Robinson Crusoe on Mars

Plot

Commander Christopher 'Kit' Draper and Colonel Dan McReady reach Mars in their spaceship, Mars Gravity Probe 1. To avoid a large orbiting meteoroid, they use their remaining fuel and descend in one-man lifeboat pods, becoming the first humans on Mars but separated. Draper finds a cave for shelter, burns coal-like rocks for warmth, and discovers heating them releases oxygen, allowing him to refill his air tanks. He finds McReady's crashed pod and corpse, along with their monkey Mona.

As months pass, isolation causes Draper to imagine an alive but silent McReady. He watches his orbiting spaceship, unable to land without fuel. He discovers a dark rock slab, digs around it, and uncovers a humanoid skeleton with a hole in its skull and charring on the back, indicating murder. To hide his presence, Draper signals his ship to self-destruct.

Production

Exterior locations were shot mostly at Zabriskie Point in Death Valley National Park, California. Special effects were handled by Lawrence Butler and matte artist Albert Whitlock, who provided matte paintings; Whitlock noted that some spacecraft motion scenes used flat animation similar to NASA promotional films. Designer Albert Nozaki constructed three miniatures resembling the Martian war machines he had made for Haskin's The War of the Worlds.

Director Byron Haskin told interviewer Joe Adamson that the film gave him complete autonomy and fulfillment, comparable to The War of the Worlds. Haskin made exploratory trips into Death Valley and decided to shoot from ridges rather than valleys, as the ridge vistas looked like another planet. He also conceived making the blue skies red; winter skies were deep blue, forming a perfect traveling matte. Haskin hand animated photos of the slave ships that terrorize the protagonist, patterned after Nozaki's Martian ship design from War of the Worlds.

Reception

Despite positive critic reaction at the time, Robinson Crusoe on Mars did not perform well at the box office. Film reviewer Glenn Erickson suggested indifferent distribution was blamed, but audiences may have preferred seeing astronauts on the news.

Film historian Leonard Maltin called it a surprisingly agreeable reworking of Defoe's story, beautifully shot in Death Valley, noting its intimate nature helps it play better on TV. Time Out editor John Pym described it as intelligently imaginative sci-fi, with Haskin avoiding sentimentality with the monkey. Kevin Thomas in the Los Angeles Times praised its superb special effects, strong performances, and overall design as a work of art.

Home media

The Criterion Collection, known for its meticulous film restorations, gave Robinson Crusoe on Mars its first U.S. home video release on LaserDisc in December 1993. A special edition DVD followed on September 18, 2007, and a Blu-ray on January 11, 2011.

The high-definition transfer was color-corrected from the original 35mm negative, and the original mono soundtrack was remastered to 24-bit stereo. Bonus materials include a stills gallery with behind-the-scenes photos, the theatrical trailer, a 1979 audio interview with director Byron Haskin, and a music video for Victor Lundin’s song, created for the 2007 DVD. A full-color booklet with film facts is also included.

Did You Know?

• Two songs were inspired by and named after the film, one sung by Johnny Cymbal and the other by Victor Lundin.
• Victor Lundin wrote the song 'Robinson Crusoe on Mars' to perform at science fiction conventions and recorded it for his 2000 album Little Owl.