Marooned (1969)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Trailer-20 Million Miles To Earth, 7th Voyage Of Sinbad Trailer-Earth Vs The Flying Saucers, First Men In The Moon
Rating
Year Of Production	1969
Running Time	123:41 (Case: 129)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (65:24)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4,5	Directed By	John Sturges
Studio Distributor	Sony Pictures Home Entertain	Starring	Gregory Peck Richard Crenna David Janssen James Franciscus Gene Hackman Lee Grant Nancy Kovack Mariette Hartley Scott Brady Craig Huebing Frank Marth John Carter Vincent Van Lynn
Case	?
RPI	$9.95	Music	None Given

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) German Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English French German Italian Dutch	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Space, the final frontier, going where no man has gone before. One small step for mankind and all that hoopla must have seemed very exciting back in 1969 when this film was made. The detailed, and I mean detailed, process of sending a spaceship into space, it all going pear shaped and somehow retrieving the spaceship must have also seemed like a great and interesting idea for a movie at the time. However, I find it hard to believe that, even in 1969, this would have been considered an exciting and tension filled production. In 2005 it is, quite frankly, dated and tedious. If it wasn't for the interesting and slightly manic performance of Gene Hackman as an astronaut who succumbs to the pressure, it would be hard to sit through at all.

    Marooned tells the story of a fictional space mission in a spaceship called Ironman 1. The plan is that three astronauts will take off, dock with a space laboratory, spend 7 months working in space and then return using the same vehicle they arrived in. The three astronauts are Jim Pruett (Richard Crenna), the mission commander, Buzz Lloyd (Gene Hackman), the guidance pilot and Clayton Stone (James Franciscus), a scientist. The mission is controlled from the ground by Charles Keith (Gregory Peck), the Chief of Manned Space. After 5 months in the laboratory, it is obvious that extended time in space is taking its toll on the men and Keith decides it is time for them to be brought home. Unfortunately, the automated process to fire the rocket and send them back to earth does not work and they become marooned in space. Despite the objections of Keith, a rescue mission is mounted led by Col Ted Dougherty (David Janssen). The movie follows the process of the mission, trying to fix the problems and then the attempted rescue.

    The complete lack of any score, although there are numerous beeps and other mechanical noises, did not enhance the experience. I'm sure that this was meant as a device to increase the tension, however all it manages to do is increase the tedium of the whole film.

    From an acting perspective no-one really has much to do with the exception of Gene Hackman, whose character is the only one who has more to him than two dimensions. Gregory Peck's talents are completely wasted in a very cliched role. For the time, the sets and special effects are quite well done and this film was obviously given a good budget to work with, but that certainly does not translate into excitement on-screen. From an audience perspective you do not really engage with the characters and the lack of much in the way of emotion does not help in this regard.

    If you have a big interest in space exploration this might be worth a look, but generally I cannot recommend it.

Video

    The video quality is decent but certainly not spectacular.

    The feature is presented in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio 16x9 enhanced, which is the original aspect ratio.

    The picture was not overly clear and sharp, although considering the age of the film, was fine. There was some grain throughout. Shadow detail was pretty ordinary but not terrible.

    The colour was decent but quite dull, although the colour scheme of the film was quite flat with little in the way of vibrant colours on show. Some of the blacks were more like grey.

    From an artefacts perspective, the most obvious were film artefacts in the way of specks, flecks and lines. The specks were fairly constant and some bigger lines occurred at 2:56 and 5:15. I also noticed some moire at 4:00 and some mild aliasing at 85:22 on a jacket.

    There are subtitles in 5 languages including English. The English subtitles were clear and easy to read.

    The layer change occurs at 65:24 and was well placed.
    

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The audio quality is fine but the nature of the soundtrack does not give your home theatre much to work with.

    This DVD contains four audio options, an English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono soundtrack encoded at 192 Kb/s and the same in French, German & Italian.

    Dialogue was clear and easy to understand and there was no problem with audio sync.

    The only sounds other than dialogue on this soundtrack are the beeping sounds of the control room and mechanical sounds in the rockets, plus the occasional takeoff.

    The surround speakers carried some of the beeps when played using Dolby ProLogic II.

    The subwoofer was not used.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

    The menu included still photos and the ability to select scenes, languages and subtitles.

Trailers

    Trailers are included for 20 Million Miles to Earth, 7th Voyage of Sinbad, Earth Vs Flying Saucers and First Man in the Moon.

    The Region 1 release is exactly the same except for PAL/NTSC and some minor subtitle and soundtrack differences. Accordingly I would go for the local product.

    The video quality is decent.

    The audio quality is decent but mono.

    The set has no real extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall