Out of the Present

Between the time that Soviet cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev left the atmosphere in May of 1991 for a tour of duty on board the space station Mir to the time he actually touched down in March of 1992, a few changes had occurred on the ground: Gorbachev had been replaced by Yeltsin, Leningrad had become St. Petersburg, and the U.S.S.R. had become a slightly outdated entry in Encyclopedia Britannica. Andrei Ujica's feature-length documentary not only offers a semi-engaging chronicle of space station life, but serves as a fascinating contrast to the newly-released-on-DVD Warner title The Dream Is Alive on the NASA space shuttle program (VL-11/90). Whereas every surface that the camera eye captures in the NASA footage is all spit polish and chrome, so to speak, the innards of Mir are funky, seedy, and--especially in the claustrophobic corridors--look remarkably like that monstrous tube and wire jumbo central air system that Robert De Niro works on in Brazil. More interesting in concept than execution (many of the exterior space shots, though strikingly beautiful, are also rather tedious; and life aboard Mir is clearly not Party Central), Out of the Present nevertheless has its charms, particularly the let's-just-skip-the-245-step-checklist-and-do-it, down and dirty approach of the (former) U.S.S.R.'s space cowboys, best typified in a remarkable scene early on in which the earthbound cosmonauts step out onto their hotel roof with a ham radio and dial up Mir to talk to their buddies. Outside of the clear(er) image and high(er) fidelity (overall, this won't be picking up any sight and sound technical awards), the DVD is pretty much bare bones. A strong optional purchase, especially for political science collections with an emphasis on Soviet history. (R. Pitman)