Voyage To The Planet of Prehistoric Women

Title: Voyage To The Planet of Prehistoric Women
Director: Peter Bogdanovich
Released: 1968
Staring: Mamie Van Doren, Mary Marr, Paige Lee, Gennadi Vernov, Georgi Tajkh, Vladimir Yemelyanov

Rating: 2 / 5

Plot: Astronauts landing on Venus encounter dangerous exotic creatures and almost meet some sexy Venusian women who like to sunbathe in hip-hugging skin-tight pants and seashell bras.



Review: Sitting down to watch this film I would be lying if the synopsis (shown above) which showed on the TV guide, didn’t hold some appeal and honestly I wasn’t expecting anything much from this film, above it perhaps being a fun camp B-movie, only to find myself sadly disappointed in pretty much the same way I was after watching “Bride of the Gorilla” (1951). Okay that might be a little harsh, especially as it certainly wasn’t as bad as that film and this disappointment, seemed to stem mainly for how nothing really happens, with the film quickly boiling down a handful of interesting sequences, which are then sloppily edited together, though this could also largely stem from the fact that the film originally started out as the Russian sci-fi romp “Planeta Bur” (1962), only to be dubbed and edited for the American market, under the title “Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet” with additional footage of Basil Rathbone and Faith Domergue being inserted, in a similar way that footage of Raymond Blurr as an American reporter was inserted into the American release of “Godzilla” (1956) with Blurr bizarrely enough reprising this role (with added Psychic powers) in the hideous American cut of “The Return of Godzilla” (1984) released as “Godzilla 1985” (1985). The footage from “Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet” has now been edited into this film, removing the footage of Rathbone and Domergue and replacing it with footage of the scantily clad inhabitants of Venus, while Director Bogdanovich provides a running narration, portraying one of the cosmonauts, recollecting the whole adventure, while also throwing in footage from fellow space oddity “Nebo Zovyot” (1960) which also suffered some creative editing, as it was turned into “Battle Beyond The Sun” (1960) by then aspiring young director Francis Ford Coppola, working under the pseudonym “Thomas Colchart”. No doubt the borrowing of footage from this film, is yet another attempt to add some meat to the picture and maybe convince the audience that they are not just paying to see the same film, just now with added hot chicks.

The plot of this film it can safely be said is almost as skimpy as the actresses are dressed, with the Cosmonauts on a rescue mission to locate two of their missing comrades who have crashed onto the planet, encountering when they get there, a wide variety of strange alien life, however due to the film being a mismash of mixed footage they never actually meet the titular Prehistoric women (bummer), though seeing how they butcher anything that they come into contact with, it was probably for the best, seeing how intergalactic genocide, hardly spells out good times.

Still this film does feature some classic sci-fi design work, with the Cosmonaut suits having that great goldfish bowl design while their version of “Robbie the Robot” known simply as John, not only looking a lot more impressive than Robbie, but also proving handier, than just being able to source booze on obscure planets and providing general comic relief. The other noteworthy point about this team is their space car, which I’m yet to figure out how they managed the really convincing hover effects; no honestly it really has me stumped.

The Prehistoric women, who for some reason are never given an actual name don’t really contribute a great deal to the film, as they lounge around on the rocky beach, communicating telepathically with other, while occasionally pretending to be mermaids when Bogdanovich, feels the audience might be getting tired of watching them do the same thing, while their telepathic nature which seems to stretch soles to just communicating with each other, bizarrely enough actually works to the films advantage,even more so when you can see how these girls seems to find just doing the limited amount of tasks they are given challenging enough, without the added hassle of them trying to convincing read their lines. Still their main role it would seem is to react horrified to the actions of Cosmonauts who, unwittingly also manage to kill the pterodactyl type creature which they had been worshiping as a god, though again thanks to the footage mash up, they never actually do anything about this other than grumble about their god being killed, still by the end of the film you get the impression that these girls will pretty much worship anything, they find the slightest bit strange or unusual, making their religious views fluid to say the least.

The soundtrack is quite oddly haunting in this film, especially when combined with the fog covered landscapes, this mixture of choral and howling sounds also being highly reminiscent of the opening theme to “The Devil’s Rain” (1975), which made it only the more surprising to find it used in this film, as it almost feels like most of the footage shown here, that it has been lifted like from another film, yet for some reason it still works, providing the film with a mysterious atmosphere to the film, however at times it does feel kind of intrusive and left me wanting to hear something a little more orchestral, especially during the slight spattering of dramatic moments, which the film has.

The Cosmonaut adventures are fun times even if the added footage just prove to largely distracting throughout, but when these guys are left to get one with encountering strange creatures and exploring the planet, it is largely fun stuff even if their intergalactic diplomacy leave a lot to desired, seeing how they kill anything that they encounter, rather than trying to find out anything about this planet. Still cut away all the extra footage or better yet just watch “Planeta Bur” and it’s like a Saturday morning serial, so I guess it’s the combination of footage from so many places, which left me feeling so disconnected with this film, aswell as the fact it truly feels that it would be more at home, in a double feature as the warm up film ideally followed by one of Doug Mclure’s better films like “Warlords of Atlantis” (1978) or “At the Earths Core (1976), which I guess is probably the best way of watching it, as to watch it one its own, will certainly leave you feeling like something’s missing.

