Inquest of Pilot Pirx
| Test pilota Pirxa | |
|---|---|
 Film poster | |
| Directed by | Marek Piestrak |
| Written by |
Vladimir Valutsky Stanisław Lem (story) |
| Starring | Aleksandr Kaidanovsky |
| Music by | Arvo Pärt, Eugeniusz Rudnik [1] |
| Cinematography | Janusz Pawlowski |
Production company | |
Release date |
|
Running time | 104 minutes[2] |
| Country |
Soviet Union Poland |
Inquest of Pilot Pirx (Polish: Test pilota Pirxa, Russian: Дознание пилота Пиркса, translit. Doznanie pilota Pirksa, Estonian: Navigaator Pirx) is a joint Polish-Soviet 1979 film directed by Marek Piestrak; it is based on the story "The Inquest" by Stanisław Lem from his short story collection More Tales of Pirx the Pilot. It was adapted for film by Vladimir Valutsky. It is a joint production by Dovzhenko Film Studios, Tallinnfilm, and Zespoly Filmowe.
Plot summary
Spaceship pilot Pirx is hired for a mission to evaluate some nonlinears (androids with "nonlinear" characteristics) for use as crew members on future space flights. Pirx and his crew, made up of nonlinears and humans, are sent out to launch two satellites into the rings of Saturn. There is a near disaster and the human crew are almost killed. Upon returning to Earth there is an inquest to determine if Pirx was responsible for the "accident." In the end, it is found that one of the robots caused the malfunction in an attempt to kill the human crew members, with Pirx cleared of all charges.
In this tale Lem puts forth the idea that what is perceived a human weakness is in fact an advantage over a perfect machine. Pirx defeats the robot, because a human can hesitate, make wrong decisions, have doubts, but a robot cannot.[3] A similar idea is present in Isaac Asimov's Robot series, where putting a robot in a position where it cannot chose between the Three laws of robotics fries its positronic brain.
Differences between the story and the film
The biggest difference is that the movie tells the story in chronological order with the inquest taking place at the end while the short story starts with the inquest and then goes back in time from there. The movie also includes an assassination attempt on Pirx to prevent him from accepting the mission while this is not present in the short story. Another difference is that in the movie Pirx and his crew are attempting to launch two satellites into Saturn's rings while in the short story they are trying to launch three.[4]
Cast
- Sergei Desnitsky as Commandor Pirx
- Aleksandr Kaidanovsky as Tom Nowak, neurologist and cyberneticist
- Vladimir Ivashov as Harry Brown, 2nd Pilot
- Tõnu Saar as Kurt Weber, nucleonicist engineer
- Igor Przegrodzki as McGuirr
- Boleslaw Abart as Jan Otis, electronicist
- Janusz Bylczynski as Juge
- Mieczysław Janowski as Mitchell
- Jerzy Kaliszewski as Dr. Kristoff
- Zbigniew Lesien as John Calder, 1st Pilot
- Ferdynand Matysik as Green, the UNESCO Director
Reception
Inquest of Pilot Pirx was awarded the "Golden Asteroid" Big Prize on the XVIII International Cinema Festival at Trieste 1979.
References
- ↑ "Program/Film/ THE PILOT PIRX TEST DIR. Marek Piestrak"
- ↑ Inquest of Pilot Pirx on IMDb
- ↑ Swirski, P. (2008). The Art and Science of Stanislaw Lem. McGill-Queen's University Press. p. 161. ISBN 9780773575073. Retrieved 2015-04-04.
- ↑ Lem, Stanisław: More Tales of Pirx the Pilot, pages 90–161. Harcourt Brace & Company, 1982.