★ 7 / 10
Captures the fear of the atomic age perfectly
John Chard
Captures the fear of the atomic age perfectly. Carl Meacham is an atomic scientist, who after passing a cunning test, gets invited to work at a top secret lab…
Captures the fear of the atomic age perfectly.
Carl Meacham is an atomic scientist, who after passing a cunning test, gets invited to work at a top secret lab out in Georgia by the rather odd looking man known as Exeter. The project is apparently in the cause of finding world peace, and once arriving at his destination, Carl finds other notable scientists are also there, including the radiant Ruth Adams. As things progress things don't quite add up, and this leads to a realisation that the future of Earth could very well be in the balance.
"This Island Earth" not only divides the casual film viewer, it's also proved divisive amongst the most hardened of sci-fi genre supporters. Some say the story is barely worth a second glance, whilst others point to a distinct lack of scientific nous as a reason to do the film down. To me I find it to be very much on the money for the era it was made. This film comes nearly ten years after America ended World War II with an atomic attack on Japan, when nuclear reactors had been commissioned and were no longer seen solely as a weapon of mass destruction, in short the nuclear age was prominent and very much a reality.
Yes the film is a far fetched fantasy, and it tries too hard to encompass a myriad of plot strands - something which to the younger viewers is likely to fly right over their heads. Yet the value here comes very much in the production as a whole. Marvel at the sets, the model work and the gadgets that feature heavily in this delicious slice of berserker sci-fi. Take in the incredible work of cinematographer Clifford Stine as we find ourselves on a desolate planet. It's a beacon of the genre because it identified the benefits of Technicolor to the sci-fi splinter of film and used it vividly to enhance the story (even if some subsequent home entertainment releases failed to restore it to a print fully worthy of the colour venture). The lovely Faith Domergue and square jawed Rex Reason play our intrepid scientists with verve and vigour, whilst Jeff Morrow is uneasily quirky as the mysterious Exeter.
Directed by Joseph M. Newman (out of his genre comfort zones) offering up a technically wonderful film, it does make one rue that he didn't make more sci-fi pictures. For this is a shining genre light made at a time when cinema was a craft from all quarters of the medium, for also it's intelligent and knowingly astute of its own time frame. So don't believe the nay sayers on this, because this is a smart and poetic fantasy that also contains genuine moments of cinematic beauty. 7/10
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★ 7 / 10
I remember watching this film on television in
CinemaSerf
I remember watching this film on television in the 70s and loving it. Whilst I'm not quite so impressed by it now, it is still quite a clever sci-fi yarn about…
I remember watching this film on television in the 70s and loving it. Whilst I'm not quite so impressed by it now, it is still quite a clever sci-fi yarn about an alien species, themselves under dire threat of extinction, who come to earth to assemble a team of scientists to help save their planet from an enemy bent on destroying it. Jeff Morrow has the slightly conical head as "Exeter" - their leader who recruits Rex Reason ("Meacham") and Faith Domergue ("Adams"). It is one of the first of these 1950s films that I recall seeing in colour, and that does render the SFX a little bit dated - perhaps a touch too much latex. Good nonetheless.
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★ 7 / 10
Visually beautiful for its time; a rather good "B" adventure and unusual
silverscreen888
I am old enough to have seen "This Island Earth" when it was first released. After "Forbidden Planet", it was the only other film for a decade to take place…
I am old enough to have seen "This Island Earth" when it was first released. After "Forbidden Planet", it was the only other film for a decade to take place outside of Earth's solar system. Galactic fiction had been written for decades by Edmond Hamilton and a handful of others, very successfully; but it is still rare and hard to handle in film, because it requires some level of ideas and logical development of a political-philosophical system other than conventional and unimaginative acceptances--the stock in trade of those who rip off headlines, use titles such as "Across the Ses of Stars"--and then write nothing at all to go with the promising title. Here we have a mysterious robot-controlled aircraft's flight, mail from aliens, the building of an Inter-Rossiter communication device, tall-domed aliens (exhibiting a variety of ethical characters), interstellar flight, a war on a planet called Metalluna, flaming comet-missiles, a competent alien mutant creature, an intelligent cat named Neutron, romance, news conferences, good and bad advice and more. The original story line, for those who have not read Raymond Z. Jones' original mystery-sci-fi, is much better than what was done with its ideas in the film's script. In that novel,Earth was to be destroyed, because it was in the way and being used as a base by one of two sides in a huge interstellar war; at the end, the hero, whose ingenuity has saved the one side, has to make a speech to save the Earth--a climax that did not make it into the film version. Handsome Rex Reason, who lacks classical accent ability, plays scientist Cal Meacham, opposite Faith Domergue, a fair actress who does well as Ruth, his long-lost love, or is she. The film is stolen by Jeff Morrow as Exeter, also star of "Kronos"; Douglas Spencer is a bit disappointing as The Monitor, as is Lance Fuller as an evil Metallunan; the special effects such as rays that explode cars and the aforementioned comets are interesting for their time. What is right about the film I suggest is its color, its adventure narrative and swift-paced unfolding, since it is rather well-directed; what is lacking is the first-rate ideas of the novel from which it was adapted. "This Island Earth" ( a phrase later used in "Star trek's "All Our Yesterdays" also) is arguably a welcome change from all those sci-fi films where rockets seem tied to earth, unable to expand the human horizon. I like it, and recommend it to anyone who wants to escape from the present mean-streets ugliness cult's movies; it is physically beautiful and frankly more entertaining than most have credited it with being these past 50 years.
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TOMATOMETER
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AUDIENCE
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5.9/10
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All those people who say they leave some messages in movies like those flat Earthers who say the world is infinite beyond the antarctic wall.. This is obviously not the case here. The movie only starts with "From the Strange and Infinite Worlds of Outer Space" Only an island called earth where the outside world is called "outer" "space" (outside the space where the island is) where people are called prisoners and the infinite worlds outside that island space are called "endless" space where people who fight wars in that island are called mad in the trailer of the movie. Calling that island planet "doomed to destruction while captive earth people fight for their lives" This Island Earth.. Damn people have too much imagination.. Stop seeing things where there's nothing. (I sadly have to point out my sarcasm because yeah the internet is that bad)