Conquest of Space is a 1955 science-fiction movie produced by
George Pál which depicts a voyage to Mars. The science and technology were intended to be as
realistic as possible. The poster tagline was "See how it will happen in your lifetime!"
When it came out, the New York Times' review said "There is very little
doubt who should receive a generous amount of credit and praise… They are the special effects artists, John P. Fulton, Irmin
Roberts, Paul Lerpae, Ivyle Burks, and Jan Domela… They created top-flight effects such as 'the wheel', a self-contained station
orbiting around earth, rocket flights in space and a horrendous near-collision with an asteroid. These facets of the Paramount
production—and fortunately they are many and frequent—are much to marvel at. But then," it says ominously, "there is a
story."
The film credits say that it is based on The Conquest of Space, a
1949 book which itself has unusual credits: it is by "Chesley Bonestell and Willy Ley", the first-credited Bonestell
being the illustrator and Ley the writer. Bonestell is the artist famous for his photorealistic paintings of views
from outer space.
The film itself also incorporated material from Wernher von Braun's book, Mars
Project.
Judgements of the quality of the special effects vary. As noted above, contemporary reviewers were thrilled. Today's audiences
are apt to notice the presence of visible matte lines. Reviewer Glenn Erickson says that "the ambitious special effects were some
of the first to garner jeers for their lack of realism." Paul Brenner says "Pal pulls out all stops in the special effects
department, creating 'The Wheel', rocket launches into space, and a breathtaking near collision with an asteroid."
The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction says "The special effects
are quite ambitious but clumsily executed, in particular the matte work." Paul Corupe says that often "the overall image on
screen that inspires awe: the Martian landscape, the general's high-tech office and the vastness of the cosmos. The film's budget
is certainly up on screen for your entertainment, but it's just spectacle for spectacle's sake." He too complains of matte lines
but acknowledges that "the composites are convincing enough for the time the film was made in."
The film contains a single moment in which weightlessness is depicted convincingly, in which a visitor transferring from Earth
shuttle rocket to space station tumbles head over heels through space, as well as comically bad efforts by actors to mime
weightlessness or G-force. A space-eye view of a rocket climbing toward the viewer as it leaves Mars is impressive. While the
effects do not brook comparison with those in 2001: A Space Odyssey,
there are detectable similarities in overall "look" of the space scenes.
But as The Times says, "there is a story", and one that has come in for almost
universal disparagement.
The books on which the film was supposedly based, Bonestell and Ley's The Conquest of Space and von Braun's Mars
Project, are straight didactic popular science, with no story line. Except for their speculative element, they are nonfiction
pure and simple. Thus, Willy Ley:
- If we assume that the average acceleration of a moonship amounts to 4 g ("gravities"), which is something we are sure
the pilot can stand, it would require about 500 seconds of acceleration to get the ship to a velocity of 7 miles per second. Then
the ship would coast upward against the pull of earth's gravitation which would slowly reduce its velocity. Zero velocity would
be reached after 300,000 seconds…
Had Pál followed the book (or von Braun's), he would have produced a documentary, much like some of the Disney
"Tomorrowland" television episodes featuring von Braun. Instead, writers Philip Yordan,
Barré Lyndon and George Worthing Yates, credited with "adaptation", created a story out of whole cloth.
The central theme of the movie probably reflects a controversy of the early 1940s. By the time the film was produced, this
controversy was so utterly outdated that audiences were baffled. The British
Interplanetary Society, founded in 1933, was perhaps the earliest space advocacy group, promoting the then-fantastic
notion that space flight via rockets was technically feasible and that it ought to be attempted. Their ideas found opposition
from a number of intellectual British Christians, notably C. S. Lewis. He wrote three books,
superficially in the science-fiction/fantasy genre, intended to counter the views of the British scientific establishment.
In Perelandra, a fictional account of a trip to Venus, Lewis referred to "the vast
astronomic distances which are God's quarantine regulations". Lewis believed that God intended humankind to stay on Earth, and
that attempts to leave it were blasphemous. He thought that the very word "Space" was wrong, charged with the notion of
emptiness, and maintained that it should be thought of as "Heaven", inhabited by higher beings which, in his fantasy novels, he
calls by names other than "God" or "angels". In the 1940s and 1950s it was common to justify spaceflight as a parallel to the
great sea voyages that led to colonization: a means of finding fresh territory, literal "new worlds", more living space for
humanity, and, of course, a source of valuable raw materials (like the "asteroid mines" of science fiction). Lewis was outraged
by the idea that humankind, having overexploited the Earth, would proceed to colonize and overexploit the rest of the
universe.
Pál's adapters present a dramatic controversy that closely parallels the Clarke-Lewis debate. The overarching story turns, in fact, on the question of whether or not God has
given humankind no more than the Earth, or whether God has also given humankind Mars and the rest of the universe.
The Mars spaceship (foreground) and the Wheel space station
En route to Mars, Captain Barney Merritt, son of mission commander General Samuel Merritt, spots the general reading a
Bible.
