The Book of Urantia - Space is the Place

Wow, um, where to begin? This film tries to bring together Egyptian mythology, a seedy nightclub, and a futuristic cosmic colony of black people all while hinting at the injustices of whites. It’s very surreal and I can’t say that I like his style of music. It’s full of discord, perhaps a statement about earth itself.

Here are several key points I noticed although I do not know what to make of this film altogether. Although whites are clearly the enemy as Sun Ra mentions in the first shots of the film as he surveys another planet for blacks, (He states that he wants to “see what they [blacks] could do with a planet all they’re own with no white people there.”), the film chooses another black man to play The Overseer, the villain of the picture. It seemed from the reactions of the black people that Sun Ra tries to save and take to his planet that the film proposes that oppression can sometimes come from within the victims themselves. In a way, I thought Sun Ra was presenting himself as Messiah, saving his people from a world that is self-destructing; however, not all blacks want to be saved. He proclaims himself to be from outer-space, a theory he upheld in real life by stating that he had been on the planet Saturn. I read several articles on Sun Ra and found that he had studied the Book of Urantia before filming this. This book is based loosely on evolution, science fiction, and the doctrine of the trinity. In it, the each member of the trinity controls certain areas of space and the galaxies within those areas. In this book, the universal father and eternal son, as two of the trinity are called, combine every now and then to form a creator son who is sent to earth as an embodiment of the god’s will. In the Book of Urantia, Jesus is named as only one of these creator sons with more to follow. I really think that Sun Ra is setting himself up as another creator son, equal with Christ; hence, he becomes the savior of the black world.

This idea pervades the entirety of the narrative although Sun Ra finds more identity in Egyptology than Christianity. The narrative begins with him on the outer planet proclaiming that it will be a place of peace for the black. Then, there is his earthly ‘ministry’ in which he defeats the Overseer (like Jesus on the cross) and saves those who are willing, including even a Hispanic woman. The ‘rapture’ of Sun Ra’s followers takes place not a moment too soon as the earth self-destructs (another Christian idea). Then, the narrative deals with alternate creation possibilities, proposing that a new planet can be started which will be inhabited by blacks only. In the Book of Urantia, there are supposedly thousands of inhabited planets, all fulfilling different variations of the religions seen on earth.

Interestingly enough, Sun Ra appears to have truly believed he had a link to Saturn (sometimes claiming he originated there and was unearthly while at other times claiming he was abducted by aliens who communicated with him). This film appears to be his ‘ministry’ to blacks, calling them out from vice toward drug-free, music-directed black power.

The problem, however, that I see with this film and its assertion of black power is its chaotic and surrealistic nature. Few would ever take this seriously and many, I’m certain, would use this film to once again see black advancement as buffoonery. From the quivering hat of Sun Ra in the first scene that he can’t quite seem to keep balanced to the very flat characterization of those in the nightclub, there just isn’t a lot of depth beyond the theoretical, even psychedelic elements common to a 70’s cult film.