Years before the movie serial Flash Gordon came upon the scene, the first science-fiction space opera was Denmark's February 1918 "A Trip To Mars." Produced during the middle of World War One, the movie paints a utopian vision of peace & love on the planet Mars from its inhabitants. The line "Love is the Force you call God" is repeated several times, illustrating how screenwriter Ole Olsen felt Earthlings needed to be reminded of that lesson while the European carnage was happening next door to Denmark.
It has been noted "A Trip To Mars" is the first science fiction feature-length movie ever produced. There have been earlier alien-encounter films on Mars and the Moon released, but they were "shorts." The Mars journey the Danes created here was made at a time when lines thought to be canals existing on the planet could be seen from our best telescopes, hinting there was a sophisticated alien life there. When the movie's Earthlings land on the very hospitable planet, its residents welcome their visitors with open arms--that is until a gun is produce by one of the "barbaric" guests to shoot down a bird, setting off a contrast between the two civilizations.
Once things are set right, the viewer appreciates the love and kindness of the Martians, one of the very few times the Red Planet is shown to have benevolent aliens (See list of top Mars movies ranked in below links). Just as the real life Pocahontas was brought to England to showcase the Native Americans, Mars' knockout female Corona was transported to Earth to convey a heavenly message of peace, love and understanding.
A portion of "A Trip To Mars" is devoted to the technology of transporting men to another planet. Many inventions and scientific research have gone towards present-day's outer space achievements, but the fact the film devotes its time towards space travel qualifies it as a "space opera," a phrase coined in 1941. Like soap operas, space operas have dramatic impact on not only the method of travel, but the dramatics of human encounters with alien life. In "A Trip To Mars," the movie's aim is to impact its audience with a message that was hoped to change the direction of Western civilization, just as Thomas More had intended in his book "Utopia" and James Hilton in his "Shangri-La." With "The War To End All Wars" becoming just one in a string of long bloody conflicts following it, the Martian example hasn't quite sunk in yet.