The Movie
From the annals of great, cheesy Hollywood sci-fi epics comes 1964's Robinson Crusoe on Mars, a guilty pleasure for genre fans. When the two-man crew of an orbiting NASA probe of Mars is forced to eject separately onto the surface, only one lands safely, and all of his survival training will be put to the test. Stranded alone but for the mission's experimental monkey, his air supply dwindling and no water in sight, Kit Draper (Paul Mantee) has a rough go of it, but the Martian landscape has more than a few surprises in store.
Crusoe on Mars an earnestly executed if not amazing film, with stretches of storytelling free of any dialogue whatsoever, or marked only by the expository recordings made for Kit's log. It's a fun, tight adventure, marred mostly by the 47 years of scientific knowledge gained since the film was made, undermining much of what we see.
The Picture
The new 4K master is grainy but otherwise fairly clean, with some ringing in soft glows. Despite an admirable cleanup, some dirt, hair and scratches remain. There's a distractingly twitchy dissolve at exactly the 30-minute mark, and some small portions of the frame suffer from artifacts in this transition to HD. This title is a good fit for Blu-ray if for no reason other than the rich Technicolor hues, which are pleasantly, almost amusingly exaggerated. The shadows exhibit fine detail as well.
The Sound
Criterion's faithful Linear PCM remasters of older films can sometimes leave me at a bit of a loss, as there's not much for me to say about the audio, a 24-bit/48-kHz presentation of the original audio mix. There's an impressive dynamic range from the quieter to louder sounds, dialogue is always clear and well-balanced with the musical score and effects, and it holds up well to high volume playback. Some of the action scenes would probably be great in some sort of surround, but again, it's not Criterion's style to reinvent the wheel.
The Extras
All of the extras here appear to have been ported from the 2007 DVD, some of which in turn go back to the 1994 laserdisc. It's a fine array however, starting with the audio commentary by screenwriter Ib Melchior, stars Paul Mantee and Victor Lundin, joined by Oscar-winning special effects designer and self-appointed Crusoe on Mars historian Bob Skotak. Also edited in are portions of a 1979 audio interview with director Byron Haskin.
"Destination: MARS" is filmmaker/space historian Michael Lennick's documentary short (19-and-a-half minutes), exploring how this surprisingly good movie fits into our fascination with The Red Planet. There's also a music video for the song "Robinson Crusoe on Mars" from Lundin's 2000 album Little Owl (four-and-a-half minutes). And "Under the Surface" is an interactive art gallery interspersed with interesting text. These bonuses have been reauthored for respectable Blu-ray quality.
Final Thoughts
The influence of Robinson Crusoe on Mars can be felt in everything from the original Planet of the Apes to I Am Legend to LOST and more. And there's no denying the special place it holds in the hearts of '60s science fiction fans, who will likely be quite eager to pick it up again, on Blu-ray.
Product Details
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