{"id":32383,"date":"2025-11-04T23:02:04","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T07:02:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=32383"},"modified":"2025-11-04T23:02:04","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T07:02:04","slug":"blasts-from-the-past-4k-ultra-hd-review-outland-1981","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=32383","title":{"rendered":"Blasts from the Past! 4K Ultra HD Review: OUTLAND (1981)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This \u201cLimited Edition\u201d 4K Ultra HD release from Arrow\nVideo is currently available.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Back in the late 1970s and early 1980s, space films were the\nrage. Obviously, this was due to the massive success of Star Wars<\/em> and\nits sequels.  But cinemagoers also got to enjoy the classic Alien<\/em>,\nand, well, plenty of other science-fiction efforts of varying quality. This\nincluded Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Battlestar Galactica, Battle Beyond\nthe Stars, Starcrash, The Black Hole, Saturn 3, Flash Gordon<\/em> and so many\nothers that it\u2019s impossible to list them all here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One movie that arrived in 1981 was Outland<\/em>, a unique\nscience-fiction title starring Sean Connery. Audiences at the time might have\nbeen a little confused by the picture, as it featured no elaborate spaceship\nbattles or showdowns involving laser guns. Instead, it harkened back to\nwesterns of old, borrowing liberally from the classic High Noon<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The movie may not have been a box office smash during its initial release, but it was well-regarded by critics and made a lasting impression on those who did manage to see it. It\u2019s an excellent picture that holds up extremely well. In fact, I\u2019d argue that it ranks among the best science-fiction features of the era. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now Arrow Video is delivering a stunning new \u201cLimited Edition\u201d 4K Ultra HD version that any sci-fi fan should pick up. The disc is yet another winner with vastly improved picture quality (compared to the Blu-ray) and it contains a wealth of extras.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This story is set at a titanium mining outpost on one of\nJupiter\u2019s moons. Marshal William T. O’Niel (Sean Connery) is a new arrival on\nthe remote and grim site. This is much to the chagrin of his wife Carol (Kika\nMarkham), who is sick of moving from one dank and depressing facility to the\nnext. She soon announces that she\u2019s taking their son Paul (Nicholas Barnes)\nback to Earth, and that O’Niel should join them. But dispirited as he is, the\ngrouchy protagonist wants to see out one part of his recently appointed job. It\ninvolves an illicit, dangerous drug that is affecting the workers and causing incredibly\ndisturbing deaths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Head manager Mark Sheppard (Peter Boyle) immediately tells\nO’Niel to sit quietly, avoid arrests and keep out of the affairs of the\nworkers, because the site is seen as highly profitable for its owners. O’Niel\ntalks to Sergeant Montone (James B. Sikking) about cracking down on the drug\nproblem, but gets no support. The only individual willing to lend some\nassistance is a sharp-witted MD, Dr. Marian Lazarus (Frances Sternhagen). After\nO’Niel starts to hunt down dealers and foils a big delivery, warnings turn to\nthreats. It climaxes with Sheppard requesting killers to come and eliminate the\nsheriff. Almost the entire base stands aside while O’Niel fights for survival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, yes, the film was intended as a futuristic take on High\nNoon<\/em>, but it works remarkably well. The production value is extremely high\nwith impressively grand, yet still claustrophobic sets. They\u2019re packed with\nworkers, which makes the quarters all the tighter as the lead attempts to chase\ndown suspects. It has an appropriately grimier tone than many movies of its\nday. This picture is also ahead of its time in terms of subtext, with a massive\ncorporation controlling the lives of poor employees and working them until\nthey\u2019re literally dead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There\u2019s a lot going on in the story, and the performances are exceptional. Connery is fantastic as O’Niel. He\u2019s a bit irritable, but in an entertaining way. There\u2019s a great introduction after he arrives on the base and talks to a group of various managers who sit silently. I\u2019m paraphrasing, but, \u201cWow, I really impressed them,\u201d is how he sums the response as he sits back down. His bickering with Lazarus is a lot of fun to watch as well. It\u2019s tense at first, until the two eventually become friends. The confrontations with Sheppard are also enjoyable. Again, there is another fantastic moment in which the sheriff tells the deeply irritated villain running the facility that he found his latest shipment and flushed it down the toilet. \u201cProud of me?\u201d he prods with something of a sly grin. And the serious drama works, with O’Niel eventually\u00a0 \u00a0 opening up to Lazarus and admitting that everyone around him thinks he\u2019s a lousy sheriff, so he just wants to do his job and find out if they\u2019re right. It\u2019s a revealing moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The action is tense and exciting as well, captured with\nstriking photography and special effects that consistently impress. In all, Outland\n<\/em>is an above-average sci-fi picture that, after many decades, still remains\na personal favorite.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I own the Blu-ray and this 4K Ultra HD release is\nsignificantly better than the previous version. It delivers a much cleaner,\nbrighter picture with bolder colors that looks dynamic throughout. The 35mm\noriginal negative was scanned in 4K and restored for this release and it is\npresented in Dolby Vision. This is as good as the film has ever looked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chris Alexander provides a new film historian commentary.