Stargate (1994)

Taking a leaf from Indiana Jones where someone will one day presumably dig up the Ark Of The Covenant out of storage and see how it works, in the inscrutable ways of the Washington bureaucracy, somebody in the Defense Department has taken an interest in something called Stargate and now want to see how it works. The somebody they sent for is archaeologist/linguist James Spader who deciphers some ancient Egyptian writing and poof, the gate is upright and operational.

At that point the military takes over led by a hardnosed professional played by Kurt Russell. He's going through that gate with a team of special forces and with James Spader presumably so they can communicate with whatever life is out there.

Stargate is a teleportation device and the team travels through time and space and ends up across the galaxy on a primitive planet where the people worship a being called Ra played by Jaye Davidson. He and his much technologically advanced confederates enslave the rest of the population.

To see the changes the earth expedition makes and what the connection of this being to the Egyptian sun god Ra you will have to see this very well made and exciting science fiction film, one of the best films made during the Nineties. I saw it in theater when it first came out and seeing it again on the small screen still excites and entertains me. It's one of those films that with repeated viewing you get still another perspective.

I liked best the interplay with Kurt Russell and James Spader. Two very opposite men in temperament and in training over the course of the film gradually gain a great respect for each other. Both deliver performances that would rank in the top five for both these players.

One of the ways that Ra keeps his people subjugated is the forbidding of any of the nomadic types that are under his thumb to learn to write or even create a written language. In that culture and in every culture, literacy is the strongest weapon against tyranny. In fact one of the characters makes quite a sacrifice to secure the permanence of the revolution they've wrought on this world in another part of the galaxy that has a strange connection to our Earth.

Stargate succeeds at being both thinking person's science fiction and also has enough action and adventure to keep you to the edge of your seat, especially in the second half. It's not to be missed when broadcast, ever.