A Trip to Mars

Years before the movie serial Flash Gordon came upon the scene, the first science-fiction space opera was Denmark's February 1918 "A Trip To Mars." Produced during the middle of World War One, the movie paints a utopian vision of peace & love on the planet Mars from its inhabitants. The line "Love is the Force you call God" is repeated several times, illustrating how screenwriter Ole Olsen felt Earthlings needed to be reminded of that lesson while the European carnage was happening next door to Denmark.

It has been noted "A Trip To Mars" is the first science fiction feature-length movie ever produced. There have been earlier alien-encounter films on Mars and the Moon released, but they were "shorts." The Mars journey the Danes created here was made at a time when lines thought to be canals existing on the planet could be seen from our best telescopes, hinting there was a sophisticated alien life there. When the movie's Earthlings land on the very hospitable planet, its residents welcome their visitors with open arms--that is until a gun is produce by one of the "barbaric" guests to shoot down a bird, setting off a contrast between the two civilizations.

Once things are set right, the viewer appreciates the love and kindness of the Martians, one of the very few times the Red Planet is shown to have benevolent aliens (See list of top Mars movies ranked in below links). Just as the real life Pocahontas was brought to England to showcase the Native Americans, Mars' knockout female Corona was transported to Earth to convey a heavenly message of peace, love and understanding.

A portion of "A Trip To Mars" is devoted to the technology of transporting men to another planet. Many inventions and scientific research have gone towards present-day's outer space achievements, but the fact the film devotes its time towards space travel qualifies it as a "space opera," a phrase coined in 1941. Like soap operas, space operas have dramatic impact on not only the method of travel, but the dramatics of human encounters with alien life. In "A Trip To Mars," the movie's aim is to impact its audience with a message that was hoped to change the direction of Western civilization, just as Thomas More had intended in his book "Utopia" and James Hilton in his "Shangri-La." With "The War To End All Wars" becoming just one in a string of long bloody conflicts following it, the Martian example hasn't quite sunk in yet.

Avanti Planeteros (Gunnar Tolnaes) is a soldier returned home after the war. His astronomer father (Nicolai Neiiendam) convinces him that the future is in the stars, so Avanti teams with Dr. Krafft (Alf Blutecher), who is betrothed to Avanti's sister Corona (Zanny Petersen), to build a spaceship capable of reaching Mars. They construct something that looks like a small, metal blimp with bi-plane wings, and along with a crew of about 8 other guys, they set off for Mars. Once there, they discover an idyllic paradise of robe-wearing, God-loving vegetarians. And of course a Martian woman (Lilly Jacobson) who immediately falls in love with Avanti. Also featuring Frederik Jacobsen as Professor Dubius.

This had to have been silly stuff even in 1918. After the end of WWI I'm sure that most Europeans were looking for a peaceful new way of life as far from war and misery as possible. The Martians aren't aliens as much as idealized humans, looking a bit like Ancient Greeks but with Egyptian ankhs on all of their clothing (Ancient Aliens?!?). The acting is hammy, the effects as primitive as one would imagine, and the story both juvenile and overlong. However, this is an important foundational step in the genre, which is why it's one of the 101 Sci-Fi Movies to See Before You Die.

I don't know of any other full length science fiction film that was made before The Trip to Mars. So in that sense it's the first. I watched other silent sci-fi films from the beginning of the 20th century but all of them were no longer than 15 minutes, and this one was the first of that era that I took seriously.

It held my attention through the movie and it has some very nice and moving scenes. Despite being silent the makers managed to pack it with an interesting and engaging plot, good actors play, science fiction, drama, adventure and a love story. It has an amazing well-built spaceship and special effects are fairly good for the time. The film has very strong religious and Christianity-rooted undertones with a message of hope for humanity plagued with murder, hatred and deceit. Another surprise was that the film was nothing like many other sci-fi movies, most of which came out of Hollywood - just clichés that were about either aliens being vicious monsters, or some oversexed alien women, or an imbecile earth superhero. This one does offer the viewer a chance to engage his brain and heart which is probably more important that the above mentioned infantile and unintelligent consumer rubbish.

So it was quite an unexpected surprise to see such an old and yet very good film and I very much recommend it to any lover of science fiction who can be interested in the oldies just as much as the modern cinema and likes to get something out of film.

Sci-fi is a rapidly changing genre. It loses impact even more rapidly than horror. Therefore it's virtually impossible to see a sci-fi movie from the past (from the pre-space period, i.e. late 50s) that isn't laughable in some sense. First serious sci-fi epics appeared in the very early 50s, and bearing in mind the first space yarn was filmed by Melies in 1902, we get about 50 years of sci-fi without the very basic concepts of space travel. Where The Trip To The Moon can be dismissed as a funny experiment, The Trip To Mars cannot. This is a serious film. The makers didn't know about weightlessness or the absence of atmosphere in space, plus about a hundred more things we know today. That was the period, when everybody was raving about the channels on Mars, so they naturally assumed there was intelligent life on that planet. Melies shows frogmen and other strange creatures on the Moon; in 1924 there appears the still popular tinfoil dress for Martians in Russian film Aelita. So, in between, we get the Egypto-Greek fairy-tale world of this film: wise old priests being wise; and virgins prancing around, praising virtue in the world, where virtue obviously is as normal and unnoticeable as metabolism. Enter the Earthlings, introducing death and sin. Well, nothing spectacular follows: they soon are "cured" and learn the ways of the righteous. This film is a total orgy of enjoyment. The double feature released by the Danish Film Institute (together with a disaster film from 1916, The End Of The World) boosts their usual superior quality. The Danes began storing and archiving their films very early, so you get a very clean second generation copy from a period when most of US films withdrawn from circulation went to the glue or comb factory. It's a pity this film with so many different locations isn't color tinted. The rather uninspired piano accompaniment, another trade mark of the series from the DFI, tends to grow a bit tedious too. But nevertheless, a remarkable film and something you can show to your friends without being afraid that they'll think you're a weirdo.

The view of the world in this movie is clearly dated, but as the movie is from 1918, it's hard to put it against it. What is more impressive is everything it does right. This is not a movie using science fiction as a gimmick - it uses the genre to explore ideas about the time it was made. In the end of the first world war, here's a movie exploring if mankind can live in peace, how we treat our prisoners, how life in a submarine (here: spacecraft) can affect ones mental health, how pushing science forward is a global affair, and can unite different parts of the world, and so on.

While I am not sure just how much the general public knew about astronomy - this movie presents the mission to mars in a way that seems realistic. It takes time, people doubt it, and it takes a toll on the members. They point out where mars will be as they leave Earth, and where it will be when they arrive. The spacecraft itself is like a submarine with a propeller and wings. Mars itself I am sure was quite a mystery back then, so the fact that they made it Earth-like is very understandable. It also opened up for them using Mars and Martians in a way that let the film makers comment on the people of Earth.

The movie is not subtle in the message it is conveying: people on earth should stop with wars and violence and rather go with love. In the end of the most gruesome war in world history up till that point - that sounds like a good message.

The worst part about this movie is the one evil character in it. He serves little purpose, and undermines the underlying message of the film that humans are capable of being good.