Throwing well-known stories into genres they didn’t initially start out in can be a gamble. Thankfully, for the director and writer Peter Hyams and for Sean Connery as his lead, it paid off in 1981. Coming off a decade of great releases composed of blockbuster hits and sci-fi movies everyone must watch once, “Outland” took a classic Western tale and sent it into the far reaches of space. Set on Jupiter’s moon Io, Connery plays Marshal William T. O’Neil, sent to keep the peace on a mining facility. Little does he know that there’s a hefty bit of corruption running through this part of town, and he soon sets out on a mission to ensure that justice is served, regardless of how far off-world he might be.
If that storyline sounds familiar, that’s because Hyams took the plot from the 1952 classic Western, “High Noon.” Connery was stepping into the space-aged shoes of Gary Cooper’s Marshal Will Kane, swapping the wild west for the dark unknown. It’s because of this that “Outland” set itself apart from other science fiction films at that time. Connery wasn’t chasing down a chest-bursting alien, nor chasing down a sore-throated wizard with a laser sword. O’Neil was just a man doing what he could out in the vastness of space, and the film was praised for it as a result.
Outland’s homage to High Noon got mixed reactions from critics
While Connery was undoubtedly the star of the show, “Outland” featured an impressive supporting cast to deliver this western outside our atmosphere, and in turn, one of the best space movies ever. Joining his heroic lawman were Peter Boyle from “Everybody Loves Raymond,” and future star of “The Wire” and “John Wick,” Clarke Peters. Admittedly, it pales in comparison to “High Noon,” and it’s understandable why. Trying to follow in the footsteps of one of the greatest Westerns ever made by way of a moonwalk was a tricky feat, and one that, at the time, not all critics were on board with. Standing with a score of 59% on Rotten Tomatoes, Slant Magazine described it as a film that was “Heavily indebted to Fred Zinnemann’s ‘High Noon.'”
Variety also described it as “a tight, intriguing old-fashioned drama that gives audiences a hero worth rooting for.” Giving a glance into the future while still having a grounded atmosphere (Connery wields a shotgun, not a laser rifle to beat the bad guys), it’s this balance that was taken from the likes of “Alien” that made “Outland” worth sticking around in. Thankfully, over time, the film has gained cult status as one of Connery’s rare forays into space, to the point that an attempt was even made to remake it in 2009. Honestly, though, maybe it’s better to keep the original that was secretly a remake as it is.
