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Connery's OUTLAND

chrisisallchrisisall Brosnan Defender Of The Realm
edited January 2013 in Actors Posts: 17,800
Being a Connery fan I've pretty much seen everything he's done (with the exception of Finding Forrester for some reason), but the one non-Bond he's starred in that I go back to again & again is OUTLAND.
I love the action, his dialogue, Goldsmith's music, the cool 007 references, it's really high up on my list of favourite films.
If you live in the UK & you own a DVD of the flick, you don't know how lucky you are. Here in the States we are stuck with a DVD that was struck from a faulty laserdisc from the eighties, and Warner never fixed it. A Blu Ray came out recently that I hear is nice, but I'm not gonna invest all that coin in a new system for ONE movie. But I just found out that my cheap little 9" Philips portable DVD player is region-free & plays PAL! So I ordered a Region 4 DVD of the movie on eBay, and it will be the first time I've seen a widescreen version of this awesome film since 1981!

So, fond memories, you still love it, never liked it?

Comments

  • SaintMarkSaintMark
    Posts: 7,653
    Saw it first on release in cinema, a really great Connery movie in which he did not play Connery for a change.
  • chrisisallchrisisall Brosnan Defender Of The Realm
    Posts: 17,800
    Connery did such a fine job in the movie- it really carried the whole film IMO.
    Plus, it seemed a sort of 'pre-sidequel' to Blade Runner the next year. B-)
  • trevaniantrevanian
    Posts: 232
    I've always thought his little speech in the handball court about not wanting to be just this piece in a bigger machine was the most sensitive and revealing bit of acting he ever did (he tried to go further in PRESIDIO but it was just embarrassing ... same for RUSSIA HOUSE.) When I think of Connery I think of Bond obviously, and the his TripleCrown of THE WIND & THE LION, THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING and ROBIN & MARIAN, but I also remember this bit in OUTLAND too.

    although the movie has got some of the worst plotting ever ... I direct you to Harlan Ellison's essay about OUTLAND, which is painfully accurate, and pointed out things I didn't even think of, while I was railing against these idiots firing weapons through glass in a pressurized environment.

    Oh yeah, in the theater, when he took off the anti-garroting collar, the entire theater groaned like he had just made a Roger Moore-style pun. Pretty bad, kind of cancelled out all the excitement of the chase leading to the french fry machine and such.
  • chrisisallchrisisall Brosnan Defender Of The Realm
    Posts: 17,800
    trevanian wrote:
    Oh yeah, in the theater, when he took off the anti-garroting collar, the entire theater groaned
    In MY theatre, we all chuckled as in "that was so cool".
  • MrBrownMrBrown
    Posts: 202
    Not a very good film, but Jerry Goldsmith composed a brilliant score for it.
  • GerardGerard
    Posts: 5,994
    SaintMark wrote:
    Saw it first on release in cinema, a really great Connery movie in which he did not play Connery for a change.

    Nope, he played Gary Cooper :)

    Still, cool movie indeed.
  • SaintMarkSaintMark
    Posts: 7,653
    Indeed High Noon another excellent movie with the dropdead gorgeous Grace Kelly.
  • chrisisallchrisisall Brosnan Defender Of The Realm
    Posts: 17,800
    Hardest thing to get past is the people-blowing-open-in-space thing. But I understand it was for the impact they were going for.
  • OHMSS69OHMSS69
    Posts: 2,341
    The film is a good remake of High Noon
  • DRush76DRush76
    Posts: 533


    Didn't like it very much.
  • chrisisallchrisisall Brosnan Defender Of The Realm
    Posts: 17,800
    DRush76 wrote:

    Didn't like it very much.
    Not a fan of space-westerns featuring our own first 007?

  • trevaniantrevanian
    Posts: 232
    Well, there's plenty to carp about. The sort of rough&tumble folk at a place like this wouldn't just fall into line w/ toeing the company line - folks working the high frontier will probably be more of a mix like in Allan Steele's SF novels -- former Hell's Angels, folks running away from their illegal/illicit past, a lot of freethinkers -- so you wouldn't wind up with Connery as the lone good man standing up to the baddies, like you had in HIGH NOON when the rest of the town was sheep. So the setting pretty much invalidates the premise - you can't have HIGH NOON in space unless your space settlement is made up of Quakers.

    There are tons of science issues, plus the matter of them having to, in the words of CINEFEX magazine, produce post-STAR WARS effects with pre-2001 technology. No motion control cameras for one.

    Connery really brings it in this one though. When you watch the movie, you feel for his situation even though you should be thinking, 'why doesn't he just arrest the big boss right now?' Hyams wrote this with Paul Newman in mind, but I think they got VERY lucky to get Connery right then.
  • chrisisallchrisisall Brosnan Defender Of The Realm
    Posts: 17,800
    trevanian wrote:
    Hyams wrote this with Paul Newman in mind, but I think they got VERY lucky to get Connery right then.
    Newman could have made it work, but Connery brought an extra physicality to the part Newman just didn't possess at that time.
  • AliAli
    edited January 2013 Posts: 319
    chrisisall wrote:
    Not a fan of space-westerns featuring our own first 007?

