They did it. They dropped the bomb in the Northern Hemisphere and a nuclear cloud is drifting towards Australia, killing all in it's wake. Gregory Peck surfaces from his US military submarine in Melbourne and hangs with new pal Anthony Perkins, a surprisingly convincing fair-dinkum Aussie. Ava Gardiner and Fred Astaire join them to lament over lost love and the lives they are about to lose in excruciating agony. None of this is as dark or depressing as you would expect given the situation but this was shot in the sanitary 1950's. The Road it most definitely is not. In fact, not a dead body, rotting or intact, is sighted at all. An opportunity missed.
As a curiosity I enjoyed it; the city streets of Melbourne that I know today are shown in the 50's with Hollywood icons mincing about them. The idea of Australia being the last bastion of life is also a comforting if not misguided idea. As slight as the film as a whole comes off, the themes must have been quite disturbing given the era. I guess this was too good an opportunity to sugar coat the end of civilisation with some romantic fluff.
3/5Interestingly, this was remade in 2000 starring Armand Assante of The Mambo Kings fame, Bryan Brown, Rachel Ward and stalwart Grant Bowler. What is also interesting is that I would actually like to see it. A modern, darker interpretation was a fair call and despite the worrying 'made for tv' categorisation, my expectations are set at the right pitch to perhaps, just perhaps, enjoy this caper.
The remake(?) looks woeful. Looks like they've attempted to make Armageddon set in Moonee Ponds on the budget of an episode of Prisoner. Also any Armand Assante project is an instant binning.
ReplyDeleteValiant attempt at turd polishing made in the inter-splicing of all that dramatic news footage into the trailer, to be fair.
Ok then, the 'newest interpretation' of the novel by Nevil Schute does look pretty ordinary but after seeing the '59 effort I would like to see this out of curiosity.To be fair to it, it did receive reasonable reviews considering it's cast and budget.
ReplyDeleteI thought Assante was dead but apparently he is alive and still making straight-to-dvd fluff.
Don't do it man. Life is too short for such tripe. Watch Stroszek instead.
ReplyDelete