In the future, Earth found a planet with a civilization that is still stuck in the primitive middle ages. Supported by a space station in orbit, scientist Anton, with a camera in his eye, is among the people who disguised themselves as these humanoid aliens to research their behavior, but is told he must not intervene in their development. Anton wears a long wig and goes under the name of Rumata of Estoria. He is disgusted by a barbaric king of Arkanar Kingdom who bans all kind of science and progress. When the king is poisoned, his right hand Don Reba takes over and imposes a reign of religious fundamentalism. Anton falls in love with a local, Kyra. Anton helps start a rebellion against Don Reba. In the end, he even uses his laser gun to fire and shoot at the opponents. The Earth scientists tranquillize everyone around the castle, and pick up Anton back to their spaceship.
The first movie adaptation of the famous science-fiction novel by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, "Hard to Be a God" is a clumsily directed cult extravaganza, but some of its philosophical themes really are delicious and fascinating. Its story can be described as some sort of a blend between the ancient aliens hypothesis and "Star Trek: Next Generation" episode "Who Watches the Watchers", including the meditation and requestioning of its 'Prime Directive'—namely how passive can someone be when faced with injustice and detrimental oppression, or how ethical it is to practice non-interventionism at any cost? The main protagonist, Earth scientist Anton, finds himself in this quandary, since he is obliged to stay objective while watching this primitive "Luddite" alien planet (an innovator creates a telescope to observe stars, but his invention is destroyed and he is attacked for "blasphemy"; books are burned because they speculated that diseases are caused by microorganisms instead of God's will), yet in the end starts a quest for enlightenment of this society, and even supports a rebellion. The king is presented as a delluded dictator (he even whines upon hearing of the rebellion: "Didn't I wear the burden of the crown for all of you?") who blocks any kind of progress or reforms, and thus the story seems to be a metaphor of humanity contemplating about its barbaric past based on primitivism, or it may have just been a sly allegory on Strugatsky's own country, the isolated Soviet Union stuck in the dark ages. While the movie keeps creating plot twist after plot twist, it is interesting, yet its second half runs out of steam, and thus feels overlong and tiresome. Still, some moments are astounding—one of them is when Anton breaks his cover and admits to Kyra that he is from a different planet where the last battle was fought a long time ago and nobody cries anymore, while the camera in his eye is broadcasting all of this on the big screen, watched by scientist Anka on the space station, who herself starts to cry, since people forgot their emotions a long time ago. As Anton is about to make love with Kyra, he closes his eyes to have privacy, and the screen goes blank. For such idealism, the movie should be complimented.
Grade:++
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