SPACE IS THE PLACE (1974)
Sun Ra made weird music, so it’s no surprise that his motion picture is pretty damn weird too. Space is the Place is like The Seventh Seal meets Up In Smoke meets The Day the Earth Stood Still, with an esoteric Afro-centric jazz score and a Black Power philosophical gloss thrown in for good measure.
As near as I can tell, Space is the Place chronicles the efforts of Sun Ra and his Intergalactic Solar Arkestra to encourage black people to join him in his binocular-shaped spacecraft to found a new society in the extraordinary blackness of space. Along the way, he is beset by the efforts of a sinister character named The Overseer (who is not Satan, but rather a bad Spirit along the lines of the Devil sung about by bluesmen; in Black folklore, the Devil is not omniscient or all-powerful and can be outsmarted through cunning), as well as two cartoonishly violent police agents. Sun Ra and the Overseer play a game of cards; Sun Ra canvasses Oakland looking for likely travelers; he opens one of the strangest employment agencies in recent memory; he plays a concert after being kidnapped by the racist cops…and all the while, he expounds his unusual doctrine regarding music, ethnic identity, and the mystery of outer space.
This movie, by the way, is probably best enjoyed with a bit of your favorite euphoriate. Don’t look for narrative cohesion; just sit back and dig the heaviness.
Andrew Roberts, 1-21-09
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