Moon terminus

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Movie
German title Moon terminus
Original title Destination Moon
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1950
length 91 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Irving Pichel
script Rip van Ronkel ,
Robert A. Heinlein ,
James O'Hanlon
production George Pal
music Leith Stevens
camera Lionel Lindon
cut Duke Goldstone
occupation

Endstation Mond (Original Title: Destination Moon ) is an American science fiction film from 1950 . The first performance took place on June 27, 1950. In Germany the film is also known under the DVD titles Rakete zum Mond and Ziel Mond . The film, shot in color, tells the story of a privately financed trip to the moon. It is based on a novel by Robert A. Heinlein .

action

After an American project for the first moon landing failed due to an accident, the construction of a rocket was funded by Jim Barnes, a major industrialist. Barnes wants to forestall other nations that might also be planning a moon flight, since one could threaten the earth with rockets from the moon.

When the Barnes project is about to take off, the US government bans it because it turns out that the accident at the time was caused by sabotage. A court order is to prevent the launch, as the public fears that radioactivity could be released by the missile's nuclear reactor. However, Barnes gives his crew the instruction to take off. The problems that arise during the flight are resolved by the crew, and eventually the first humans land on the moon.

During the preparations for the return flight it quickly becomes clear that there is not enough fuel and that one of the astronauts has to stay behind on the moon. The crew also solves this problem by throwing everything that is not essential to life overboard before take-off.

criticism

Because of his political statements, the moon terminus has been described many times as a propaganda craft. Many consider it to be the first modern science fiction film. Heinlein, who also worked on the script, was seen by some as a right-wing hardliner of science fiction (see also Starship Troopers ).

In Heinlein's novel, the Nazis already stationed nuclear weapons on the moon, in the film a competing nation is only hinted at, but the warning that nuclear missiles can be fired from the moon is the decisive argument for the financiers. The Americans take possession of the moon solemnly and with God's help for humanity.

Completely technically obsolete today, emphasis was placed on authenticity and what was technically feasible at the time when setting the film. Lunar landscape and rocket (for the "outside shots" in space) have been drawn. An advertising film with Woody Woodpecker , which explains the technical principle to the financiers, is curious .

What “Endstation Mond” has in common with Fritz Lang's film “ Frau im Mond ” from 1929 is that the moon company is disrupted by evil forces, but that they are no longer relevant after the rocket has been launched (the gangster at Lang acts on his own initiative ). The tension at the end of the films should be created by the fact that for technical reasons not all moon travelers can fly back with them. In contrast to Lang's film, the villain is only hinted at in “Endstation Mond”.

Individual reviews:

  • “Utopian entertainment serving American military strategy. Some instructive cartoons for young and old. ” - 6000 films. Critical notes from the cinema years 1945 to 1958 . Handbook V of the Catholic film criticism, 3rd edition, Verlag Haus Altenberg, Düsseldorf 1963, p. 96
  • ... So, according to his political statement, the film became a propaganda machine and a model for many American space operas . The solemn occupation of the moon by the representatives of America is basically done in the name of the free world and with "God's help" to ensure the strategic "balance" ... A semi-documentary fictional film with unknown actors was made, but the costs were quite high (around 600,000 dollars), which nowadays, since its technical content is completely obsolete, only represents film history ...

Hahn / Jansen, Lexicon of Science Fiction Films

Others

  • Endstation Mond is based on the novel Rocket Ship Galileo ( 1947 , German 1951) by Robert A. Heinlein
  • The cost of the film was $ 600,000.
  • Germany started on July 10, 1951, in Austria it was January 1952.

Awards

See also

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ World premieres according to IMDb

Web links