\nThe track is largely improvised and conversational, but still informative and\nenjoyable. It\u2019s clear the movie made an impression on him as a younger man too\nand so it is fun to hear his comments on the picture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Still, the essential commentary is actually the archival one\nwith writer\/director Peter Hyams (who also helmed Capricorn One, The Star\nChamber, 2010: The Year We Make Contact, Running Scared, Timecop, Sudden Death,\nThe Relic<\/em>, and many others). He\u2019s a great speaker who goes into everything\ninvolved in the creation of this picture. There is a new interview with the\ndirector that repeats some of this information, but he essentially thanks\nGeorge Lucas and Ridley Scott for indirectly helping the movie get made. He\nadmits wanted to shoot a western, and no executive would finance it. One night,\nhe came to the conclusion that all he really needed to do was change the\nsetting. Hyams also talks about working with Connery and what a pro he was,\neasily communicating his character\u2019s thoughts with a simple expression or look.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As mentioned, there is also a recent interview with Hyams,\nwho goes over most of his career. He talks about his family history. This\nincludes his stepfather, a conductor and opera translator who was blacklisted\nduring the McCarthy witch hunts. The horrific treatment by the extremist\nmovement on his stepdad, a sweet man who was of no threat to America or anyone\nwithin it, made a deep and lasting impression on him (it may be why High\nNoon<\/em> was a major inspiration to him). Hyams talks about his time working\nfor news outlets, eventually moving into film and becoming his own\ncinematographer. And the filmmaker shares tales about the good and bad\nexperiences he went through with his early projects, as well as his\nstorytelling philosophy and how he set up shots in the movie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Hyams did find Outland<\/em> to be one of the best\nexperiences of his career. Apparently, the Ladd Company were incredibly\nsupportive during the shoot in England, and their president even suggested that\nHyams shoot add more graphic and jarring elements to a death scene early in the\nfilm to hook viewers into the story. The filmmaker is very proud of the movie\nand is specifically pleased with the friendship between O\u2019Niel and Lazarus. The\ntwo are played by a man and woman, but there is no romantic connection between\nthem, which is still rarely done in a studio narrative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is also a great discussion with cinematographer\nStephen Goldblatt. Apparently, Goldblatt was in his 20s and had just come off\nhis first independent feature. He doesn\u2019t go into specifics, but says he was\naware at the time that there were issues with a cinematographer and director\nbeing the same person, and thus knew that he had been hired by executives on\nthe production to be let go shortly after production began. This film involved\nextensive visual effects through a new system called Introvision, so Goldblatt\ntook a crash course in the process and made himself indispensable. He notes\nthat Hyams filmed most of the conversations between actors and that he shot all\nof the footage involving effects (which is a considerable amount). And despite\nthe odd circumstances behind-the-scenes, Goldblatt states that he and Hyams got\non well. The interviewee says it was an incredible learning experience and\npaved the way for his work as cinematographer on The Hunger, Young Sherlock\nHolmes, Lethal Weapon, Lethal Weapon 2, The Prince of Tides, Batman Forever<\/em>,\nand many others).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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William Mason, who worked at Introvision, is another\nexcellent interview piece. He talks about the Introvision process, which\ninvolved shooting miniatures and using front projection and mirrors to\nincorporate different layers and elements together within a live shot involving\nactors. Moviemakers would see the finished article as they filmed and avoid all\ncostly post-production effects. It really was an impressive technique which was\nbeing used for the first time in Outland<\/em>. Mason explains how the\nstriking effects shots were accomplished. Introvision was memorably used in\nother titles and we see examples, including the boulder scene in Raiders of\nthe Lost Ark<\/em>, and the train sequences in Stand by Me<\/em> and The\nFugitive<\/em>. The speaker also laments what happened to Introvision, and goes\ninto interesting detail about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If that wasn\u2019t enough, there is a visual essay on the career\nof Hyams and a video essay on Outland<\/em>. The career of the director is\nfascinating and offers a look at many of the pictures in his career and similar\nelements within the projects. At the very least viewers will have a list of\nother titles to seek out. The video essay is interesting and engaging as well,\nalthough like many others of its kind, this reviewer doesn\u2019t necessarily agree\nwith a few of the ideas being argued.  Publicity materials like a trailer\nand image gallery are also included. There\u2019s a booklet with essays on the\nfeature. And the package contains a double-sided fold out poster with new and\noriginal art for the movie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Outland<\/em> is a great science-fiction feature that\nstands above many others of its ilk. That\u2019s because, in addition to its\nexcellent cinematography, production design and visual effects, it also takes\ngreat care with its characters and themes. The western allusions add depths and\na relatable element to the story. Arrow Video\u2019s 4K presentation is also\ntop-notch, making this effort easy to recommend to anyone looking for an\nall-around great piece of entertainment. Pick it up if you can!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This \u201cLimited Edition\u201d 4K Ultra HD release from Arrow Video is currently available. Back in the late 1970s and early 1980s, space films were the rage. Obviously, this was due to the massive success of Star Wars and its sequels.  But cinemagoers also got to enjoy the classic Alien, and, well, plenty of other science-fiction […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":32384,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[113,697,1836,2926,2933,2934,7805,9149,10203,15573,15574,15575,15576,15577,15578,15579,15964,15981,17776,17860,24114],"class_list":["post-32383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dvdblu-ray-reviews","tag-113","tag-action","tag-arrow-video","tag-blasts-from-the-past-4k-ultra-hd-review-2","tag-blasts-from-the-past-2","tag-blasts-from-the-past-4k-review","tag-frances-sternhagen","tag-high-noon","tag-james-b-sikking","tag-outland","tag-outland-4k-review","tag-outland-4k-ultra-hd","tag-outland-4k-ultra-hd-review","tag-outland-disc-review","tag-outland-movie-review","tag-outland-review","tag-peter-boyle","tag-peter-hyams","tag-science-fiction-2","tag-sean-connery","tag-western"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32383\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}