Cheap Marooned (DVD) (Gregory Peck, Richard Crenna) (John Sturges) Price

Related Products

Customer Reviews of Marooned

More science fact than science fiction, but just as good
Aside form Ice Station Zebra, director John Stuges brings Martin Caidin's classic novel of a joined resucue mission by NASA and the Russina Space program with excellent precision and accuracy. Most of all, the late director stays true to Caidin's work. Not only does the movie have award-winning special effects, a good, solid plot, excellent actors and actresses, it also stays true to what NASA would do in a situation like this.

The film centers around the crew of the Apollo spacecraft IRONMAN 1, and how they are starnded in Earth orbit. While NASA and the Russians prepare a joint rescue operation, the astronauts learn that one or two of them must sacrifice themselves because of their limited oxygen supply. From that point on, it is a race against time to rescue the astronauts from a slow death.

Another cool thing about this movie was the actually filming in Cape Canaveral, Florida, and the stock footage of the Apollo 11 mission taking off from the launch pad. It really captures the era it was set in. Marooned is an excellent film. More science fact than science fiction. If you are a follower of the space program, then you might want to consider checking this film out. It's worth watching.

---

Good Film, But An Even Better Prognosticator
Though not an unflawed work like Kubrick's 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY was, the 1969 sci-fi drama MAROONED manages to overcome its obvious flaws. The film concerns itself with the crew of Ironman One who, after having spent seven months in a converted Apollo capsule (a precursor to Skylab and the international space station) to test Man's endurance in space, find themselves trapped in their capsule some 300 miles above Earth when the craft's retro-rockets refuse to fire. This forces NASA to try and mount a last-ditch rescue effort before the oxygen inside Ironman gives out and the crew suffocate. Complications involve having to launch the rescue craft through the eye of a hurricane passing over the Florida launch site, but the rescue pilot (David Janssen) gets some unexpected help from a Russian cosmonaut orbiting in a nearby Voshkod spacecraft.

MAROONED is, as I've said, not an unflawed film. The dialogue that the fine cast, which includes Gregory Peck, Richard Crenna, and Gene Hackman, has to deal with is arguably quite banal. Another complication that arises is that the film's director, John Sturges, was better known for his work in the western genre (including THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN) and was thus not totally comfortable in the sci-fi genre. The third problem is that the special effects, which won a justly deserved Oscar in 1969, are obviously dated in ways in which those of "2001" aren't.

As a pre-cursor of things to come, however, MAROONED is unbelievably prescient. The film was released in December 1969. Four months later, in April 1970, the film's situation was echoed almost directly by the real-life saga of Apollo 13, whose three-man crew was almost stranded permanently in space when one of their oxygen tanks exploded on their way to the Moon. And like the 1995 film APOLLO 13, MAROONED shows NASA trying to come up with the right solutions to a very difficult situation. On that score alone, even though thirty years of cinematic advancements have rendered it dated to a certain degree, MAROONED still has considerable weight to it.

---

Just how bad is it?
Well, it's very slow. The movie actually has no real music. Just a electric hum. The special effects are very weak compared to 2001. Hard to believe both won Oscars for special effects. In widescreen, the special effects actually get worse. The story seems to take forever. And now lets start on the acting. Gregory Peck is featureless, Richard Crenna is dry and don't get me started on Gene Hackman. I love astronaut films like 2001, The Right Stuff and Apollo 13, but this movie left me bored. Are we sure that this was directed by John Sturges, director of the Great Escape, Magnificent Seven and Bad Day at Black Rock?

Kudos to MST3K for lampooning this movie (shown as Space Travelers). Now I'll watch it that way.