I hope that readers are willing to give me a pass here and let me take the easy way out in this latest entry, a quickie review of The X From Outer Space. Compelled by the rules of this blog, I'm required to squeeze this one in, right smack dab between Jean-Luc Godard and Robert Bresson. In other circumstances, I'd consider this a refreshing change of pace between those two heavyweights, but this is twice-plowed turf for me. I have, to my own satisfaction at least, given this film more than enough time, attention and consideration over the past few years to do it justice. First, I subjected it to in-depth critical scrutiny as part of my old column on CriterionCast.com, back at the time of Eclipse Series 37: When Horror Came to Shochiku's release back in 2012. Then, last October, Trevor Berrett and I engaged in sustained analytical discourse on the relative merits and shortcomings of this peculiar production in our Eclipse Viewer podcast, where we also examined the three other films accompanying this one in that set. Please rest assured, I have actually given the movie another look (on my smartphone, while working out at the gym.) So I'll offer a few fresh observations here that I don't think are too repetitious from my previous takes on the saga of Guilala, a lonely and badly misunderstood monster who can't really be faulted for simply obeying the weird, instinctive and destructive impulses that are his destiny, dictated by the mysterious whims of his unfathomable extraterrestrial origins.
1. A week or so after our scientific horizons were expanded and the popular imagination was once again stirred up by the wonder of space following New Horizon's fly-by of Pluto, I enjoyed this absurd but naively innocent portrayal of how interplanetary exploration was envisioned in the late 1960s. There's a brief glimpse of what the scientists aboard the spaceship AAB-Gamma called "the big green marble" (Earth) that we all live on:
Which immediately brought to mind an image of the since-rechristened "big blue marble" (a nickname popularized by Carl Sagan) that President Obama dropped into his Twitter feed just this morning:
2. The day after I posted my review of the new Criterion release of Hiroshima mon amour, I was fairly stunned to realize that Eiji Okada, who played the male lead in that film, was cast into a supporting role here. (It even says so right in the liner notes, but having just watched the film, the contrast is beyond jarring.) Dr. Kato is the serious lead scientist back at terrestrial headquarters whose main responsibility was apparently to lend the best facsimile of gravitas to the proceedings that he could muster. What an ignominious career trajectory for Okada, who has more than a few Criterion titles to his credit. Hiroshima mon amour and The Woman in the Dunes are two of the most widely revered art house classics in the entire Collection, while Samurai Spy and The Face of Another are substantial and highly regarded titles in their own right. The X from Outer Space is actually Okada's follow up to the latter film. I know it gave him a top billing and didn't require much exertion on his part, but I can only conclude that some form of extortion or other desperate circumstances beyond the allure of a mere paycheck must have compelled Okada to lend his talents to this silly exercise. (Or maybe he wasn't privy to what Guilala and AAB-Gamma were actually going to look like.)
3. Director Kazui Nihonmatsu appears to only have two films to his credit where he's listed as the director (the other one, Genocide, will be covered here eventually) but he did serve as assistant to Keisuke Kinoshita way back in 1951 when they created Japan's first color film Carmen Comes Home (available to watch on Hulu.) Sixteen years is a long time to hone one's craft, but I can definitely pay my sincere respect to the bright and eye-pleasing color palette that Nihonmatsu put together on The X from Outer Space. Now that I'm thoroughly familiar with Guilala's ridiculous antics and I've had about as many laughs at the hokey/cheap special effects as could be considered still within the realm of respect and decency, I think I can genuinely say this is a lovely parade of images from start to finish. The green walls of the Earth base, the cerulean blue skies that serve as a backdrop of Guilala's rampaging fury, the sleek silvery fabric of the space suits and space age model sets of the moon base and launch pads in the shadow of Mt. Fuji are all quite exquisite in their own way. The less said about the acting and script and basic premise of the story though, the better. Especially since I've probably already said too much.
Please note that the transfer in this trailer is terrible, and trust that the Eclipse DVD looks marvelous by comparison. But it's a nice long highlight reel in English that you don't get on the disc. Because, you know, Eclipse...
All right, enough of that. On to le Bresson.
Next: Mouchette