Space Is the Place

Sun Ra was an impossibly weird dude but he comes off as being totally without artifice, and probably truly believed in whatever the fuck he spends this movie talking about. The mescaline-soaked imagery and overall mystic vibe should appeal to the Jodorowsky crowd, but the overt blaxploitation elements muddle an already tenuous narrative and probably make this an even tougher sell for all but the most hardened paracinephiles.

Sun Ra can be a bit of an acquired taste, but now it's acquired I could watch hours of this. Messy, but fascinating, and visionary after a unique fashion.

The film acts as a criticism towards black nationalism but its weird surrealist framing kind of makes that fall on deaf ears and comes across as having rather questionable assertions about racial issues. As a visual and entertainment experience it has some amusing dialog with bizarre costumes but the acting was laughably bad and the cinematography was bare. I was mostly bored during the experience, but I can't deny there were a few key scenes that caught my interest such as the employment scene.

Sun Ra is one of the greatest and most singular visionary artists in recorded history. I only wish he had the chance to make more bizarre movies inspired by his cosmology

Sun Ra's music reminded me of that time I tried (and failed) to get into Pere Ubu; I'd likely be shown the door at the Outer Space Employment Agency. Aesthetic appreciation aside, I was smiling when Tiny Parker got 'teleportated' (or 'transmolecularized,' what do I know?) onto Sun Ra's ship to join the pantheon at the end. I may blow up with the rest of the white devils on a dying earth, but I can take heart in knowing Tiny's still out there on a funky cosmic journey.

Works surprisingly well and I loved Sun Ra's acting, because it's basically non nonexistent. The shooting of the movie was probably just another day in his Space life.

A groovy mix of surrealism, blaxploitation, science-fiction, and avant-garde musical. Sun Ra is an incredibly bad actor, but he does have the best lines in the movie.

Broad strokes with regards to race, an unnecessary subplot from the less savory side of blaxploitation, and overall senselessness limit its value considerably. Intermittently amusing but little more than a curiosity.

I can recite shitloads of dialogue from this puppy. Possibly the only film I can think of where I favour censorship - I saw the non-porn (US?) version first, then the porn one (only one scene, but still) and found that the porn stuff took away from the beatific lunacy of the film.

Although valmeade beat me to the Jodorowsky comparison, I'll still use it. Imagine if The Holy Mountain, instead of being about Jesus, it was about a Nubian space pope, and somehow made even less sense.

uh