Hemorrhaging Financial Markets
Rapidly Depleting Natural Resources
Threat of Pandemic Disease
Polar Ice Caps Melting
An Apocalyptic Mayan Prophecy
And thats BEFORE we even start our Doomsday Movie Marathon. For the next couple months Row Three will be ground zero for discussion on movies that embrace the paranoid and prophetic anxieties of doomsday scenarios. Such scenarios both fantastical and plausible offer us a glimpse into how, when stripped of our modern conveniences, we might fair, let alone survive, with only our wits to provide. Somewhere between Kevin Costner (a whopping 4 appearances in this batch) and Steve Guttenberg (The Day After), the truth doth lie.
Some effort has been made to arrange this programme from as wide a variety of genres and time periods as possible while still staying true to this basic theme. More often than not, films were chosen not for pedigree so much as for for their potential as conversation-starters, films on the fringe of the familiar, or worthy of a second look. Brought together here is quite a mix of films including 90’s throwbacks to natural disasters, post-apocalyptic epics, some schlock science fiction, a couple art house musings, a few too-close-to-home geopolitical scenarios and an alarming amount of 80’s hair.
From now until the end of the year, contributing writers of Row Three will watch and review films that in one way or another evoke the doomsday ethos. Part of this is a lead up to Roland Emmerich’s deliciously absurd 2012 and John Hillcoat’s masterpiece, The Road, both of which will also be reviewed as part of the marathon.
JOIN IN!
Anyone wishing to participate in the marathon can of course watch the films and comment on the posts, or if inclined contribute reviews (films related to the theme beyond our scope are fine too). What ultimately gets published will be left to our discretion, but at the very least we will add a link to your review on this programme page, which will collect together all of the reviews, complete with star ratings. The following films are considered the canon within this marathon, however, if there are films that have been missed you feel should be added, I am happy to consider additions. The films need not be watched in a particular sequence, watch what you can get when you can get it.
The Programme
THE ATOMIC CAFE
Jayne Loader and Kevin Rafferty
A compilation of 1960’s films about what to do in case of a Nuclear attack and the effects of radiation, also footage of troop tests of the exposure to an atomic bomb. (courtesy of IMDb)
(4/5)
THIRTEEN DAYS
Roger Donaldson
The film is set during the two-week Cuban missile crisis in October of 1962, and it centers on how President John F. Kennedy, Attorney General Robert Kennedy, and others handled the explosive situation. (courtesy of IMDb)
(4/5)
A BOY AND HIS DOG
L.Q. Jones
Don Johnson plays a young man in a post nuclear war world who has an interesting friend, a telepathic dog. The dog gives him an advantage in dealing with the barbaric world he lives in. When Johnson finds one place that has escaped the devastation of the war, he also finds some rather odd attitudes (courtesy of IMDb)
FAIL-SAFE
Sidney Lumet
American planes are sent to deliver a nuclear attack on Moscow, but it’s a mistake due to an electrical malfunction. Can all-out war be averted? (courtesy of IMDb)
Review Coming Soon
MIRACLE MILE
Steve De Jarnatt
A young man hears a chance phone call telling him that a nuclear war has started and missiles will hit his city in 70 minutes.(courtesy of IMDb)
Review Coming Soon
LAST NIGHT
Don MCKellar
In preparation for an unspecified world ending event, a motley crew of Canadians shrug themselves into oblivion in this comedy-drama by Toronto director Don McKellar.
