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Planeta Bur (1962) (Original Title)
Director: Pavel Klushantsev
Writers: Aleksandr Kazantsev, Pavel Klushantsev
Cast: Vladimir Yemelyanov, Georgi Zhzhyonov, Gennadi Vernov
Genre: Sci Fi
Language: Russian
"Cosmonauts land on the planet Venus. However, they find themselves in danger from the voracious monsters they find on it."
A beguilingly deep film about altruistic social ideas, that gets overshadowed at times by the prerequisite sci-fi creatures who draw attention away from the deeper concepts that the film offers.
I liked it!...I love sci fi and have always been interested in reading about the Soviet space program. One of the primary goals of the Soviets was the landing of probes on Venus. So I'm not surprised that a Soviet era film would be about a manned mission to the 2nd planet in our solar system.
I enjoyed both the space flight part of the film, and the look and feel of Venus. If Venus wasn't 800 Fahrenheit, it conceivably could have looked like it did in the film. NASA scientist believe that Venus might have very well had oceans and been habitable for 2 billion years of it's existences. That's before the run away greenhouse effect took place and turned the planet into a hell.
Back to the movie!....The story concept is deceptively deeper than the images of rubber dinosaurs would seem to present. I was impressed with the underlying theme that all life in the universe might stem from one single source, which then makes us all brothers. I see this as the director countering Soviet propaganda with some very progressive ideas of his own.
There's only a few blatant propaganda lines about the heroic Soviet people achieving space goals for the Soviet Union, and that was at the beginning of the film. I was very surprised to see that as the film progressed the Russian cosmonauts talked about getting home to Earth, not the Soviet union. I think that is the beauty of the film. In other words the director had balls!
The end credit song:
Planet of Storms, we'll see you soon, don't worry / And in your harbor, our ships will gladly berth / For not in vain are we the sons of Earth / For not in vain are we the sons of Earth / Earth, dear Comrades
And the discussion of the commonalty of the origins of life was far ahead of it's time in sci fi ideas. To me it seemed like the film maker was saying, life everywhere is akin.
What about a stone age rock painting in Sakhara? This drawing shows a man wearing a space suite. What about those ancient rust resisting columns in India? The way they treated the iron of the columns is yet unparalleled on Earth. And the mystery of the Atlantis? And the extraordinary knowledge of the ancient astronomers?
...
I'm convinced that interstellar flights are an inevitable step for development of life elsewhere. There's no isolation between the worlds. And Life immigrating in cosmos is as natural as spreading the plants seeds by the wind on Earth. And perhaps, the solar system planets are populated with one and common tribe of living creatures, who are
developing like different branches, Of the solar tribe.
That's ahead of it's time and later that idea appeared in the 1968 book, Chariots of the God by Erich von Daniken. Maybe the movie inspired the book?I found the film haunting with the siren voices in the wind and the mystery of an ancient civilization laying lost under the ocean...And oh that last shot in the reflecting pool, sublime. ...
I'm convinced that interstellar flights are an inevitable step for development of life elsewhere. There's no isolation between the worlds. And Life immigrating in cosmos is as natural as spreading the plants seeds by the wind on Earth. And perhaps, the solar system planets are populated with one and common tribe of living creatures, who are
developing like different branches, Of the solar tribe.
Maybe the production values aren't always in line with the films more enlightened ideas, but I can overlook that and focus on the deeper meaning of the film.
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