Review by Garnet Brooks
My DVD special edition version of this film is one of several slightly different variations. It has the extended running time special edition version and also contains the theatrical version. The film has a very good audio commentary with director Roland Emmerich and producer Dean Devlin. The film stars James Spader as Professor Daniel Jackson and Kurt Russell as Colonel Jack O'Neil. One of the nicest things about the film is its beautiful sets and costumes. Ute Emmerich who is Roland Emmerich's wife is listed as co-producer and contributed to the wonderful Egyptian look of the pyramids.
The film begins with a short scene. The time frame is approximately 10,000 BC, a time when human beings lived a tribal existence in North Africa. One of them, a young boy, is taken as a host to a parasitic alien being. The background supposition of the movie is that aliens visited this planet early on and were responsible for some of the developing human culture. The alien who captures the boy lands in a space ship that looks remarkably like an Egyptian pyramid.
The scene changes to the Giza Plateau in the 1920's. Here an archeologist has discovered a mysterious cover stone. Beneath it is a metal ring which they hoist upright. They are unable to discover the ring's nature. The chief archeologist is long since dead when we see the next scene set in present day time. His daughter who was only a young girl at the time of the Giza dig is now much older and is in charge of the ring. They have been working for some time to discover its use but are stymied by a series of glyphs that they cannot translate.
The archeologist's daughter Catherine is now an archeologist herself. She recruits another archeologist Daniel Jackson to help translate the glyphs. He is able to do this in a remarkably short time and concludes that they are not Egyptian hieroglyphs but star coordinates which can be used to dial the ring and convey travelers to another planet. Jackson finds the glyph which is the point of origin for earth and they activate the gate. It is a stable wormhole created by a long since vanished race. The military takes charge of the project and send through a probe finding that the new planet is one which is habitable.
Jackson is almost excluded by Colonel Jack O'Neil who is now in charge of the Stargate project. Jackson persuades O'Neil to let him be on the team. They use the gate to go to the alien planet. The gate is remarkable visually. It is a big blue swirling vortex with a shimmering surface. The planet they are transported to is a desert like the one in Egypt and contains a featureless Egyptian looking pyramid. Jackson is in trouble with the team. He was supposed to translate the new coordinates so they can dial the gate home. He cannot do this because writing has been outlawed on the planet.
On the planet they find other humans, people who were transported to the planet thousands of years ago to mine a precious mineral there which is essential in making and maintaining the Stargate. This mineral is also used in weaponry. These people live in fear of the alien whose name is Ra like the Egyptian sun god. Ra is an alien but has convinced them he is a god. Ra returns capturing some of the team who are encamped near the pyramid. The others have followed Jackson and are stuck inside the inhabitants' city, waiting out a sandstorm. Jackson is carrying a symbol of Ra and the inhabitants believe he is an emissary of Ra and so give him a wife. Sha'uri is the leader's daughter. Jackson falls in love.
The body of the movie involves the team fighting Ra and trying to win freedom for the people on the planet. O'Neil is a very depressed man. A short time earlier his son killed himself with O'Neil's weapon and since then O'Neil has felt suicidal. He has agreed to activate a bomb and destroy the Stargate if necessary. O'Neil and Jackson use the bomb instead against Ra.
The plotting in the film while not quite the epic adventure of a "Laurence of Arabia" is action packed and exciting. Its setting is visually interesting. There are battle scenes in the desert. There is the great Egyptian motif in design. The opening credits feature a blue slender pharonic face set amid palm reliefs. There seems to have been a great effort to get the visual details and costuming authentic.
Stargate is quite the little jewel of a film and is one which holds up to repeated viewing. The extended version with commentary is excellent.
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