I love this movie so much

People are voting emotionally.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Anyone coming to this 1980 adaptation of "The Martian Chronicles" for the first time will undoubtedly be put off immediately by the special effects, which were so-so even then, and the slower, more cerebral pace of the narrative. And that would be a shame, because the heart & soul of Bradbury's book is alive & well here, and still both thought-provoking & emotionally satisfying.Of course, it was never hard science to begin with, so complaining about the unscientific depiction of Mars & the behavior of the Earthmen is utterly beside the point. This is as much fable, parable, allegory as it is anything else: a study of the human propensity to opt for the crass over the sublime, the material over the spiritual, ugliness & power over beauty & harmony. It is, in fact, a sometimes scathing, sometimes sorrowful exploration of the human condition, and particularly human weakness.And yet, both in the idealized Martians, and in the few humans who respond to the wonder of the Martian landscape & philosophy, we're shown what we could be, if only we could transcend our own pettiness, greed, and driving fears. This is shown to especially good effect in the slow growth of Colonel Wilder (a quietly effective Rock Hudson), whose initial misgivings about what Earth will do to Mars leads to his own eventual transformation. And in the final two stories - "Night Meeting" & "The Million-Year Picnic" - this is depicted in scenes that have stayed with me for close to 4 decades now, for their sheer beauty & wisdom.Again, not everyone will be able or willing to make the leap & overlook the flawed surface of this mini-series. But if they can, then they'll experience science-fiction at its best: not CGI explosions & battles & endless action, but the interplay of ideas & emotions, inviting the viewers to look at their own lives, and to think about what they really want from the gift of existing, however briefly, in this miracle of the Universe.

I just re-watched this series after not having seen it for nearly 40 years and found the fond memories of it from my youth were not entirely displaced. It has some very good moments, the music is superb, the Martians look (and come across as) suitably alien without the need for elaborate make-up and the Martian city is very evocative. For all that the terrible science and awful 80's production values weigh it down so much. I really find it hard to take seriously a sci-fi series where people jet back and forth between Earth and Mars like there's an interplanetary bus service, alight on an unexplored planet wearing uniforms instead of space suits, or worse apparently making the interplanetary journey neatly dressed in the best of California casual. The Martian settlements look cheap and awful (would they really let towns on Mars look like particularly dicey truck stops?). Yet in between its cornier moment there are some really good things to like. Rock Hudson and Darren McGavin as the main recurring characters do a good job with a pretty hokey script, some of the scenes featuring the Martians are beautifully filmed and suitably evocative (Hudson's final dialogue with the ghost Martian is a highlight), and the whole "lets not mess up Mars like we did Earth" thing, which could have been corny, is handled well. There's enough here to keep you interested, even if you do want to bury your head sometimes at the awfulness of the special effects, I'm glad to see at least some of my youthful enthusiasm was not misplaced.

Well, I've watched the first two episodes, each for the second time, and I assume the remainder fit the same template. It's not bad, as these things go. Nothing written by Ray Bradbury and Richard Matheson could possibly be VERY bad. But, as in all diachronic endeavors, sometimes one installment is better than others.Episode One deals with the first expeditions to Mars. At the time Mars was thought to be possibly inhabited, and indeed in this story it is. The Martians have evolved much like humans -- bilaterally symmetrical, four limbs, five digits, one nose, same torsos -- but they seem to have eyes like steel balls and they lack ears. Of course their clothing and ornaments are different from anything on earth. They wear long flowing robes and elaborate headgear. And their buildings look like they were planned by Euclid, with not a Bauhaus nut in sight. And the Martians speak with British accents. This is an old convention in the tradition of Hollywood. The good folk who represent "us" have American accents. Those who are alien in any way -- Nazis, inhabitants of underground cities or Atlantis -- have foreign accents.There are a multitude of recognizable faces, chief among them is Rock Hudson as Colonel Wilder, leader of the third expedition and apparently an important political figure during Episode Two, The Settlers. In 1980, Hudson was no kid anymore and he was about to show signs of a terrible illness, but he looks great -- slightly grayed, slightly wrinkled, and robust as hell.The other performances vary from weak to professionally competent. Fritz Weaver and Jon Finch are good in their parts. Weaver is always reliable. Gayle Hunnicut is older than we're used to seeing her but still stunning. I always get her confused with Gail Strickland because they're both beautiful in the same way. I wonder. Hunnicut claims to have been born in Texas, and Strickland in Alabama. But I'm convinced they are one and the same person. No? Let me put it this way. Have you ever seen the two of them together in the same room at the same time? I thought not. Case closed.Many or most of these stories about colonization are really metaphors for the culture clashes we've experienced here on earth. "Star Trek" evolved into not much more than one metaphor after another. One planet is inhabited by Nazis, another by communists, and so forth. When asked what might happen if UFOs landed a horde of aliens from outer space, Arnold Toynbee simply pointed to Europe's dealings with Columbus's New World as a historical example of an advanced civilization's treatment of a relatively less developed one.Example from Episode Two. Darren McGavin is one of the original settlers. He looks jubilantly around at all the red earth and rosy sawtoothed mountains and foresees a financial bonanza. There must be a fortune in minerals and gems on the planet. He sets up a rest stop at a place he reckons will be a crossroads for major highway, advertises hamburgers, coffee and other treats, and dresses like a loud-mouthed affable cowboy wearing real six shooters. When he's visited by one of the last Martians he floods out, whips out a pistol and kills him. Patently absurd, of course. No American would invade another planet hoping to exploit its mineral resources and strutting about while dressed as a cowboy.Best incident, in my estimation, takes place during the second expedition. The three men land on Mars and discover an inviting, friendly small town that looks exactly like the Illinois home town of the expedition's commander. Not only that, but figures from the CO's personal past, now dead, come to greet him and welcome him home. Bradbury's novel handles the event better, but it's still a poignant scene -- a man discovering his deceased mother and father, and a brother with whom he'd been the warmest of friends. I won't give any more away.Bradbury himself is from Waukeegan, Illinois, born in 1920. Many of the writers from small town America born around that time, especially in the Midwest and South, seem to be at pains to capture the idyllic, untroubled lifestyles of their youth. It was treated as a kind of Golden Age for writers like Bradbury, Rod Serling, and Earl Hamner, Jr. Well, if they had happy childhoods, who can blame them for wanting to recapture some of it, even in model form? Some of the small points made in the novel are handled with a kind of glissade though. I mean, for instance, Bradbury seemed to have had a great time thinking up names for new locations on Mars. "Mount Wilder," for the expedition's CO. "New Chicago," "Mississippi Bluffs," "New New York," "The Paris River", or whatnot. The TV miniseries strikes one, after a while, as talky and a little disjointed. Not enough characters are carried over from one incident to the next. And the Saharan landscape, even if tinted vermilion, and the mysterious electronic music eventually become ground instead of figure.

It was you're comments that prompted me to sign up and respond. I was 11 y.o. when the M.C. were released on American TV. To this day, I remember the many different creepy feelings that remained with me for weeks, after each episode. Though I had nightmares every night, of actually living out each episode, I still could not resist watching the next story. Each following day, I would continuously stare up at the sky. I would wonder if each story was real, and if the Martians were using Hollywood, to pass their message. Also, I often wondered if my family was real. It indeed, marked me as well. I have not seen the stories since, but now, I can hardly wait!