Is this available on DVD?
-
fast_fierce_and_funny — 18 years ago(December 18, 2007 12:06 AM)
Sadly, it is indeed available on DVD.
Wal-Mart sells it along with 4 other movies on a disc called "The Sci-Fi Invasion" for $1. Unfortunately, my experience is that the Wal-Marts throw these dollar discs together in a big jumble, so you'll have to riffle through them yourself to see if you're "lucky" enough to find a copy.
If your local White Trash Emporium hasn't seen fit to stock it, you can (apparently) rent it through NetFlix. Another poster complained bitterly that they were subjected to this film via their NetFlix rental queue.
Oh, and:
SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT
I would be very surprised if you don't find this movie
extremely
lame as an adult. Which means you might be better off keeping your childhood memories intact: you decide. -
Swift-12 — 18 years ago(December 18, 2007 07:50 AM)
Honestly, I have no high hopes for it. I didn't mention it before, but even though it left an impression on me, yes, I could tell it was a turkey. Even as a kid.
Example: I remember an old man who helps the young lovers escape from the dictatorial traffic cop whose foolish plan was to build a makeshift bomb shelter out of a semi-trailer and find refuge in a natural shelter nearby. But then the old coot decides at the last second to remain in the open just to see the fireworks. BULL-s**t!
The whole thing was obviously a cheapo C-grade production, and I could smell the taint even though the theme itself scared me. So maybe one reason to revisit it is to laugh at it and exorcise the manipulation it had laid on me.
I'm also curious to assess the abilities of Ron Starr, who disappeared after the more impressive Peckinpah movie, RIDE THE HIGH COUNTRY
Thanks for the tip about WhitetrashMart.
|||
|||
|||
||| -
fast_fierce_and_funny — 18 years ago(December 19, 2007 06:47 AM)
Honestly, I have no high hopes for it. I didn't mention it before, but even though it left an impression on me, yes, I could tell it was a turkey. Even as a kid.
The reason I brought that up is because I had a similar experience with a film I dimly remembered as a child. In my case, it was
Encounter with the Unknown
(1973). This was a horror/supernatural flick that "scared the beejeezus" out of
me
when I was small.
Of course, as adults do, I felt compelled to "revisit" the film last year. Eerily enough, I had ordered the DVD just before my mom died, and the DVD arrived shortly after she died, with the keepcase cover sporting a Big Friendly Picture of a coffin and mourners. Which cheered me no end at the time.
At any rate, the film wasn't as good (read "creepy") as I remembered it being, although the second segment (which concerns a man being lowered into a hole in the ground in the search for a lost dog) still packed quite a punch (narration provided by Rod Serling certainly helped).
Example: I remember an old man who helps the young lovers escape from the dictatorial traffic cop whose foolish plan was to build a makeshift bomb shelter out of a semi-trailer and find refuge in a natural shelter nearby. But then the old coot decides at the last second to remain in the open just to see the fireworks. BULL-s**t!
Oh, I don't know. I felt I understood his point: he was an old man and probably not up for all the "fun and games" involved in surviving in the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust.
Besides which, the end of the world only comes around
one
time, right? Why not take full advantage of a front row seat?
Honestly, the cop bothered me more than anything. I know he was in a bit of a tough spot, but did he
really
have to be such a jerk when ordering people around?
Frankly, I felt that the way he behaved (breath-takingly rudely) constantly made me realize that this was "only a movie" because in Real Life, someone would have taken his gun away from him in no time flat. In 1962 cops may have commanded respect, (or at least fear) but I'm not convinced that people would follow his orders without question (if not outright refusal) today.
And his plan to seal the air vents in the truck with mud wasn't exactly one of the most inspired ideas I've heard, either. _
But the thing that made me lose what little sympathy I might have had for him was
SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT
when he strangled the dog in
full view
of everyone else in the trailer. There was just no need of that. If he was thinking at all, he would have had the housewife-type let the dog go before she entered the trailer. Of course, the scene where he demands she hand over the dog because he'll "take up too much air"
does
supply dramatic tension and I realize that.
