Adam (Kirk Douglas) and Alex (Farrah Fawcett) are two scientists stationed on an agricultural research station named Saturn 3 on Saturn’s moon Titan.  They live in isolation as they seek to produce new forms of food for Earth and away from the hedonistic morals of Earth society.   Their perfect world is interrupted when Benson (Harvey Keitel) arrives as Titan goes into eclipse (and cutting off communication for 28 days).   Benson is an unstable pilot who has killed another pilot (Captain James) to take his place and he brings along with him the first of the Demigod series of robots called Hector.   He programs the robot via direct connect and his insanity and desires spill over into the robot’s programming.  The robot becomes unstable and it force Adam and Alex to fight for their survival.

 

SATURN 3 is one of those interesting sci-fi failures that was released in 1980.  It was plagued by a troubled production history that saw the original director John Barry depart after two weeks and producer Stanley Donen taking over as director.  The movie went through a variety of edits which saw some scenes cut from it that would have lead the movie to make more sense as SATURN 3 became a battleground of creative differences.   Lord Grade wanted some of the violence cut from the film while Farrah Fawcett had one scene cut due to an outfit she deemed too provocative for her (but still the image of her in that outfit was used in publicity materials and posters around the world).   Then some of the edits make Adam more heroic while sacrificing some character development for Alex and Hector which suggests Kurt Douglas didn’t want to be seen playing a less sympathetic character.  

 

I found it an interesting film to watch with the production design, the robot, and costumes to be the best things about the film.  The script could have used some work where the cutting of some vital scenes left the pacing off a bit for the last third of the movie.   Some have commented that the special effects were left wanting, but I find some of the effects are better than some of the CGI effects of today.    It is an interesting sci-fi cult gem which works better than some of the bigger budget sci-fi movies of today.  It is a sci-fi Frankenstein tale which attempts to be a character drama to end up as a high quality sci-fi B movie.  

 

SPECIAL FEATURES:

Interview with actor Roy Dotrice as he talks about his experience of doing the voice dubbing over Harvey Keitel’s lines for Stanley Donen and giving praise for Harvey Keitel as an actor (as Roy was left wondering why Donen decided to dub over Keitel’s performance).

 

Interview with Special Effects Supervisor Colin Chivers has Colin talk about how the effects were made.

Also included are the deleted scenes from the NBC television cut which features over ten minutes of scenes which flesh out the movie, but the scenes are in 1.33:1 and in VHS quality to varying degrees of quality.

Then there is the deleted Blue Dreamers sequence which isn’t even the complete sequence with some audio missing and the last part of the scene missing where Adam kills Captain James in a dream.

 

The audio commentary is with film critic David Bradley and Saturn 3 fan Greg Moss (who has a web site called Something Is Wrong with Saturn 3) as they talk about what went right and wrong with Saturn 3 as they discuss the troubled production history of SATURN 3 that went over budget and had its visual effects budget cut in an attempt to save another movie (RAISE THE TITANIC).   It brings up questions why some scenes were cut and make you wonder what it would have been like if Sean Connery or Michael Caine were cast as Adam (both declined due to both being tax exiles from the UK and living in other countries).

 

Rounding out the extras are the theatrical trailer, two TV spots, and a stills gallery.

 

The DVD presents the movie in standard definition and all of the same extras.

 

FINAL ANALYSIS:  SATURN 3 is an interesting sci-fi cult gem with a wealth of extras that makes you wish a longer and restored cut of SATURN 3 could be made one day.

 

SATURN 3 fan site worth checking out called Something Is Wrong On Saturn 3-  http://saturn3makingof.com/

 

This DVD review is (c)12-22-2013 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission.  Send all comments to feedback@enterline-media.com

 

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