The ship were automated mining machines designed to blast out minerals from the surrounding martian encampment. They were not design to target people in the beginning later they would used to hunt down run away slaves.
A portable self-contained video/sound recorder/player was definitely science fiction back then. I like how they designed to look believable (by the standards of the time) it looks like a piece of military equipment, instead of some crazy "Jetsons" thing with plexiglass fins and blinking vacuum tubes.
@sofalogic Same shape as the Martian ships from War of the Worlds, but different models — smaller and more crudely made. Look at the close-up shots and you can see the chisel marks and paint streaks!
RCOM made very effective use of Death Valley locations combined with matted-in Martian skies.
I hate to break the news to you guys but in 1964 the cameras were huge and heavy they needed to carted around on a dolly... Some required a guy to operate the camera and another to push it around. They had small ones but they were about as big a bread box and the electronics were on a backpack. They were wire connected. The ones they used on the Apollo were the smallest at the time but some five years later after this movie was shot. They were three times larger than the one here. ;-)
The first half of the movie is good, but then it kinds falls into a rut with this whole Robinson Crusoe/Friday thing, they should have just chucked the whole Crusoe story and made a more original movie. If he meets an alien, it should be totally alien to him, like the Horta(pizza monster) was on the old Star Trek, not some guy in a loincloth. It seems like the whole Crusoe thng was tacked onto the screenplay to make the movie more saleable. It should have been more like the Tom Hanks movie.
That was what always got me about the flick. We see enough about the ruthless oveseers to know they also look like us, so what's stopping them from conquering and enslaving earthmen as well?
@GlobalDating The ships were firing down at the guys who were in the mining camp. And he clearly took out a camera and aimed it over the rock wall to record all of the events. Are you even paying attention to what's happening in the movie?
The government & the very rich had video recorders, microwave ovens & many other things long, long before they were offered to the average consumer on the mass market.
Always enjoyed seeing updates of the original Martian machine from WOTW1953 used here, even some of the same sounds used for the effects. Using the ships basic style ties it all in, as if the WOTW1953 aliens had been refining their machine back on Mars all these years. They sure got the hyperdrive system going better, huh? Would have been fun if Byron Haskin, director, threw in a few, quick shots of his WOTW1953 aliens into RMOC as well. Now is someone going to do a modern update of this movie?
This is the scene that really sparked my imagination as a child the first time I saw this. The alien craft are demonstrating the characteristics of a very advanced technology that seem far more believable; inertial dampening and anti gravity propulsion as opposed to the usual atmospheric flying characteristics seen in most scifi movies.
The ability of the craft seem to demand respect of the viewer for their high technology.
@mattghtpa I agree,. That is one of the things that always bugged me about sci-fi movies. Spacecraft would not have to be constrained by the physics that atmospheric craft operate in. Non-ballistic motion and maneuvering would be common. That, along with -NO SOUND CARRYING IN SPACE !!- would make the sci-fi more believable. Especially if they are claiming to be scientifically accurate.
@mattghtpa opinion on the ships a very good observation, when i saw the title to this movie, i thought it was a dummied down sf flick glad i took a chance to watch and i agree the first half is insightful, a struggle for survival excellently portrayed by actor and script, it kind of falls down when the alien is introduced it should of stayed on a survival arc man vs planet concept where the astronaunt would perhaps have to consider eatting mona now i must watch the rest of this movie.
The film cassettes you mention sound very much like the Scopitone films of pop musical performances -- an early form of music video -- that were briefly popular in the 1960s. Scopitone machines contained a selection of continuous-loop 16mm film cassettes that were back-projected on a ground-glass screen.
Not to split hairs, but Draper's video recorder couldn't be VHS. VHS machines and cassettes weren't commercially produced until 1976, and this movie is from 1964.
His VHS machine reminds me of the Macintosh computers of the mid-80's. The video cassette machines didn't come out until around 1975 although I had an uncle who sold insurance and had some kind of film cassettes he used for his presentations in the early 60's. In the mid-60's cassette tapes and 8 track tapes were being used by everybody. Sorry for the trivia.
I imagine we'll find living microbes, which will be like biological companions pf earthly ones. however, they will ptobably be mysterious opressed by sophisitcated martian ones.
You mean the "War of the Worlds" spaceships were the precursors of the alien ships in RCOM, don't you?
The designs were similar, but the two movies used different models. The WOTW ships were large, made of sheet copper over a wooden framework, and loaded with mechanical effects like the cobra-headed heat ray and the long stalk with the TV camera at the end. The RCOM ships were smaller and crudely carved out of solid wood. The pulsing lights and weapon beams were animated.
The ship were automated mining machines designed to blast out minerals from the surrounding martian encampment. They were not design to target people in the beginning later they would used to hunt down run away slaves.
lazyel 1 month ago
A portable self-contained video/sound recorder/player was definitely science fiction back then. I like how they designed to look believable (by the standards of the time) it looks like a piece of military equipment, instead of some crazy "Jetsons" thing with plexiglass fins and blinking vacuum tubes.
pavellujardo 4 months ago
they can fly at lightspeed but they still can,t shot properly LOL !
abc123gpl 4 months ago
Ships are from war of the Worlds too. (Original 1950's) Aas mentioned below the Sound effects. visual effects are better by 10 years.
sofalogic 7 months ago
@sofalogic Same shape as the Martian ships from War of the Worlds, but different models — smaller and more crudely made. Look at the close-up shots and you can see the chisel marks and paint streaks!
