SPACEHUNTER

US, 1983, 90 minutes, Colour.
Peter Strauss, Molly Ringwald, Michael Ironside, Andrea Marcovicci, Ernie Hudson.
Directed by Lamont Johnson.

Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone is an entertaining futuristic space adventure. After difficulties in pre-production, with changes of focus (e.g. the world was to be a post-Holocaust universe), director Lamont Johnson has stepped in and made a satisfying matinee style film.

Peter Strauss as the hero is in the Indiana Jones vein. Molly Ringwald (The Tempest, Sixteen Candles) is a lively orphan heroine. There is solid supporting cast and Canadian production values.

While the film has echoes of Star Wars, it is very much like the futuristic films as Mad Max. The location of the film is the plague-ridden planet of Terra Eleven. Androids and Cyborgs abound. The capital is Graveyard City. The film relies on its unusual decor - an atmosphere of squalor and abandonment with a variety of mutants. The film is thus in the Flash Gordon adventure vein. There is also an Elmer Bernstein rousing musical score.

The film was made in 3-D and many of the special effects designed for this. Although derivative, it is quite entertaining of its kind.

1. Enjoyable action adventure, the future, space? Popular material - matinee style? Derived from Star Wars, Mad Max etc.? Its quality as derivative, in itself?

2. Production values, especially the special effects for 3-D screening? The creation of the future, Terra 11 and its squalid abandoned look, decor and costumes? Odd landscapes and colouring? The mutants and the special effects? Explosions? The rousing score?

3. The familiar plot from action adventures and westerns: the soldier of war, the laconic hero, plucky heroines, ugly world, missions and rescue?

4. Humans and machines: the Androids and their role as engineers and pilots, the development of Cyborgs and their wresting power from humans? Human and machine control and conflicts? The future and machines - melodramatically presented?

5. Wolff: the American hero, the part detective, part-cowboy, salvaging agent? An individualist hero in the American tradition? His spaceship? His using Androids, especially Chalmers? Her destruction? The mission to rescue the three women? Adventures, dangers and prowess? The build-up to the confrontation with Overdog? Finding Niki, Chief Washington? Their participation in his exploits?

6. Niki as the teenage orphan waif, plucky, tough, pleasant? A girl of spirit? Her being captured, her ordeals, sacrifice? Rescue and sharing the adventures with Wolff?

7. The visualising of the adventures, editing and pace: Bat People, Barracuda Women, Dwarf Children, the abandoned desert? The encounter with the Duster Brothers? Overdog and his overlordship? The irony of Graveyard City? The mission to confront, rescue and destroy? Excitement?

8. The emphasis on torture, the three women and their rescue? Niki and her capture, the obstacles and her moving through them, her being the sacrifice for Overdog?

9. Overdog as villain - mutant, the Cyborg tyrant, Graveyard City?

10. Wolff and the rescues, the spectacle, the self-destruction of the city? Washington, the girls and the escape? Reconciliation with Niki?

11. Pleasing treatment of old themes: from the westerns, action adventures, futuristic conventions? Heroes and heroines, masculine and feminine roles? Good vs. evil? Heroic spirit? Characters like this as valid and valuable comic book popular symbols?