Space is the Place
Picture: B-
Sound: C+ Extras: C+ Film: B-
The early 1970s saw many independent films, often shot in
16mm, getting produced and a good number have become cult classics. Given their low-budget origins, some of them
gleefully accepted their B-movie status by explicitly embracing B-movies. Like the X-rated Flesh Gordon (1973,
reviewed elsewhere on this site), Space is the Place (1974) did its best
to emulate B Science Fiction films. It
is now available on DVD from Plexifilm.
Though unrated, this film would likely get an R today,
with some of its nudity and language (i.e., the constant us of the notorious
‘N’ word). The eccentric, influential,
and respected Sun Ra and his Intergalactic Solar Arkestra stars as a space
traveling, off-beat Jazz-playing band who have found a new planet where African
peoples can go to. Forget the “back to
Africa” movement, a new planet could serve as a new start for people who are
not getting what they deserve on Earth.
With Vietnam in full swing, it seems timely.
However, Sun Ra (as himself) must take on a dangerous,
exploiting, pimp named The Overseer (Ray Johnson, from the original Don Siegel Dirty
Harry) in a battle of wits for the very souls of Black Americans. The narrative is intercut with footage of
the two playing games at a table reminiscent of the chess games of Boris
Karloff and Bela Lugosi in 1930s Horror films, likely an intended
reference. X-Men fans will
recognize that reference as well between Patrick Steward and Sir Ian McKellan. The space travelers also have NASA, the FBI
and other federal interventions to be concerned with, not to mention the media,
which is portrayed in a way as amusing as Nicolas Roeg offered it in The Man
Who Fell To Earth (now a great DVD set from Anchor Bay).
Some elements of the “Blaxploitation” trend are here, but
not as explicitly as expected. This
film is much more in the Science Fiction mode, a visual ride that influenced
everyone from Parliament/Funkadelic (who did a Glam take on these Egyptian fashions,
perhaps a reclaiming of the look from the all-white Joseph L. Mankiewicz Cleopatra
(1963), which influenced many 1960s fashions to begin with), and Earth, Wind
and Fire, who took the look to more extravagant heights as stadium concerts
caught on. The connection to religion
is partly through Cleopatra, an inadvertent product of the Biblical Epic
cycle that was reaching its 70mm heights by 1963.
The film is not coherent in the book-like sense, but the
inconsistencies are not as severe since this cut restores footage lopped-off
from endless bootleg copies. As it
stands, the 82 minutes (which began as 90 according to Sun Ra biographer John
Szwed, but is Coney’s final cut) offers a unique mix of music, the struggle of
the two antagonists at the table in the middle of nowhere, and the actual
action happening in the populated world.
Though not radical, despite his association with Bobby Seale and The
Black Panthers, the film is political enough that an oversensitive Nixon
Administration would have still been hitting the panic button. Their only comfort could be in writing it
off as incoherent, and the film only had limited theatrical bookings.
On a music level, this is interesting work, and Sun Ra cut
over 100 albums before his death. There
are several women who talk in theater-like performances as certain music
sections play. The film wants to convey
its feeling of Vietnam being apocalyptic years before Francis Coppola or
Michael Cimino got their masterpieces to the big screen, but the film has no footage
of the film, though there is strife on TVs in the opening (again a few years
ahead of Roeg’s film). It also makes
for an interesting comparison to Douglas Trumbull’s Silent Running
(1973, reviewed elsewhere e on this site), in both takes of future homes that
are possibly compatible.
The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image looks decent
for its age, as the stock shows its age with some limits in the
EastmanColor. The enhancement benefits
the look by adding a rich ness intended by the stocks in the first place. This is better than the fine DVDs of Flesh
Gordon or Ganja & Hess (also reviewed on this site), two films
comparable for their time, especially Ganja, a Black-cast Vampire film
more daring than the brief Blacula franchise.
The Dolby Digital 2.0 is unfortunately Mono, and the audio
shows its age beyond the low-budget situation.
It is still a little richer and a bit fuller than it could otherwise be,
but the music must not have been taped in stereo and/or those masters did not
survive. It is a theatrical mono film,
however. Extras on the DVD run 16
minutes, including an interview on-camera with director Coney and producer Jim
Newman, and 1972 home movies used in concerts of the Arkestra (get it, ARK-estra)
that also includes visiting Egypt. 65%
is monochrome, the rest in color. The
DVD also has a booklet with Essays by Szwed, Coney, and Sonic Youth’s Thurston
Moore.
That makes this a fine disc release that should bring a
whole new interest in Sun Ra, the era the film came out of, and allow the film
to take its proper place among key indie classics when the term really meant
something. Oddly, no film had attempted
to meld Science Fiction and music like this since the 1930 Sci-Fi Musical Just
Imagine, Fox Films answer to Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (1926) that
itself would later influence the look of the Disney film Tron in
1982. Space is the Place is part
of this proud legacy.
- Nicholas Sheffo
