Marooned

Astronauts Richard Crenna, Gene Hackman, and James Franciscus are on a several month mission in outer space. It's scheduled for seven months, but NASA Director Gregory Peck decides to bring them home early as they are showing signs of fatigue.

But something goes terribly wrong with the reentry rockets and the guys are stranded up there in space with about a 42 hour supply of oxygen. It's looking pretty grim because we're not sure that a rescue mission is feasible. Chief astronaut David Janssen and Gregory Peck lock horns on this issue at a staff meeting. Add to that a hurricane is developing in Caribbean that will be passing over Florida and Cape Kennedy.

But they try and Marooned is about that attempt. As a film it doesn't get too much into character development except during a sequence when the astronaut wives, Lee Grant, Nancy Kovack, and Mariette Hartley are brought in to boost morale all around. It does concentrate on the rescue mission and the special effects for which Marooned got an Academy Award in 1969.

I'm not a science buff by any means, but Marooned was projected several years into the future, the long missions that Crenna, Hackman, and Franciscus were on were years away. But Marooned seemed to get the future right.

It's a dated film now, but still exciting and suspenseful.

...Marooned is a good movie.

If you're inclined to consider when it was made, or you're old enough to remember when the idea of manned space exploration was actually exciting, you might even think it's great. The worst thing I can say is that it's certainly not fast-paced: if you're looking for a sci-fi action spectacular, this probably isn't going to be your cup of tea.

The specifics are covered very well in previous users' comments (and in Roger Ebert's ***/**** review), so I won't repeat them here.

There is one thing I'd like to clarify, though, if I may:

Anyone looking at the user ratings and user comments should take into consideration that a (very) abbreviated version of this movie was shown on Mystery Science Theatre 3000 as "Space Travelers." I'm a pretty hardcore MST fan myself, and I agree that it was a funny episode. However, there's a certain type of MSTie that finds it entertaining to visit the IMDb and "vote" (negatively, of course) for the movies featured in their favourite episodes, with a view to knocking them down into the IMDb's "Bottom 100" list. Sometimes this is reasonably well-deserved: honestly, some of the worst (best) movies featured on MST3K would be indefensible in any form. Other times, particularly when the original is cut to pieces (this one lost approximately 1:15 of its 2:15 running time, while "gaining" some lousy incidental music and a shabby new title sequence*), I don't think it's right at all.

If you want to watch an interesting, thought-provoking sci-fi drama, "Marooned" is a good bet. If you want to watch a funny episode of MST3K, "Space Travelers" (#0401) is an equally good bet. You can even watch and enjoy both, as I have. Don't let the strange mix of votes and comments here dissuade you from watching it entirely, though, because that would be a mistake.

(A minor mistake, admittedly, but still -- a mistake.)

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* Credit where it's due: most of this hack job was courtesy of re-distributor Film Ventures International, and not the folks at MST3K. If you come across a non-MST'd version of this movie that runs about 1:30, don't waste your time: I guarantee it'll be neither interesting _or_ funny.

A tense thriller and extremely realistic space movie at the time its realization , dealing with three astronauts go in the rocket : Jim Pruett (Richard Crenna), Clayton Stone (James Franciscus) and Buzz Lloyd (Gene Hackman). Back at base, Charles Keith (Gregory Peck) wonders if after eight months in space they could perform the easiest manual tasks. It seems to be a "routine" flight , but things go very wrong, and prospects of a safe return fade . Once in space the astronauts take off their helmets they lose backup for some reason. The mission Director (George Gaynes) decides that they need to use the primary thrust, because the secondary is damaged. The communications officer hears mishaps , retro-fires don't work ; as the NASA mission has an accident in the aircraft . Then , the workers at NASA, try to figure out a way to get the astronauts home safely. Subsequent tensions within the crew and numerous technical problems threaten both the astronauts' survival and their safe return to Earth. Only 55 minutes left to rescue them. While the whole world watches and waits...especially their three wives (Lee Grant , Nancy Kovack , Mariette Hartley) . Houston, we have a problem.

