Sean Connery's '80s Sci-Fi Western Doesn't Get The Recognition It Deserves
Peter Hyams couldn't have picked a worse time to pursue making a Western. The genre was horribly out of fashion at the outset of the 1980s. Only Clint Eastwood was considered bankable in the genre, and even he had to find a way to modernize it with the modestly successful comedy "Bronco Billy." "But then," Hyams told Empire in 2014, "I woke up and came to the conclusion — obviously after other people — that it was actually alive and well, but in outer space."
Hyams' "Outland" wasn't the first explicit space-bound remake of a classic Western (Jimmy T. Murakami's "Battle Beyond the Stars" was an unabashed redo of "The Magnificent Seven"), but, unlike that Roger Corman-produced delight, it came freighted with genuine star power. The idea of Sean Connery playing an intergalactic version of Gary Cooper's Marshal Will Kane from Fred Zinnemann's classic "High Noon" had the potential to appeal to old Western aficionados and younger "Star Wars" fanatics alike.
The problem with "Outland" was that it sought to be a realistic depiction of interplanetary mining. "Alien" did the same thing, but it dealt with a blue-collar mining crew contending with an acid-blooded xenomorph. "Outland" had Peter Boyle as a drug-trafficking manager of a mining outpost. Boyle could play a great sleazeball, but he wasn't a formidable foe for James Bond. So, with no aliens and no spaceship battles, Hyams really had a straight-up Western in outer space. And oater-weary audiences sniffed it out.
Outland was the wrong sci-fi Western at the wrong time
Critics were mixed on "Outland." They had no qualms with the stellar cast of Connery, Boyle, Frances Sternhagen and James B. Sikking, and dug the tactile production design from Philip Harrison, but they found the plot overly redolent of "High Noon." The visual effects were interesting because Hyams was experimenting with the newly developed Introvision, an in-camera process that placed actors within miniature sets (one that would be exploited to delirious effect by Sam Raimi on "Darkman" and "Army of Darkness").
Most of the negative reviews were smug assessments from critics who wanted their readers to know they knew "Outland" was a "High Noon" remake. While I don't think Hyams reinvents a familiar formula, he brings unimpeachable craftsmanship and crowd-pleasing instincts to the material. At a tight 109 minutes, the film presents a compelling mystery of sorts, spins Connery's character off into a marital conflict (his wife plans to leave the mining colony with his son to return to Earth), and builds to a satisfying variation on an Old West shootout. It's a touch anti-climactic, but I love Hyams for hewing so closely to the "High Noon" narrative with a star who could match Gary Cooper's authority.
"Outland" is a dad movie par excellence. There's a smattering of peril, but you're there to watch Connery apprehend outlaws. It's got a terrific Jerry Goldsmith score, and clunky, industrial realism. It should've been a bigger hit at the time, but if you love sci-fi movies it's essential viewing.