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ASIN : B0016B6ZJW
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Editorial Reviews
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There's a sense of awe to the special effects work of animation specialists Gerry and Sylvia Anderson (Thunderbirds Are Go)--the slow, lovingly detailed introduction of a massive spaceship creeping out of dock and struggling against its bulk while trapped on the ground, and the almost balletic spectacle of the ship elegantly floating against an impressive star field or dramatically flying against the rugged landscape. These moments are the highlights of this sober science fiction thriller about the discovery of a planet on the far side of the sun in Earth's orbit. A mission is hastily put together, with British astrophysicist Ian Hendry teamed with hotshot American astronaut Roy Thinnes for the three-week trip, but when they suddenly crash-land the strange creatures that surround them are revealed to be human. Against all rational explanations they're back on Earth, but Thinnes suddenly discovers that everything is a mirror image of his existence: Through the Looking Glass by way of The Twilight Zone. Though it begins as a paranoid spy thriller set in the near future (the opening details an ingenious espionage caper featuring a very special eyepiece), it quickly turns into a serious and oddly unsettling space-race drama with a heady twist. Robert Parrish's direction is unusually aloof, but the film is always intriguing and well acted with gorgeous special effects that may rank second only to Stanley Kubrick's 2001 as the most elegant vision of outer space flight on film. --Sean Axmaker
Product Description
Sci-fi adventure and suspense has never been more exciting or intense as when you Journey to the Far Side of the Sun! One hundred years in the future two astronauts are sent to uncover the secrets of a "duplicate" Earth on the other side of the Sun. When they crash land three weeks earlier than they had planned they must embark on a life-or-death mission to determine whether they have arrived back home or on the strange mirror world. This imaginative space adventure offers a journey few will ever forget!
Customer Reviews
Kill the editor! This flick is just too slow. (2004-01-20)  Journey to the Far Side of the Sun (1969)This flick supposes that there is another planet in the same orbit as our earth, but on the opposite side of the sun. As such, that seems interesting, and while this film does have some merit, it is just plain too slow. The Andersons' plots were just plain boring, and all the mechanical complexity in the world could not help. Not one of their series lasted more than two seasons, because anything the Andersons' ever toutched relied upon mechanical intricacies rather than plot or interaction between characters. If only they had not spent so much time showing the spacecraft being positioned for launch, or the elevator going down the shaft, or the sections of the rocket being assembled, their productions would be worthwhile. But for the same reasons that UFO, Stingray, the Thunderbirds, Space 1999, etc were boring and hence, short-lived, this is boring. The fact that they only provided the special-effects for Director Robert Parrish, did not help much. This film was clearly a full half-hour to forty-five minutes too long. Hooray for the DVD player's next chapter button, because fast forward is not fast enough. If not for such drawn out boredom, this would certainly merit 4 of 5 stars. However, its extensive use of mechanical processes as time-killers ruined an otherwise decent flick. Watch the first fifteen minutes, click next chapter until you reach about an hour into the film. Resume viewing at the point where the guy lands on the other Earth, watch it to the end, and you will not miss anything worthwhile, but you will save yourself 40 - 45 minutes of drudgery. Synopsis: The premise is that our earth sends a spacecraft to the other earth; however, it returns in only half the time it should have taken for a round-trip flight. Yet, what if our astronaut hero IS on the other earth? If so, how would he know the difference? Like I said, watch the first 15 minutes, and skip the next 30 to 40 minutes. What you will miss contributes nothing to the plot. 5/5 for nostalgia, 1/5 for action, 2/5 for character development, 0/5 for editing, 3/5 for plot.
A Must For Sci-Fi Fans! (2003-12-12)  This lesser known film starring Roy Thinnes (From TV's Invaders) is actually what I consider a lost gem. It was made at a time where the story was more important that the special effects (though the effect are fairly good for its time). A scientist theorizes that there is another world in Earth's Orbit directly behind the sun. Since the sun always blocks it from us we can never see it from Earth. Roy Thinnes is selected to go on a mission to get to this world. I don't want to tell the rest of the plot because it will give the rest of the movie away. Let's just say there are some real surprises. The movie is British and has that good British flavor of acting that was in such TV series like The Avengers.
