cinema history class: (panic in the year zero)

  

As always, there may be spoilers here. And the trailer may be NSFW and/or NSFL.

Session: It's Dystopia, Mom! (Week 2)
Movie: The Last Man On Earth (1962)
Directed by Ray Milland

Plot:

After nuclear war turns society into chaos, there's one order for the day: survive. Horror ensues.

Reaction and Other Folderol:

The important thing to keep in mind about Panic in the Year Zero! is that it was timely. It came out in 1962, when fears of an impending nuclear war were palpable. Students across the US were taught to duck and cover so that, in the event of a nuclear war, they would be protected by their schooldesks. And bomb shelters were a popular feature of home construction. I vividly recall the bomb shelter (by that point turned into a storage room) in my grandparents' house in Pennsylvania when I was growing up. And, in a sense, it's timely now; with the war in Ukraine, there has been various talk about nuclear weapons.

Of course, maybe that kind of talk is game-playing. I remember a bunch of nuclear-war-themed movies from the 1980s, and a very short-lived sit-com called Woops! from 1992 that was a sort of post-nuclear war variation of Gilligan's Island.

At any rate, fact is that Panic isn't really a movie about nuclear war. It's a movie about a family trying to survive after society has broken down. The nuclear war angle was really just the mechanism to create the situation.

And the movie does a good job of imaginatively coming up with all sorts of situations that would arise. And Ray Milland does a really good job as the father, trying to protect his family, even at the cost of letting others die, while also struggling to make sure they maintain their humanity.  A lot of what happened felt oddly sanitized, but it's important to remember that in 1962 the code was still in effect and limiting what could be done in movies.

One interesting consequence of that is that the implied rape was protrayed in a way that reminded me of the adage that "less is more."

Panic was a very well-done solid low budget flick.

Ratings

Me: 9

Bob-O: 9.9

Christina: 9.4

Dave: 9.5

Ethan: 8

Joe: 10

Cats: No cat or dog. Much sad.