- Gen. Sam Merritt: Man's every move, his every thought, his every action is in there somewhere, recorded or predicted.
Every move except… this one. According to the Bible, Man was created on the Earth. Nothing is ever mentioned of his going to
other planets. Not one blessed word.
- Capt. Barney Merritt: Well, at the time the Bible was written, it wouldn't have made much sense, would it?
- Gen. Sam Merritt: Does it now? The Biblical limitations of Man's wanderings are set down as being the four
corners of the Earth. Not Mars, or Jupiter, or infinity. The question is, Barney, what are we? Explorers? Or
invaders?
- Capt. Barney Merritt: Invaders? Of what, sir?
- Gen. Sam Merritt: The sacred domain of God. His heavens. To Man, God gave the Earth — nothing else. This taking of… of
other planets… it's almost like an act of blasphemy.
- Capt. Barney Merritt: But why? They belong to no one else.
- Gen. Sam Merritt: Huh. We don't know that.
- Capt. Barney Merritt: But look, sir. It couldn't be just an accident that, at the very time when Man's resources on
Earth are reaching an end, Man develops the ability to leave his own world and seek replenishment on other planets. The timing is
what fascinates me. It's too perfect to be accidental.
- Gen. Sam Merritt: Those other planets might already be tenanted.
- Capt. Barney Merritt: Oh, I don't think so. The universe was put here for Man to conquer.
As they approach Mars, the general becomes increasingly disturbed, and as they come in for a landing and the "space speed
indicator" approaches zero, he suddenly says "We haven't the right!" and puts on full throttle. His son struggles with him,
wrenches his hand from the throttle, and brings the ship in to a rough but safe landing. The general makes a further sabotage
attempt. In a fight with his son they struggle for a gun and it goes off, killing the general.
The crew discovers, apparently to their surprise, that Mars is inhospitable and that that it is going to be a severe struggle
to survive with their limited water for the year it will take for Earth to reach the right orbital position for a successful
return. Despite the absence of water on Mars, like the child in Ruth Krauss's book
The Carrot Seed, Japanese crew member Sgt. Imoto plants a seed hopefully in the
Martian soil.
The crew celebrates Christmas on Mars glumly. Wisecracking Brooklynite Sgt. Siegle plays Christmas carols somberly on a
harmonica while the other actors chew the scenery. Siegle complains they are on "a lousy, dried-up ball in the corner pocket of
nowhere."
- Sgt. Mahoney: The General wasn't crazy, he was right! We asked for it! There's a curse on this ship and
everybody in it!
- Sgt. Siegle: Baloney! You leave that stuff back on Earth. But it don't operate past the thousand-mile limit. "Only God
can make a tree." Okay? Where is it? Where's the trees, and the flowers, and the grass? Where's the water? You hear me?
Where's the water?!
Just then, Sgt. Imoto, who has been staring out the window yells "Look!" It is snowing! On Christmas day! The crew is saved.
In due course the seed Imoto planted sprouts into a tiny flower. The viewer infers Mars has water and can grow flowers; "only God
can make a tree," ergo God is present on Mars; ergo God must intend for humankind to exploit not only the Earth, but Mars and the
rest of the universe.
As the movie closes, Sgt. Mahoney, who had threatened to accuse Capt. Merritt of murdering his own father on their return,
changes his mind and decides that it would be better to forget about it, and let the world remember the general, not as a nutcase
who tried to sabotage the flight, but as a brave man "sacrificin' his life as he did, to bring his ship and his crew safely to a
landing on the rocky desert of a new planet! … Fittin' end for a grand soldier." The captain nods and adds, "For the man who
conquered space." The Irishman offers him "a cup o' tea", the captains says "thanks", the music rises to a climax, and the rocket
glides off into a starry firmament behind the words "THE END."
If the theological debate on the Man's right to explore space had ever made much impression on the public, by 1955 it was long
forgotten. The general did not strike viewers as thoughtful, but as a nutcase with a bizarre obsession.
The best the Times reviewer could say is that "as plots go… it is not offensive." He is relieved that there is "nothing
on Mars but red dirt and rock. There are no things, thank heavens." But "To have the water-less spacemen saved on Mars by
a heavy snowfall on Christmas day was stepping on the toes of incredulity." The "spatial excursion should not bore anyone," he
says; not high praise. The public was even less kind. Erickson calls the movie "a flop that seriously hindered George Pal's
career as a producer." Corupe describes it as the "first big flop in Pal's career. It was a major setback that saw him abandon
science fiction filmmaking for five years, including a planned sequel to When Worlds Collide." The Encyclopedia of Science
Fiction remarks "A truly awful film, The Conquest of Space is probably George Pal's worst production."
References
- Bonestell, Chesley and Willy Ley, The Conquest of Space, New York: Viking, 1949.
- Clarke, Arthur C., and Lewis, C. S. From Narnia to a Space Odyssey: The War of Letters Between Arthur C. Clarke and C.S.
Lewis, 2003. ISBN 0-7434-7518-6.
- "Special Effects Show Conquest of Space", New York Times May 28,
1955 p. 7; review by "O. A. G."
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