Gerry Anderson's "Far Side" (2003-01-22)  In the near future, a routine mission by an unmanned solar probe detects a planet sharing Earth's orbital plane, but orbiting exactly opposite to it. Plans to land an expedition to the mysterious planet are initially shelved because of the cost - but then reinstated and rushed forward when the existence of Earth's twin is discovered by a secret agent (Herbert Lom). Jason Web, a ruthless visionary of space exploration, manages the program as if he's going up. Instead, the two-man crew is headed by a stoic American astronaut named Glenn Ross, a man who seems to have nothing to come back to. Ironically, Ross does return back to Earth - apparently having turned around midway and crashlanding. But Ross is perplexed - his last memories are approaching the mystery planet and landing, having no explanation for his return. Okay, so there is an explanation [] and on reflection it's not an entirely intelligent one. Actually, the idea of a parallel Earth poses an interesting (likely unintentional) cold war metaphor: scientists and politicians are spurred to expend outrageous sums to conquer and explore a mysterious region or enemy only to find it that the enemy is no different than themselves. Scientifically, it's even less acceptable: everything on this other world is a reverse-mirror image of our Earth, from human anatomy, electric polarity to written language. Luckily, dialog is not reversed though - since the reverse Earth lives within our universe, complete with the same laws of physics - why anything should be reversed at all is a mystery. Instead our hero hits on the twin-earth solution and even sells it to the otherwise immovable Web, though you get the sense that they might have had some reservations about the idea. The thinness of the idea is underscored in the film's unsatisfying climax. The film even junks the promising cold-war undertones after they provided a convenient device for spurring the expedition (Web allows Lom's character to reveal the existence of the other Earth to his foreign masters, knowing that his own superiors will now be forced to pony up the "thousand, million pounds" the expedition will cost). If "Journey" has a thin idea, it's still a stand-out delivery. Gerry Anderson's vision and Derek Meddings's effects are lovely. Though you know that they're working with models, the exacting attention to detail creates a world you don't want to dismiss as simple elaborate miniatures. Aside from eye-candy, the flick also centers on the strong-willed performances of (vet sci-fi fixture )Roy Thinnes as Ross, and Pat Wymark as the tough-talking Web. For a great piece of glamorous 60's sci-fi, this is your flick.
3.5, really... (2003-01-03)  A good, but slow-moving, fatalistic sci-fi thriller from 1969... sort of a pop culture Rosetta Stone between "Star Trek" and "The Six Million Dollar Man," wherein a hidden, doppelganger Earth threatens our own, and all the space-racing might of the our species can do nothing to prevent the inevitable. Slightly strained, but worth checking out.
Good Movie That Takes Itself Too Seriously (2002-11-12) The story: Earth scientists discover another planet in our solar system -- orbiting on exactly the opposite side of the sun from Earth. A mission is hastily put together and, despite espionagic (Is that a word? Should be.) attempts to stop it, it succeeds. However, when Ian Hendry and Roy Thinnes crash-land on the other planet, they find . . . Earth. Except, it's not. It's exactly like Earth, but in mirror-image. Of, course, the people of htraE had launched a mission to the "other" planet (Earth) at the same time, crewed by yrdneH naI and sennihT yoR, and they believe that the two astronauts who just crashed are their own people who aborted their mission, without good reason, and came back. How do Ian and Roy prove they're not naI and yoR? Commentary: Good acting, good direction, and great special effects, but this movie is grim, bleak, serious, gray, tense . . . you get the idea. Of course, it's trying to be serious, but it becomes 100% and life is seldom 100% serious (there are a few jokes and a few smiles even in "Saving Private Ryan"). The film loses some of its realism by taking realism too seriously. The makers of this film were probably trying to avoid the ... stereotype of many science-fiction movies, but took it one step too far. Overall: Despite all my gripes in the previous paragraph, I like this film and remember it vividly years later.
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