If you're a follower of the Criterion Collection you might be baffled as to why they would include a seemingly schlocky scifi flick like this in their repertoire. The answer is that this is a landmark in scifi cinema which probably heralded, if not directly influenced, the new direction of science-based scifi in the late 60s-70s such as "2001: A Space Odyssey." Make no mistake, watched back to back with "2001", "Robinson Crusoe on Mars" looks like a Bazooka Joe comic strip. But what's fascinating is that for possibly the first time in the history of scifi, the story isn't afraid to get real--that is, to spend 20 mins investigating how to breathe on an extraterrestrial world, or how to find water, or how to light a fire--rather than letting the audience assume that everything just works as usual.
Made in 1964, 5 years before we landed on the moon, and nearly a quarter century before our probes would give us appreciable images and data about the Martian terrain, "RC on Mars" relied heavily on the then-accepted scientific assumptions made by amateur astronomer Percival Lowell. Yes, I have an old 60s set of Encyclopedia Britannica which states that there are canals and green objects on the surface of Mars that could be vegetation or evidence of habitation. This is what the screenwriters used as a starting point.
What follows is by today's scientific standards hilarious, but much like Edgar Allen Poe's "A Voyage to the Moon" in which he lucidly and meticulously describes riding a hot air balloon into space, science isn't the point so much as it's the vehicle for a scientific approach. Today's (serious) scifi has cranked out some great, mostly-realistic films about survival such as "The Martian" or "Gravity", and "RC on Mars" is certainly right in line with that spirit even though it came half a century earlier. The writers' creative approach to practical human necessities like oxygen, water, food and--perhaps for the 1st time ever acknowledged in film--the madness of loneliness is a real treat to watch, even if you find it hard to accept the solutions with today's knowledge.
The last half takes us into pure fantasy territory with the appearance of aliens and the idea that there is possibly a superior race of intergalactic slave owners exploiting inferior species for their profits. But even this can be taken as a poignant and realistic metaphor that applies today right here on earth. As a side note, the aliens' spacecraft are TERRIFYING, the way they dart about unnaturally in jerky motions like coked up dragonflies. This is something I've never seen in any scifi flick since, and I think future filmmakers should really revisit this frightening approach.
Ultimately I agree with Criterion that this is a film that deserves the royal treatment, or at the very least it deserves to be recognized as the first of its kind: the grandfather of all survival-in-space flicks.
Made in 1964, 5 years before we landed on the moon, and nearly a quarter century before our probes would give us appreciable images and data about the Martian terrain, "RC on Mars" relied heavily on the then-accepted scientific assumptions made by amateur astronomer Percival Lowell. Yes, I have an old 60s set of Encyclopedia Britannica which states that there are canals and green objects on the surface of Mars that could be vegetation or evidence of habitation. This is what the screenwriters used as a starting point.
What follows is by today's scientific standards hilarious, but much like Edgar Allen Poe's "A Voyage to the Moon" in which he lucidly and meticulously describes riding a hot air balloon into space, science isn't the point so much as it's the vehicle for a scientific approach. Today's (serious) scifi has cranked out some great, mostly-realistic films about survival such as "The Martian" or "Gravity", and "RC on Mars" is certainly right in line with that spirit even though it came half a century earlier. The writers' creative approach to practical human necessities like oxygen, water, food and--perhaps for the 1st time ever acknowledged in film--the madness of loneliness is a real treat to watch, even if you find it hard to accept the solutions with today's knowledge.
The last half takes us into pure fantasy territory with the appearance of aliens and the idea that there is possibly a superior race of intergalactic slave owners exploiting inferior species for their profits. But even this can be taken as a poignant and realistic metaphor that applies today right here on earth. As a side note, the aliens' spacecraft are TERRIFYING, the way they dart about unnaturally in jerky motions like coked up dragonflies. This is something I've never seen in any scifi flick since, and I think future filmmakers should really revisit this frightening approach.
Ultimately I agree with Criterion that this is a film that deserves the royal treatment, or at the very least it deserves to be recognized as the first of its kind: the grandfather of all survival-in-space flicks.