Retrospective: Test Pilot Pirx (1978)
Mark R. Leeper
(a film retrospective by Mark R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: Stanislaw Lem's space pilot Pirx is given a double
task. He is to orbit two satellites in Saturn's rings and
at the same time see if he can detect which of his crew is
actually a humanoid robot. This Eastern European
co-production has engaging ideas floating around, but feels
off-balance through the entire story. Rating: high +1
(-4 to +4) or 6/10
Stanislaw Lem's character Pilot Pirx came to the screen in a 1978
film. Though the film was a Polish-Russian-Estonian coproduction
the first half of the film is set in the United States. It seems
to be a Soviet film with an American hero. Human-looking robots
have been invented and given the unexplained name "non-linears" as
if they are expected to be out of line. Unfortunately for the
corporation selling non-linears, the public is suspicious of the
robots. A decision is made to have a demonstration proving that
non-linears are indistinguishable from real people on the job.
Pilot Pirx is given a mission to Saturn's rings and given a crew of
five, or rather four humans and one non-linear. Pirx will not be
told which of his crewmembers is the robot. Instead he must decide
for himself which of the five crewmen is not a human. It will not
be easy because even the human crewmembers seem mechanical. TEST
PILOT PIRX was produced four years before BLADERUNNER, and the
theme of a test to distinguish robots from humans appeared in film
here first.
What Pirx does not know is that another group of robots does not
want the space pilot performing this test and is trying to kill him
even before he leaves for space. Like many films of these years--
apparently even Eastern European ones--there is an effort to
shoehorn in a theme of Cold War intrigue probably inspired by the
then popular James Bond films.
Once Pirx is in space the tone changes from action thriller to
cerebral mystery. One crewmember claims to be human, another to be
the robot, but Pirx does not know if he can believe either of them.
He must proceed with his task of putting two satellites in orbit
within the rings of Saturn. Incongruously, after a while in space
the focus shifts to a courtroom inquest into Pirx's actions. As
with the film THE CAINE MUTINY, the courtroom becomes a mechanism,
albeit an awkward one here, to explain Pirx's actions earlier in
the film. The special effects are kept to a minimum and not
particularly convincing, but they are sufficient enough to tell the
story.
Stanislaw Lem is well known in his native Poland but very little
known in the United States by anyone but long-time science fiction
fans. Lem (1921-2006) was the premier science fiction author of
Eastern Europe. He is the author of THE SILENT STAR, TALES OF PIRX
THE PILOT, SOLARIS, THE FUTUROLOGICAL CONGRESS, CYBERIAD, THE
INVINCIBLE, and A PERFECT VACUUM, but his best-known work is
probably SOLARIS, which has been adapted to film twice. TEST PILOT
PIRX is of course based on one of his stories: "The Inquest" from
TALES OF PIRX THE PILOT. The film was made in 1978 and the story
was published in the United States in 1982 in his short story
collection MORE TALES OF PIRX THE PILOT. This film won the "Golden
Asteroid" at the 18th International Cinema Festival at Trieste in
1979.
For fans of the small collection of Eastern European science
fiction films--and there are just a handful of these films--TEST
PILOT PIRX is something of a find. Two other such films, based on
Lem stories, are the Soviet SOLARIS (directed by cult director
Andrey Tarkovskiy) and THE SILENT STAR (a.k.a. FIRST SPACESHIP ON
VENUS). The IMDB suggests Lem also contributed to IKARIE XB 1
(a.k.a. VOYAGE TO THE END OF THE UNIVERSE). I rate TEST PILOT PIRX
a high +1 on the -4 to +4 scale or 6/10.
Film Credits: <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080010/>
At the time of this writing TEST PILOT PIRX can be streamed free of
charge at <http://stagevu.com/video/zugcqarivgjx> or
<http://tinyurl.com/leeper-pirx>.
Mark R. Leeper
mle...@optonline.net
Copyright 2011 Mark R. Leeper