I hadn't seen this in I don't know how many years and tonight I'd thought I'd give it a look to see how it held up. Overall, not too bad. A lot of the exterior shots of the mining operation are pretty clearly models, but the shots of Jupiter look excellent, and it's pretty obvious why they tapped Peter Hyams to do 2010. It's also obvious that Alien was a huge influence on the movie. The computer stuff is hopelessly dated, of course, but not annoyingly so. (Though they did get the idea of computers being linked by fiber-optic cables right.) There are a few bumpy moments with the plot. They make a big deal about it taking a year to get from Jupiter to Earth, yet somehow, the mine boss is able to get a pair of professional killers to the mine in a few days. (We also don't really know how long the events in the movie take place. A week? A month?) These killers also aren't very well versed in space, because they don't quite get the whole, "Don't shoot at the windows or you'll die" bit. The fights in spacesuits are pretty 1950s-era SF, and even the non-spacesuited fights are rather quaint-seeming. I will say that Frances Sternhagen gives a damned good performance, probably the best in the film, and she worked well with Connery. It appears that this is the only time the two of them were in the same film, which is a shame. John Ratzenberger's also in the film, but fuck if I saw him. Peter Boyle's decent in his role as the mine boss. One thing that struck me is when Connery goes into the strip club, the music playing sounds like the end theme to Blade Runner. Now, this came out the year before, so I knew it couldn't have been influenced by Blade Runner, and I wondered who wrote the music (the film score was by Jerry Goldsmith). I checked, it's by a guy named Richard Rudolph, whom I've never heard of before, and I don't know if Vangelis borrowed the theme for the end music, but I did discover that Richard Rudolph is the father of Maya Rudolph. It's available to rent from Amazon and other streaming services for a couple of bucks and worth checking out. (Need to rewatch High Noon to see exactly how much they cribbed from that.)
I don't know why, but in my brain I always confuse this movie with the one with Farrah Fawcett and Kirk Douglas.
You gotta be kidding? You confused "Outland" with "Saturn 3"?!?!?WTF!!! Compared to Saturn 3, Outland is Oscar worthy. Not that Fawcett's tits and ass aren't worth a second look (or third, fourth, or fifth) and Douglas and Keitel are good actors in whatever they're in. But Saturn 3 is drek on so many levels that its literally one of those "it's so bad it's good" movies.
Not to mention that Saturn 3 was one of the first big-budget Alien rip-offs. But yeah, Farrah Fawcett nude is about the only reason to watch that one. Blech.
They came out about the same time (Saturn 3 in 1980, Outland in 1981), both have big names as leads (Kirk Douglas, Sean Connery), and they both have a sorta lived-in industrial space setting, so confusing them is understandable, even though Outland is a good film and Saturn 3 is...not. It's hard to tell with Keitel in this one because his voice was re-dubbed by another actor. Why the F do you hire Harvey Keitel--who was VERY well-established by films like Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, and The Duellist, among others--and then NOT use his actual voice? (Note: I looked it up...it may be that Keitel refused to loop his dialog [re-record dialog in a sound studio] and the producers had to replace him, or it may be that director Stanley Donen simply didn't like Keitel's Brooklyn accent to begin with.) As much affection as I have for this film--it was good for a few chills when I saw it on cable as a child--it's really one of those "so bad it's really bad" films. When I'm rushing myself to do something, I still occasionally hear Keitel's character from Saturn 3 saying "Hurry along, please" in my head.
I love the expression on Adam (Douglas) and later Alex's (Fawcett) faces when they realize that Hector has put one of those fixtures in the back of Adam's neck that links his brain to Hectors. But to me the scariest part was when Hector kills Alex's dog.