Review Coming Soon
2012
Roland Emmerich
An epic adventure about a Mayan-predicted global cataclysm that tells of the heroic struggle of the survivors(courtesy of IMDb)
(2/5)
THE EARTH DIES SCREAMING
Terrence Fisher
A crack space pilot returns to earth to find the planet has been devastated by some unknown forces. There are a few survivors, so he organizes them in a plan to ward off control by a group of killer robots (courtesy of IMDb)
Review Coming Soon
QUIET EARTH
Geoff Murphy
A man wakes up to find himself literally alone in the world, and goes about trying to find other survivors, as well as to find out what happened. He suspects that a government research project he was involved in had something to do with the disappearance of everyone. Eventually he finds several other people, and once they begin to trust each other they try to figure out why they were left on earth.(courtesy of IMDb)
(0.5/5)
COLLAPSE
Chris Smith
From the acclaimed director of American Movie, this portrait of radical thinker Michael Ruppert explores his apocalyptic vision of the future, spanning the crises in economics, energy, environment and more. (courtesy of IMDb)
(4.5/5)
WATERWORLD
Kevin Reynolds
In a future where the polar ice caps have melted and most of Earth is underwater, a mutated mariner fights starvation and outlaw “smokers,” and reluctantly helps a woman and a young girl find dry land. (courtesy of IMDb)
Review Coming Soon
OMEGA MAN
Boris Sagal
Robert Neville, a doctor, due to an experimental vaccine, is the only survivor of an apocalyptic war waged with biological weapons. The plague caused by the war has killed everyone else except for a few hundred deformed, nocturnal people calling themselves “The Family”. (courtesy of IMDb)
(2/5)
THE ROAD
John Hillcoat
A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind and water. It is cold enough to crack stones, and, when the snow falls it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the warmer south, although they don’t know what, if anything, awaits them there. They have nothing: just a pistol to defend themselves against the lawless cannibalistic bands that stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a rusting shopping cart of scavenged food–and each other.(courtesy of IMDb)
(4.5/5)
THE TIME OF THE WOLF
Michael Haneke
Immediately before a global catyclysm, Anna and her family arrive at their holiday home in the countryside only to find it is occupied by a group of complete strangers. This confrontation is just the beginning of a painful learning process, as they discover that nothing will ever be the same again.(courtesy of IMDb)
THE MAD MAX TRILOGY
George Miller
In the post-apocolyptic Australian wasteland, a cynical drifter agrees to help a small, gasoline rich, community escape a band of bandits. (courtesy of IMDb)
(4/5)
Chris’ The Road Warrior Review
(3.5/5)
Chris’ Beyond Thunderdome Review
(2/5)
WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE
Rudolph Maté
As a new star and planet hurtle toward a doomed Earth, a small group of survivalists frantically work to complete the rocket which will take them to their new home. (courtesy of IMDb)
(3.5/5)
PULSE
Kiyoshi Kurosawa
After one of their friends commits suicide, strange things begin happening to a group of young Tokyo residents. One of them sees visions of his dead friend in the shadows on the wall, while another’s computer keeps showing strange, ghostly images. Is their friend trying to contact them from beyond the grave, or is there something much more sinister going on? (courtesy of IMDb)
Review Coming Soon
THE LAST BATTLE
Luc Besson
The sky is raining fish. Skyscrapers sit in mountains of sand. Bandits sleep in trunks of used cars. It’s a world of the future. A world called Planet Earth. And he’s one man just trying to survive.(courtesy of IMDb)
Review Coming Soon
THE POSTMAN
Kevin Costner
Post-apocalyptic America. What begins as a con game becomes one man’s quest to rebuild civilization by resuming postal service.(courtesy of IMDb)
(3.5/5)
THE DAY AFTER
Nicholas Meyer
The frightening story of the weeks leading up to and following a nuclear strike on the United States. The bulk of the activity centers around the town of Lawrence, Kansas.(courtesy of IMDb)
Review Coming Soon
HARDWARE
Richard Stanley
A wandering soldier buys a robot head found in the irradiated outer zone and brings it back to his girlfriend for use in one of her sculptures. His girlfriend, nay, society at large become endangered when the robot puts itself back together using the parts she has for her sculptures and continues its genocidal mission. (courtesy of IMDb)
ON THE BEACH
Stanley Kramer
In 1964, nuclear war wipes out humanity in the northern hemisphere; one American submarine finds temporary safe haven in Australia, where life-as-usual covers growing despair. In denial about the loss of his wife and children in the holocaust, American Captain Towers meets careworn but gorgeous Moira Davidson, who begins to fall for him. The sub returns after reconnaissance a month (or less) before the end; will Towers and Moira find comfort with each other? (courtesy of IMDb)
(3.5/5)
THEM!
Gordon Douglas
The earliest atomic tests in New Mexico cause common ants to mutate into giant man-eating monsters that threaten civilization.(courtesy of IMDb)
(4.5/5)
If you want to watch it onl1ne for free,...
Comment by Kurt Halfyard — October 29, 2009
Bug is fucking crazy… I loved the first half of it.
Comment by Mike Rot — October 29, 2009
Comment by Kurt Halfyard — October 29, 2009
Comment by Mike Rot — October 30, 2009
Comment by Shannon the Movie Moxie — October 30, 2009
Comment by rot — October 30, 2009
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Comment by Jandy Stone — December 3, 2009