You find the darndest things in the back catalog of Amazon Prime. One of those darndest things is the 1980 feature Saturn 3—a film that tried to ride the wave of late-’70s sci-fi (Star Wars, Alien, Star Trek: The Motion Picture) by deploying ambitious effects, A-list actors, and a dizzily imaginative script. It did not succeed at the box office, or at garnering praise from critics; it did succeed at being wacky. Let’s dive in.
We begin aboard a large space station, orbiting near the planet Saturn. It’s the future. The planet Earth, straining to feed its crowded billions, has established a network of far-flung agricultural research outposts throughout the Solar System—and it is to one such outpost that a Captain James has been ordered to ferry his mysterious cargo. But before he can set out, he is murdered by his colleague, Captain Benson (Harvey Keitel). Benson was denied the mission after being deemed psychologically unstable. With no one the wiser, he assumes James’s identity, taking off for the remote facility on Saturn 3.
The name “Saturn III” traditionally refers to Tethys, though the script identifies it as Titan. What we see in the film is an airless, gray, rocky world, similar to Tethys, but not at all like orange, haze-shrouded Titan. We’ll go with Tethys for this review. Buried beneath the ground is an extensive agricultural complex, where two scientists, Adam and Alex, have spent the past few years developing new crop-growing techniques. They don’t get many visitors.
Adam (played by Hollywood veteran Kirk Douglas) is a kind old man, in his sixties, who has voluntarily taken such a remote assignment to escape what he sees as the cultural decline plaguing Earth; Alex (played by Farah Fawcett, yet another Hollywood star) is his much younger assistant, and lover. The 30-year1 age gap doesn’t seem to bother them. In fact, they’ve been quite happy together during their stay on Saturn 3, enjoying a certain disconnected innocence2—one that has come to an end with the arrival of Captain Benson.
Benson is a “new man,” raised in the culture of a decadent Earth. His demeanor is brusque and businesslike; he introduces Alex to psychoactive drugs, which are supplied to deep-space pilots as a matter of course; and he reacts with shock when Alex rejects his sexual advances, noting that monogamy is, back on Earth, considered “penally unsocial.” He’s furious that she prefers the company of Adam, whom he considers obsolete.
Captain Benson’s mission—or rather, the mission he stole from Captain James, whom he killed and replaced—is to deploy a state-of-the art robot, named Hector. Hector comes equipped with powerful limbs, an imposing seven-foot stature, and an organic brain. The authorities on Earth intend for Hector to improve Saturn 3’s efficiency and productivity. However, Hector’s freshly grown brain is an empty slate. Before he can be of any use, he must be trained via neural link, downloading thoughts, knowledge, and behaviors directly from the mind of Captain Benson. There’s only one problem: Benson is a maniac.
So that’s how this becomes a killer robot film. Except it’s worse than that, because Hector has also inherited Benson’s stalker-like obsession with Alex. This is a lustful killer robot. Our heroes can’t even call for help, because Tethys’s orbit has carried it to the far side of Saturn from Earth, blocking communications, and contact can’t be reestablished for another several days. Until then, they’re on their own.
Saturn 3 does not qualify as a good film, but it is an entertaining one. I was never bored during its 90-minute runtime. If anything, it could have stood to be longer—several of the characters and plot points are half-baked, at best. Why did Captain Benson kill Captain James and hijack his mission? We don’t know. What exactly is happening back on Earth? We see very little of it. At times the dialogue is a puzzle to the viewer, peppered with cheesy futuristic jargon that goes unremarked and unexplained.
My biggest issue with the movie is the sheer level of sleaze on display. Captain Benson is a depraved sex pest towards Alex, and while that’s not portrayed as a good thing, it isn’t exactly comfortable to watch, either. It’s especially uncomfortable seeing the faceless robot Hector act the same way. A massive portion of Saturn 3 centers on the victimization of its only female character, who is constantly being pursued, fought over, and grabbed. Viewer discretion is advised, here. In my view it’s a tasteless plot that hasn’t aged well. Even the romance between the heroes leaves a sour taste, considering that Kirk Douglas is almost old enough to be Farah Fawcett’s grandpa.
Saturn 3 does have its moments. For one thing, composer Elmer Bernstein furnished it with one hell of a score, both grand and menacing. For another, the visuals are surprisingly good for a B-movie that hardly anyone remembers. Its budget was nothing to sneeze at: a relatively impressive $10 million, compared to $8.5 million for the first Alien and $11 million for the first Star Wars. It shows in the finished product, which boasts an impressive variety of sets and some ambitious exterior shots on Tethys. Benson’s trip out to Saturn 3, flying through the rings of Saturn and over a battered clay moonscape, is easily the best sequence in the movie.
Would I recommend Saturn 3? There are a ton of much better films you could watch first. Better space movies, better lonely outpost movies, better killer robot movies, you name it. Other sci-fi offerings in the late ’70s and early ’80s put this one to shame. Yet—taken on its own merits, and ignoring the datedness of it all, I suppose this movie is entertaining enough. If you’re stuck at home on a rainy day, it’ll at least pass the time.
Rating: 4/10.
- Farah Fawcett was born in 1947; Kirk Douglas, in 1916. ↩︎
- A man and a woman live blissfully in a garden, until an outsider arrives with sinister motives. And the man is named Adam. Real subtle, there! ↩︎
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