On The Silver Globe (1988)

Today I finally had the chance to see On The Silver Globe at BAM and wow. I see why it’s regarded as a sci-fi masterpiece. It was aesthetically gorgeous, philosophical, chaotic and predictable in the best way. I say it was predictable because humans are predictable, unfortunately. The film is about when a group of astronauts go to explore a new Earth-like planet, get stuck and eventually start a new civilization. As their descendants reproduce, there’s war, religion, caste systems and a messiah. The messiah was one of the astronauts that aged slower than everyone else and was crowned a God by the civilization. He had a tragic demise of literally being crucified by his followers after being deemed a false prophet. This film highlights the cyclical nature of humans and history, even if we start over it’s all the same. I consider the film chaotic because it’s unfinished. Apparently the Polish government shut down the production due to the controversial nature of the film. So in between the scenes, the director is narrating the missing scenes as we see footage of the streets of Warsaw. This was a very unique experience, I’ve never seen a piece of somewhat lost media. Overall it was enjoyable and I plan on getting this film on dvd!