A descriptive film about space mission with 3 marooned astronauts which had the misfortune to go out on release at precisely the time when the astronauts of Apollo 13 were fighting with an exactly similar emergency . Faced with real-life competition , the movie failed at box office due to its overlong runtime , slow-moving and was undeservedly buried ; however , nowadays is better deemed than when it was released . The plot is plain and simple , bearing remarkable and striking resemblance to subsequent Apollo 13 (1995) by Ron Howard , as three brave astronauts : Richard Crenna , James Franciscus , Gene Hackman , stranded 205,000 miles from Earth in a crippled spacecraft when its retro-rockets misfire , as they fight a desperate battle to survive , unable to go back to Earth , meanwhile , at Mission Control, astronaut David Janssen , flight director Gregory Peck and a heroic ground crew race against time and the odds to bring them home. The picture packs tension , intrigue , chills and the suspense builds remorselessly to a neat conclusion . This is a story of sacrifice , averted tragedy , comradeship , heroism and describes a will of creativity and effort on the technicians who ran the early space missions . The wide-screen are first-rate , as well as the special effects that are the main thing this Sci-Fi picture has going for it . Several dollars' worth of Hollywood top-drawer cast is partially wasted in this flick of three astronauts unable to return to Earth .

The motion picture was professionally directed by John Sturges, though with no much enthusiasm , and including some moments amazingly inept ; however , winning Oscar for Special Effects , FX, that are really fabulous . Sturges began his directing career at Columbia Pictures, from there he moved on to MGM where he filmed more "B" pictures, albeit on a larger budget . He established an independent production company in 1959, releasing through United Artists. From 1960-67 he worked under contract for United Artists. His first major hit was the western Dog Day at Black Rock (1955) , which he shot in just three weeks, wrapping up virtually every scene in a single take . He specialized in robust action pictures, particularly westerns. He excelled at bringing to life tautly written stories about tough characters facing difficult circumstances . Throughout his career he regularly alternated hits with misses . He has also been criticized for his lack of stylistic trademarks , though his best films remain exciting to watch . Sturges was expert on all kind of genres , but especially warlike such as : ¨Great Escape¨, ¨Ice Station Zebra¨ and ¨Eagle has landed¨ and Western such as ¨Last train of Gun Hill¨, ¨Magnificent Seven¨, ¨Backlash¨, ¨Law and Jake Webb¨, ¨Joe Kidd¨ and Chino¨, among others . Rating : 6/10 . Passable and acceptable , but a little bit boring and tiring . Well worth seeing .

I've always liked this movie, still holds some modern jaded audiences to the edge of their seats. One comment. I saw this at age 10 in a downtown theater in original 70mm print. The curtain opened and the house lights went half dim. I knew what I was looking at on the screen but I suspect I was the only one there who did. I kept yanking on my dad's arm, pointing at the (blank?) screen, yelling "look!" "look!". The original opening was the coolest thing I've EVER seen on screen, a near silent, ultra-slow zoom-out and slow pan to the horizon through a fully extended Baker-Nunn camera that was looking out into nothing but black outer space. Damn amazing. Total, utter, deep space - pure blackness until it got to the horizon. Outstanding. There's about 10 seconds on the DVD, it was more like 10 minutes in the theater. Gave you a real feel for where these guys were about to end up Marooned -in-. The only thing I've ever seen on film that compares - and it's the reverse situation - is the ending of Electraglide in Blue. I'll never forget it. Thank you old time American cinema. These days you'd get commercials for your 9 dollars.

OK, the film is plodding and the over caution and dourness of Gregory Peck's Dr. Keith gets irritating, but James Franciscus, stalwart of many a tv movie and dodgy international co-production, puts in a career best performance as the scientist-astronaut struggling to keep a grip on not only his faculties, but those of his fellow astronauts. Because he can work out scientifically what's going to happen, Clayton Stone (Franciscus) has the added burden. The scenes where he's trying to convince his wife back on Earth that they're going to make it, when the evidence is telling him in his mind of the opposite, the way he struggles with trying to convey how he feels when he's more a cerebral person and the end when its down to him to rescue himself and Buzz Lloyd (Hackman) are all excellently portrayed. It's a shame that he was seldom given another role that would have as much depth.