RCOM made very effective use of Death Valley locations combined with matted-in Martian skies.
scotpens 5 months ago
I hate to break the news to you guys but in 1964 the cameras were huge and heavy they needed to carted around on a dolly... Some required a guy to operate the camera and another to push it around. They had small ones but they were about as big a bread box and the electronics were on a backpack. They were wire connected. The ones they used on the Apollo were the smallest at the time but some five years later after this movie was shot. They were three times larger than the one here. ;-)
eotto2001 7 months ago
Those sounds the space ships make where used in War of the Worlds.
harwicke 11 months ago
cancel i just found it
colin2468 1 year ago
where is No 9 of 13 ???
colin2468 1 year ago
The first half of the movie is good, but then it kinds falls into a rut with this whole Robinson Crusoe/Friday thing, they should have just chucked the whole Crusoe story and made a more original movie. If he meets an alien, it should be totally alien to him, like the Horta(pizza monster) was on the old Star Trek, not some guy in a loincloth. It seems like the whole Crusoe thng was tacked onto the screenplay to make the movie more saleable. It should have been more like the Tom Hanks movie.
monkeyboy4746 1 year ago
@monkeyboy4746
That was what always got me about the flick. We see enough about the ruthless oveseers to know they also look like us, so what's stopping them from conquering and enslaving earthmen as well?
pinz2022 1 year ago
Friday is played by Victor Lundin, who played the first Klingon to appear on Star Trek.
diddymuck 1 year ago 2
Authors were afraid that someone of superior intellect and ability would enslave people to do work that was childs play to them. Why?
GameOver1260 1 year ago
The Martian looks like Elvis.
bernardhill1 1 year ago
The Martian looks lie Elvis.
bernardhill1 1 year ago
why were those ships firing randomly at the ground? and where did he get that footage of the slaves? this film makes no sense.
GlobalDating 1 year ago
@GlobalDating The ships were firing down at the guys who were in the mining camp. And he clearly took out a camera and aimed it over the rock wall to record all of the events. Are you even paying attention to what's happening in the movie?
MasterJediDude 1 year ago
The government & the very rich had video recorders, microwave ovens & many other things long, long before they were offered to the average consumer on the mass market.
Strangerinasland 2 years ago
Always enjoyed seeing updates of the original Martian machine from WOTW1953 used here, even some of the same sounds used for the effects. Using the ships basic style ties it all in, as if the WOTW1953 aliens had been refining their machine back on Mars all these years. They sure got the hyperdrive system going better, huh? Would have been fun if Byron Haskin, director, threw in a few, quick shots of his WOTW1953 aliens into RMOC as well. Now is someone going to do a modern update of this movie?
hairybackbuddy 2 years ago
ugh me want casino and firewater
Surfboard365 2 years ago
How lng before he converts the poor bastard to Christianity?
mikelheron20 2 years ago
Eh, the WOTW ships looked 10,000 times better in my opinion.
MetallicAuptuned 2 years ago
video cassette? ya mean the Beta? it looked kinda like a cassette an a VHS if I remember right... could be wrong though
reluctantprophet7 2 years ago
This is the scene that really sparked my imagination as a child the first time I saw this. The alien craft are demonstrating the characteristics of a very advanced technology that seem far more believable; inertial dampening and anti gravity propulsion as opposed to the usual atmospheric flying characteristics seen in most scifi movies.
The ability of the craft seem to demand respect of the viewer for their high technology.
mattghtpa 2 years ago
@mattghtpa I agree,. That is one of the things that always bugged me about sci-fi movies. Spacecraft would not have to be constrained by the physics that atmospheric craft operate in. Non-ballistic motion and maneuvering would be common. That, along with -NO SOUND CARRYING IN SPACE !!- would make the sci-fi more believable. Especially if they are claiming to be scientifically accurate.
MrAndyBear 1 year ago
@mattghtpa opinion on the ships a very good observation, when i saw the title to this movie, i thought it was a dummied down sf flick glad i took a chance to watch and i agree the first half is insightful, a struggle for survival excellently portrayed by actor and script, it kind of falls down when the alien is introduced it should of stayed on a survival arc man vs planet concept where the astronaunt would perhaps have to consider eatting mona now i must watch the rest of this movie.
azzorroww 1 year ago
The film cassettes you mention sound very much like the Scopitone films of pop musical performances -- an early form of music video -- that were briefly popular in the 1960s. Scopitone machines contained a selection of continuous-loop 16mm film cassettes that were back-projected on a ground-glass screen.
Not to split hairs, but Draper's video recorder couldn't be VHS. VHS machines and cassettes weren't commercially produced until 1976, and this movie is from 1964.
scotpens 2 years ago
His VHS machine reminds me of the Macintosh computers of the mid-80's. The video cassette machines didn't come out until around 1975 although I had an uncle who sold insurance and had some kind of film cassettes he used for his presentations in the early 60's. In the mid-60's cassette tapes and 8 track tapes were being used by everybody. Sorry for the trivia.
eotto2001 3 years ago
Thx 4 the correction.
PantheraAtrox 3 years ago
I imagine we'll find living microbes, which will be like biological companions pf earthly ones. however, they will ptobably be mysterious opressed by sophisitcated martian ones.
rmsolympic1 3 years ago
LOL Loved the precursor of the older "War of the Worlds" alien spaceship in this movie?
PantheraAtrox 3 years ago
You mean the "War of the Worlds" spaceships were the precursors of the alien ships in RCOM, don't you?
The designs were similar, but the two movies used different models. The WOTW ships were large, made of sheet copper over a wooden framework, and loaded with mechanical effects like the cobra-headed heat ray and the long stalk with the TV camera at the end. The RCOM ships were smaller and crudely carved out of solid wood. The pulsing lights and weapon beams were animated.
scotpens 3 years ago
Notable that Byron Haskin was the director of both the 1953 "War of the Worlds" and this film.
Falco101 3 years ago