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      The Martian Chronicles

      1980 3 hr. 20 min. Sci-Fi List
      Reviews When Earth sends a manned spacecraft to Mars, it sets off a dramatic chain of events, with the resident Martians not at all pleased to meet the arriving astronauts. Death and deception follow, and when a group of American space explorers, led by Col. John Wilder (Rock Hudson), finally get a chance to take in the Martian environment, they are shocked by what they discover. Later, people from Earth begin to colonize Mars, but progress on the planet is halted by the global conflict back home. Read More Read Less

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      Osh P The story and acting are good, but the special effects are terrible even for 1980. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/05/23 Full Review Audience Member ♦️ I saw this series on a 13" black and white tv the first time in the 80s. I read the book later and never looked back. It just wasn't great. ♦️ Rated 2 out of 5 stars 02/17/23 Full Review Audience Member Okay, but disappointing adaptation of Ray Bradbury classic tale of humans colonizing mars, form early exploration to settlement to an eventual… well, I won't spoil anything. The disappointment is that this epic length story was weirdly episodic and was essentially several completely disconnected stories that shared the same setting. Sure this was based on a series of short stories, so I suppose it was true to the source material in that sense, but for a mini-series I want a little continuity. With a solid cast that included Rock Hudson, I was hoping "The Martian Chronicles" was going to be "Giant" in space. Behind the camera, the miniseries was directed by Michael Anderson ("Logan's Run," "Millennium," "Operation Crossbow," etc.) and written by Richard Matheson ("I Am Legend," "The Twilight Zone," "Duel," etc.), which added even more to my high hopes that this would be a sci-fi classic. I haven't read Bradbury's original short stories, but this adaptation was too disjointed to be considered a whole story. The episodes should have more neatly connected up or built on one another, but they really didn't and the series suffers for it. However, the film does have a nicely retro 70s sci-fi look to it's production design that I enjoyed and the familiar cast (Hudson, Darren McGavin, Bernadette Peters, Roddy McDowall, Fritz Weaver, Barry Morse, and Maria Schell) carry the mini-series, making it worth watching, even if it should have been better considering the talent involved. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/31/23 Full Review Read all reviews Post a rating

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      Movie Info

      Synopsis When Earth sends a manned spacecraft to Mars, it sets off a dramatic chain of events, with the resident Martians not at all pleased to meet the arriving astronauts. Death and deception follow, and when a group of American space explorers, led by Col. John Wilder (Rock Hudson), finally get a chance to take in the Martian environment, they are shocked by what they discover. Later, people from Earth begin to colonize Mars, but progress on the planet is halted by the global conflict back home.
      Director
      Michael Anderson
      Genre
      Sci-Fi
      Original Language
      English