OUTLAND

Written and Directed by Peter Hyams.
Sean Connery, Peter Boyle, James Sikking, Frances Sternhagen
1981, 112 minutes, Color, Rated R

A marginal film can be made more enjoyable with a great presentation, and OUTLAND--a marginal film in that it has good performances but is essentially nothing new story-wise--benefits enormously from a great presentation.  Sean Connery plays a Federal Marshall assigned to a remote mining outpost on the IO, the third moon of Jupiter.  There, he finds that the number of people that have gone crazy for no apparent reason is rising.  Could there be nefarious goings-on going on?

I haven't owned OUTLAND since the laserdisc I bought in the early 90's.  I probably still have it somewhere, but I haven't had a working laserdisc player for a couple of years now so I have to go by memory on what it looked like.  I remember it looking "okay".  It was more notable for being released in widescreen which at the time was still a novelty.  I never got it on DVD due to reading reviews that claimed it looked horrible.  The DVD may have used the existing laserdisc master, and  generally speaking laserdisc masters did not port well to DVD.  DVD had an extra 100 or so lines of resolution and was much better at handling colors and so exposed the weaknesses in the older, brighter masters used for laserdisc. An analogous situation would be how some HD masters done just a few years ago don't always work well for Blu-Ray.  The technology changes so quickly it's no wonder things get transferred over and over again.*    I never saw the DVD, and I always assumed that it would eventually be remastered and re-released.  It took a little longer than I expected.

The image looks likes film and is DARK, which is as it should be.  Peter Hyams acted as his own cinematographer for many of his films, and right or wrong, he liked to shoot things in a way that almost looks like only practical lighting was used. This is not the same as actually using practical lighting; his films are stylized and it either works for you or it doesn't.  On paper, he wasn't the DP for OUTLAND but for all intents and purposes he controlled the filming of it**.  This results in atmospheric shots that sometimes border on being murky.  I like his style but can understand why one might not especially when the lighting doesn't necessarily match the subject matter, like in RUNNING SCARED, for instance.  His style works perfectly for OUTLAND, however.

The "Hyams" darkness is probably why past video versions have looked so crappy, but Blu-ray has enough resolution to make it work.  The effects look better, and the naturalistic lighting doesn't seem as "arty".   This new Blu-ray is clearly a newer and better transfer than what has been shown on the HD channels in the past and looks very nice.  The improved resolution allows one to take in and admire the sets, and the sound is a tremendous improvement over what has been available for this film in the past.  What's interesting is that Warner's opted for a single layer BD, so it's not like we're talking huge bit rates or anything.  Clearly, someone took time with the transfer.

Perhaps I wouldn't be as impressed with it if it wasn't a film from my childhood.  The plot is relatively simplistic, with no character development to speak of.  I think it tries too much to look and feel like ALIEN and employs questionable scientific accuracy--people wouldn't necessarily explode when exposed to zero gravity in reality, for instance--but dramatically the conceit works fine enough. Peter Boyle is okay in a very poorly written role.  His villain is a gross caricature of a real movie villain, with zero motivation beyond wanting to make money and I find it hard to take.  A more fully realized character for the villain would have served the film well.

All this said I think the good far outweighs the bad.  Sean Connery was still in his prime and gives a thoughtful, physical performance.  The sets are expansive (and expensive) and go a long way towards giving the film an interesting reality.  The design of the visual effects shots are creative and use the Introvision process to good effect. The Blu-Ray features a great 5.1 lossless track that contributes much to the overall fun factor, mostly with greatly improved bass response.  James Sikking and Frances Sternhagen give great performances in supporting roles.

Really...what's not to like?  Great entertainment, at least in my opinion.  HIGH NOON in space?  Yeah, that's about right. I'm still very pleased with this one.

* Warner Brothers Home Video released Blu-Ray editions of CASABLANCA, THE WIZARD OF OZ and GONE WITH THE WIND all around the same time. CASABLANCA has been re-released with a new transfer, and both OZ and WIND have been announced for re-release using new transfers.

** Stephen Goldblatt, the Director of Photographer listed in the credits, largely sat by while Hyams did the real work.  It was his second job as DP and his first Hollywood film.  He hated the experience. See this link on cinematography.com's forum for more.