A few days ago we finished watching When Worlds Collide (1951), based on the 1932 book of the same title by Philip Wylie and Edwin Balmer, which I’d read years ago. When I say, “a few days ago”, I do mean to imply that it’s taken me this long to try to review it.
Possibly the worst part about it is so much of it is fairly competent, from the acting to the script-writing to even the science (excepts the limited genetics part). The painted backdrops are actually rather striking, and my Arts Editor liked them a lot.
Yet, you come to the end of the movie and the reaction is, at best, “meh.”
There are minor variances to the book, such as the French metallurgist who doesn’t appear in the movie, or the chief scientist being left behind, but these engender no anguish. But perhaps the real problem lies in its treatment of a couple of moral problems. The movie is about the detection of a star and accompanying planet, and how the star will destroy the Earth, while the planet of the intruder will survive; the plan is to send a rocket ship off the Earth and to the intruder planet, hoping it’ll be habitable. There’s very limited capacity on the ship, and they correctly note that fuel is quite problematic as it takes fuel to lift fuel. The qualifications of the passengers is paramount, and a lottery is held amongst the highly qualified to decide who gets to fly.
Except a medical doctor uses his position to ensure a man, whose only qualification is as a airplane pilot, gets a place on the trumped up reason that the rocket ship pilot needs a backup. It’s purely to curry favor with a pretty girl, and there is no attempt to address the moral questions. What about the excluded, faceless person? Indeed, the pilot who is saved seems more aware of this than the doctor, purportedly highly educated, as the pilot, initially guaranteed a spot, gives it up in a moment of moral courage. The movie transitions from a momentary examination of how principle influences concrete life, to how moral turpitude can be ignored if you don’t know the person so impacted.
And it really dilutes the impact of the story. Better to have the pilot stay behind and hold off the rioters who are discontented at losing the lottery (and the ill-logic of the rioters needed its own examination), where he could show courage and leadership. True, the chief scientist gets to fill a similar role, but the impact is minimal; at best, we can celebrate the betrayal of the man who funded the spaceship, a dubious, if understandable, emotion to experience at that time.
This really isn’t worth your time.
