern Europe, it is acceptable to invade someone's space like that, showing trust and friendship.  Another interesting thing about this story that struck me is how the protagonists place science above nationalism.  This seems counter intuitive for the time, given the condition of the U.S.-Soviet space race.  The idea that they could work together with the whole being greater than the sum of the parts was highly progressive.  It makes you wonder what we could have achieved in the 1950's and 1960's had the superpowers shared everything.  Maybe we really would have a base at Mars by now, who knows?

From a technical standpoint, the movie is full of very large holes.  They perform space walks out on their ships without flying out into space.  There is no explanation, not even a mention of magnetic boots.  They make the trip to mars very quickly, without so much as a nap.  They do earn points for detail, however.  The space station, rocket interiors, and the space command headquarters are all large and  very believable.  Lots of techno-babble at least makes them sound like they know what they are doing, and given the probable lack of common knowledge about space in 1959, it likely seemed pretty advanced. 

Special effects range from pretty decent to very good.  Unfortunately, to show rockets flying they always rely on the sideways still of the ship with stars flying by quickly shots. Every single shot is a profile like that; no views of a rocket flying toward or away from the viewer.  The set of the Martian moon is pretty amazing.  The monsters are okay, but I can't really credit the original makers as that was tacked-on for the American release.

The editing for this film in the version I saw was very heavy-handed.  A character would be talking, and in mid-sentence the movie would jump to the next scene.  Entire scenes are missing, making for a sometimes-awkward plot.  As I said previously, the pace is very different from what most people are used to.  About the most popular example of something similarly-paced is 2001: Space Odyssey.  While that film was superior in other ways, it had a similar slow beat to it.

Overall, it was a decent movie experience.  I enjoyed it for its themes, and, uh, well...I like the themes of cooperative exploration and sacrifice.  Visuals are above average for 1950's space fare, the music was wonderfully eerie and mysterious, and the  acting was pretty good. I rate it two out of four.

DIDJA KNOW?

Thomas Colchart was credited with creating the two space monsters for the American release.  Colchart has another professional name: Francis Ford Coppola.

Godzilla (1954) aka. Gojira (Japan)

By Guest Reviewer Seth Bradley:

A massive storm blows through an island. The villagers are fast asleep, except one family of three. Something is shaking the house, but it’s not the wind. Finally, in a dead panic, the younger brother bolts outside to confront the invader, with the others remaining in the home, doomed to their fate, as the house crumbles around them. An ancient roar rips through the air, as a bipedal behemoth rumbles through the village. The year is 1954, and Japanese audiences have just met Godzilla.

By far, Godzilla (1954) is the best and one of the most influential of all Science Fiction films. Even if you’re not into the big kiddie camp of the Japanese monster movies, this one is a must see! It follows the resurrection of a dinosaur, reawakened by radioactive weapons testing. Suspense fills your mind as a dark and foreboding animal raids through a village in the dead of the night. This is not a misunderstood creature, like the 1998’s Godzilla. This animal has purposely vaporized ships, killing its crew members, for no reason in particular. Sure, it sounds cliché in retrospective, but remember this is still the early 50’s. The film follows Godzilla as he rips through 300,000 volts of electrical wire, wipes out a tank division, and purposely pulls down a tower full of reporters, who annoy him with flash photography. At one point during the raid on Tokyo, he even breathes his trademark radioactive fire on the highway in front of him for no apparent reason. Clearly, this creature is looking for total destruction of Japan, as vengeance for waking him. No creature sympathy here.

The sadness comes into play in the second half of the film, after Godzilla destroys Tokyo. The city’s survivors are being corralled into field hospitals. As the camera pans over the miserable scene, you hear a baby crying somewhere in the background, reminding viewers that even the innocence of children were destroyed, along with homes and lives.

Before you start to say how silly and unrealistic a guy in a rubber suit looks on screen, I have to say in advance that the director actually made Godzilla look better in a suit than in stop motion, for the suit’s movements are slow and lumber some, as if he were actually a thousand tons.Another cool trick is that most monster scenes are shot with a low camera angle, so the audience feels like it’s looking up at something tall and massive, and not just a six foot tall guy in a suit The pitch-black night sky also casts a little darkness on the suit, hiding some of the less convincing prosthetics. One noteworthy feature is that this Godzilla design sports a pair of blank, crazed-looking eyes that stare down wildly at the fleeing people. It also has a pair of fangs, jutting out from his top jaws, like a viper. Its roar also has a much deeper pitch than the later models, giving it the sense of something powerful and angry. The sound of Godzilla’s roar was conceived by rubbing a pair of resin gloves across a bass violin, then slowing down the sound when the recording was played. 

The big G is the grand-daddy of the many giant-monster-destroys-city genre, and its influence can still be felt, including in the upcoming Pacific Rim.  This dark intro to the series is still the best, and highly recommended. Four out of Four.

(Editor's note: Did you know the director of this film, Ishiro Honda, also directed The Mysterians, as well as many other movies in this category. See the review here.)