    It was certainly better than the space-western featuring our current 007....
  • chrisisallchrisisall Brosnan Defender Of The Realm
    Posts: 17,800
    Oh c'mon now, Cowboys And Aliens was a pretty good flick...
  • DrNoDrNo North Hollywood, California, USA
    Posts: 81
    I LOVE Outland, but don't get any 007 references from it.

    I see it as taking place in the Alien universe. The production design is very similar, the costumes. My buddy and I were working on a rating/quiz scale to determine if a movie takes place in the Alien universe (points for patches on caps/jumpsuits, big complicated ships and bubble helmeted spacesuits, etc) and Outland fits. I could swear one of the production designers or the art director worked on Alien, but I don't recall for certain.

    Cowboys and Aliens was not great, but an Apache jumped off a bluff and tackled an alien off his mount, so I was satisfied. :)
  • chrisisallchrisisall Brosnan Defender Of The Realm
    Posts: 17,800
    DrNo wrote:
    I LOVE Outland, but don't get any 007 references from it.
    The two that stick out are the choking from behind in the freezer (FRWL), and O’Neil thanking Mrs. Spectre for her kind offer.
  • DrNoDrNo North Hollywood, California, USA
    Posts: 81
    I don't remember that line....the only women I remember in Outland was the doctor (Lazarus?) and O'Neil's wife.

    Oh and the chick 'performing' in the bar.
  • chrisisallchrisisall Brosnan Defender Of The Realm
    Posts: 17,800
    DrNo wrote:
    I don't remember that line....
    It was when he was being welcomed, just before the Manager's bs about "they work hard, and I like to let them play hard...".
  • chrisisallchrisisall Brosnan Defender Of The Realm
    edited January 2013 Posts: 17,800
    I got the region 4 DVD today, and after a small & entirely legal hack, my portable player plays it! Tomorrow night I bask in Connery Outland widescreen excellence!
    Yeah, old stuff to you non-Region 1 slaves. :))
  • josiahjosiah
    Posts: 1,386
    trevanian wrote: »
    I've always thought his little speech in the handball court about not wanting to be just this piece in a bigger machine was the most sensitive and revealing bit of acting he ever did

    THIS. I love his speech in the handball court. At this time in his career Connery had been trying for awhile to get a hit movie for himself outside of Bond with little to no big box office success so his speech here feels very poignant. I LOVE this film. Outland is an underrated gem in my eyes. Sure it has similarities to High Noon...but High Noon wasn't a mystery, didn't star Sean Connery, wasn't in color, didn't have anything to do with
    corporate corruption
    , & wasn't a sci fi film. I always love the relationship between Connery's character and the doctor as they're trying to solve the mystery--it's a refreshing case of a movie where you have a man and woman sharing several scenes talking to one another and they're not love interests but there's still a mutual respect there and they're both working together. I don't see that a whole lot in movies and tv and these two play off each other so good in this movie. I love watching the way they interact with one another. Steven Berkoff is pretty great here too. It's such a great cast and I love the performances. Plus I'm a sucker for underdog stories so I don't mind seeing that kind of thing done again. Can't tell you how glad I am to find this movie has other fans! I love director Peter Hyams' use of lighting here, Connery gives a great performace (as does the rest of the cast), and yes, that Jerry Goldsmith score is terrific. :)
  • chrisisallchrisisall Brosnan Defender Of The Realm
    edited February 2016 Posts: 17,800
    josiah wrote: »
    Can't tell you how glad I am to find this movie has other fans! I love director Peter Hyams' use of lighting here, Connery gives a great performance (as does the rest of the cast), and yes, that Jerry Goldsmith score is terrific. :)
    josiah, since I last posted here I got myself the Blu Ray of the film, and it's amazing. I agree with your entire take on this seemingly forgotten gem in Connery's career. It was his best post-Bond movie until The Untouchables IMHO.*

    *Highlander doesn't count for me because his role was so small, running time-wise.
  • josiahjosiah
    Posts: 1,386
    chrisisall wrote: »
    josiah wrote: »
    Can't tell you how glad I am to find this movie has other fans! I love director Peter Hyams' use of lighting here, Connery gives a great performance (as does the rest of the cast), and yes, that Jerry Goldsmith score is terrific. :)
    josiah, since I last posted here I got myself the Blu Ray of the film, and it's amazing. I agree with your entire take on this seemingly forgotten gem in Connery's career. It was his best post-Bond movie until The Untouchables IMHO.*

    *Highlander doesn't count for me because his role was so small, running time-wise.
    I picked up the blu-ray too. It is indeed fantastic.
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