APOCALYPTIC FILM ANALYSIS

Apocalyptic Film Analysis

Apocalyptic Film Analysis

In the 1962 novelization of the film by Dean Owen, which was published under the title End of the World by Alta Vista Productions with Ray Milland's photo on the cover, the introduction page asserted: "The screenplay was by John Morton and Jay Simms, from an original story by Jay Simms."

Michael Atkinson, the film critic for The Village Voice, liked the film and wrote, "This forgotten, saber-toothed 1962 AIP cheapie might be the most expressive on-the-ground nightmare of the Cold War era, providing a template not only for countless social-breakdown genre flicks (most particularly, Michael Haneke's Time of the Wolf) but also for authentic crisis—shades of New Orleans haunt its DVD margins...the movie is nevertheless an anxious, detail-rich essay on moral collapse."

Glenn Erickson writes, in his DVD Savant review, "Panic In Year Zero! scrupulously avoids any scenes requiring more than minimalist production values yet still delivers on its promise, allowing audience imagination to expand upon the narrow scope of what's actually on the screen. It sure seemed shocking in 1962, and easily trumped other more pacifistic efforts. The Day the Earth Caught Fire was for budding flower people; Panic In Year Zero! could have been made as a sales booster for the gun industry."

Film critic Dennis Schwartz discussed the film's theme and philosophy, "This was the first film Ray Milland directed. A modern audience would have no trouble identifying with its pessimistic treatment of humanity and the frightening possibility of what a nuclear attack could do. We live in a time of terrorists and the scenario presented onscreen is not that far fetched from the realm of possibilities. The only thing that was hard to fully approve of in Panic in Year Zero!, was Milland's selfish philosophy for survival—it was simply not a very human one. It was a narrow philosophy that did not give him the high moral ground over the looters, who also recognized it was a dog-eat-dog world and they must also look out only for Number One. But if everyone behaved like that, the world would indeed be a place of anarchy and hell. Otherwise this rather grim tale acted in a satisfying but desultory manner, in pointing out what realistically might happen in such a catastrophe. Its theme as stated by Milland is: 'I'll return when civilization becomes civilized again.'"

Why are we so scared about future? Why is it depicted so dark in films and literature? In which point Future started to be considered as something dreadful? Lately, as you may have noticed, I'm spending some time reviewing sci-fi movies, especially old ones, or at least away from the digital and super special effects era, and it's shocking the way they all portrait society in the future, very pessimistic.

Right from the start, during the initial credits, Soylent Green is praising the past times, showing war as the seed for the current situation of a dehumanized society.

In 2022, New York actually has become a refugee ...