9th Company

Title: 9th Company
Director: Fyodor Bonarchuk

Released: 2005

Staring: Fydor Bondarchuk, Aleksey Chadov, Mikhail Yevlanov, Mikhail Yevlanov, Ivan Kokorin, Artyom Mikhalkov, Konstantin Kryukov, Artur Smolyaninov, Mikhail Porechenkov

Rating: 4 / 5

Plot: Based on the true story of the 9th company, during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980’s, as the young recuits go from boot camp to finally defending hill 3234.

Review: What is it about Russian cinema, which makes it so that nearly every film they make slips under the movie loving masses radar outside of its home country?? I mean personally I can only really name a handful of Russian films and they are all established classics such as “Man with the movie camera” (1929), Battleship Potemkin (1925) and the Night Watch films, so it’s safe to say that this film was another of those films which would have slipped under the radar aswell, had I not stumbled across it on DVD and I’m so glad that I did as“9th Company” is not a film setting out to make a political statement on war, which it seems has become the current trend, for the genre with films such as “Redacted” (2007) nor is it a glorification of war, the kind of boys own adventure films like “The Dirty Dozen” (1967), that featured through out my childhood, but instead it is a film showing war for what it is and paying respect to those who fought in the conflict, so that future generations might have atleast some idea of what they went through and it’s an style best remembered with Spielberg’s “Saving Private Ryan” (1998) which was ultimately bettered by Je-gyu Kang’s “Brotherhood” (2004) and here once again it is a style which is used once more to powerful effect.

Opening with the raw recruits being drafted into boot camp, I couldn’t help but think of Kubric’s “Full Metal Jacket” (1987) which is best remembered for it’s equally brutal boot camp scenes, but it’s safe to say that as daunting and mean as R. Lee Ermey was as Gunnery Sgt. Hartman, he pales when compared to the training regime of Dygalo (Porechenkov) who is might not be as loud as Hartman, but he none the less brutal if not more, with his methods of training the raw recruits, as he rules his regiment of recuits with an iron fist, more than happy to lash out and even on occasion whip them with his belt, with his favourite game to play with them, being to fill their packs with rocks, before forcing them to scramble up a steep hill were another squad awaits to push them back down. This sadistic and bitter streak we are lead to believe coming directly from, his experiences in the field, were he was the sole survivor of his squad, something which it is also hinted at having left him more than a little mentally unstable, especially when combined with his continued rejections, to his applications to be sent back out to fight, with one such memorable scene showing him crying in a field of poppies, which also provides a great metaphor for the friends he has lost to this conflict.
As with “Full Metal Jacket” these boot camp scenes form a large part of the film, accounting for almost half of the running time, but it’s these experiences which the recruits go through together which bonds them closer together, a bond which they carry with them even into the War zone, despite being separated their bond is still as strong when they are later reunited, making them more like brothers than friends, even to the point were they are willing to share the affections of the local girl Belosnezkka (Irina Rakhmanovoa), who they frequently refer to as Snow White.
Some viewers might not like the fact that none of the characters can be classed as the lead, especially with Bonarchuk spending an equal amount of time with each of the characters, preferring to view them as a unit, rather than a group of individuals, which also makes it all the harder to know which of them will be living long enough to see the end of the conflict, as Bonarchuk fearlessly kills off characters, with the climatic battle for hill 3234, being especially noteworthy as I felt like I was living through the final episode of “Space Above and Beyond” again, as I watched characters that I genuinely cared about being killed in front with little or no mercy, as they attempt to hold back the seemingly endless tide of Afghan rebels, to the point were I was almost certain that this film wasn’t going to end well. It is also worth noting that Bonarchuk has also chosen not to make a statement, with this film as to which side was in the wrong with the conflict, outside of the characters comments in regards to the failings of their government, while also including scenes which show the recruits, being lectured on the motives and beliefs of their enemy, something which is almost unseen within the genre, outside of the usually misguided and stereotypical views which characters will tend to carry with them, as their justification, for what they are doing.
Great effort it appears has been taken to help draw the viewer into the world of this particular conflict, not only with the military hardware on display, but also with the attention to detail in their surroundings and uniforms, which only help suck you further in, while unlike the previously mentioned “Brotherhood” and “Saving Private Ryan” the grim reality of war has been toned down, though not so far as to show how dirty and violent the conflict was, but instead losing the voyeuristic scenes of lost limbs and arterial sprays, though skilfully managing to not lose any of the required power of what you are witnessing, especially during the climatic battle, which at one point turns into a real blood and snot style battle, as the battle suddenly becomes a lot more personal, as it breaks down to hand to hand combat, as the Soviet forces desperately attempt to hold their position.

The downside sadly to this film though is the running time, which left me thinking that it could have easy had, some time shaven off as in it’s present state it feels slightly bloated in places, especially in the middle sections, were at times it feels like the same points are continuously being looped and that the film is failing to gain any ground, as it dwells on uninteresting scenes which seems all to similar to earlier ones.

“9th Company” proves once more that Russian cinema is still producing memorable, as well as moving films and that it is also more of a shame that more of it’s film output is not being seen. In the meantime Bonarchuk has created a film worthy of standing with the already established classics of the war genre and is a film that I can only highly recommend to fans of the genre.