Chesley Bonestell: A Brush with the Future (2018)

When I was a teen fan of science fiction my favorite artist was Chesley Bonestell whose vast output of space art thrilled thousands of fans of the genre. He was the go-to man for Hollywood’s George Pal who depended on his art and technical expertise for Destination Moon, When Worlds Collide, and War of the Worlds. And now, some 70 years after my youth comes a documentary film about Bonestell that made me realize that I knew but a fraction of the contributions that this amazing man contributed to our society.

Writer/director Douglass M. Stewart has assembled interviews and archival footage of a host of astronomers, engineers, space artists, filmmakers, architects, journalists, and, of course, vintage footage of Bonestell himself. Best of all, for me, are the many paintings in all their imaginative splendor that are included.

It is amazing to think that this man, born in 1888, when the fastest humans could travel was by a steam locomotive engine, and most ships still used sails, should envision in his art travel to other planets. Born in San Francisco, he was witness to the disastrous 1906 earthquake, an event that some observers believe informed a number of his paintings over five decades later when he depicted such catastrophes as the atom bombing of Manhattan or the destruction a large meteorite could inflict on a city. The film informs us that earthquake also destroyed Bonestell’s first astronomical painting—a portrait of Saturn that he created right after he observed the ringed planet through the Lick Observatory’s telescope in 1905.

Whereas Bonestell’s grandfather wanted him to work at his paper company, Bonestell was more taken with art. He did work there for his grandparent for three years, studying art at night. In 1907 he decided to major in architecture, crossing the country to study at Columbia University. However, he did not graduate, leaving after three years and returning to California. Even without a degree he worked at several architectural firms. His renderings of the proposed Golden Gate Bridge are credited with convincing skeptics questioning the building of San Francisco’s landmark that it should be constructed. (Earlier, in New York, he worked with the architect of the Chrysler Building, contributing to the design of the art deco façade—the gargoyles he designed still stare out over the city.)

As a film lover, I especially enjoyed the account of Bonestell’s contribution to the movies. In the late 1930s Bonestell worked in Hollywood as a matte painter on such films as Citizen Kane and The Hunchback of Notre Dame­—at the end of the latter film as the camera pulls back from Quasimodo to show the whole cathedral, that rendering was painted by Bonestell. By the fifties, well known for his space illustrations in LIFE and COLLIER”S magazines, he worked with George Pal on the groundbreaking science fiction films Destination Moon, When Worlds Collide, War of the Worlds, and Conquest of Space. (I remember reading in Astounding Science Fiction the praise of how scientific the first of those films was, thanks to Bonestell. Coming from editor John W. Campbell who was a fierce critic of the sloppy science in most Hollywood movies, this was high praise.) Also, filmmaker Stanley Kubrick studied the space art illustrations of  Bonestell in preparing for his film 2002: A Space Odyssey.

There’s more, much more about this artist and his work, supplied by author Ray Bradbury, filmmaker Douglas Trumbull, and a number of astronomers, scientists, and space artists, such as David Aguilar, Don Davis, Ron Miller, and director Doug Stewart. Person after person credits Bonestell with inspiring a generation to want to reach the planets and see other worlds for themselves. He worked with both scientists Willy Ley and Wernher von Braun to produce popular books The Conquest of Space  and Across the Space Frontier (both of which I bought shortly after they came out in 1949 and 1952 and still enjoy leafing through)

If you have known about this artist, I assure you, you will learn even more about his full life (short of a century by just 2 years.). I will be laughingly telling my friends that of all the many new facts I learned about this seer, possibly the best was how to pronounce his name—I had always thought it to be two syllables, Bone-stell, but it is actually three, Bon-ne-stell.

And if not encountered him before, then this film will fill in a gap in your knowledge of a highly influential 20^th century artist. If you are interested in the Mercury and Apollo projects, you will meet the man who inspired most of the scientist who worked on them. It is sad that Bonestell’s renown has faded, but hopefully Douglass M. Stewart’s award-winning documentary will restore his luster. Critic J.B. Spins observed, “We’d like to see this film get picked up by American Masters, because it persuasively makes the case that he was one.” Amen to that!

For an informative article by space artist Ron Miller on how this documentary came to be see his article Decades of Inspiration from Chesley Bonestell.

Watch Chesley Bonestell: A Brush with the Future (2020 – Free Movies | Tubi (tubitv.com)

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