END OF SPOILER END OF SPOILER END OF SPOILER
The whole thing was obviously a cheapo C-grade production, and I could smell the taint even though the theme itself scared me. So maybe one reason to revisit it is to laugh at it and exorcise the manipulation it had laid on me.
[nods in understanding] Ah, I get it. That's prolly what compelled me to seek out
Encounter
again, too.
I'm also curious to assess the abilities of Ron Starr, who disappeared after the more impressive Peckinpah movie, RIDE THE HIGH COUNTRY
Well, his chicken beating/hurling scene was pretty impressive in this film, I must say.
Thanks for the tip about WhitetrashMart.
You're welcome: I know what it's like to be excited about seeing a long-lost film you haven't seen in a decade or three.
You may also want to check out a Certain Internet Auction site. I don't know when you'll see this post, but there's an auction for the same DVD I have ("The Sci-Fi Invasion") that ends on Dec 20th. Even if you do a "buy-it-now," you'll still get it at a knock-down price (and shipped to your door).
Assuming you miss that particular auction, there are multiple copies offered for sale. If you key in "this is not a test" in the search field for the site, you'll see copies of the four-film-packed "The Sci-Fi Invasion" appear, as well as a stand-alone DVD for the title.
As far as I can see, you ought to be able to bag the DVD for <$7, shipped. If you check out the auction that ends on the 20th, you might even be able to get it for <$5.
At any rate, it's out there on DVD, lurking. Waiting for unsuspecting film buffs to pick it up and.well, you know the rest. -
Swift-12 — 18 years ago(December 19, 2007 08:04 AM)
Yes, instead of the old man with a death wish, I might've singled out the dog thing as excessively over-the-top. Actually that was the big shocker which stuck with me over the years.
Or like you say, the entire portrayal of the cop. But that's the underlying theme of the movie (and its overarching flaw) it's really less about nuclear war and more about tyranny. Barney Fife on steroids has an excuse to browbeat a bunch of sheep.
Then there was the wanton young lady who strips off her blouse because their shelter's getting hot. I guess the theme was "If we ever get nuked, civilization will be stripped away and our base animalism will be laid bare" because after she strips down to her bra she looks at the others only
half
-embarrassed and says with a shrug of her creamy white shoulders "I guess it doesn't matter anymore." (what next, soon they'll all be rolling around in a mass orgy?)
As a prepubescent punk I could spot how manipulative this business was. But if I'd seen it a few years later, the titillation factor would've fooled me.
I wouldn't mind seeing how cheap it really since I'm expecting it with eyes wide open. I've already lived through my big disappointment (similar to your displeasure with revisiting "Encounter with the Unknown")
I had a vague memory of a flick that strangely combined sci-fi with ancient togas and sandals. Later I realized it was an early 60s George Pal production about Atlantis, but the actual movie was nowhere near my memory of it.
ATLANTIS, THE LOST CONTINENT
http://www.imdb.com/board/10054642/
had some neat ideas but the acting was poor and the special effects cheap. It's not just that I'd become more demanding over time, expecting more with the advancements of FX. Rather I vividly recalled that things were done entirely differently! Specific details had been changed in my memory.
If only I were making my own movies
|||
|||
|||
||| -
hobnob53 — 16 years ago(July 29, 2009 09:51 PM)
I saw this film as a kid too and was decidedly not disappointed when I saw it again as an adult a few years ago. I remembered it as lousy but entertaining and suitably grim, and it was indeed exactly as I recalled it.
It's available by itself on DVD from the public domain outfit Alpha Video and also from Sinister Cinema. I think it's definitely worth a look, and a keeper. Enjoy it for what it is campy, calustrophobic, downbeat, unsettling, whatever. If you haven't gotten it in the nearly two years since your last post, try it! But get it as a single. -
Swift-12 — 16 years ago(July 29, 2009 10:46 PM)
Thanks, I did finally get a Netflix account and this was one of the first things I rented. It was a good print; must've been one of the singles you mentioned.
It wasn't as bad as I expected, but was obviously made on the cheap. The biggest fault was that it just didn't ring true. (With an imminent mushroom cloud on the loom, everybody takes time to chat each other up and muse about this and that.) But that's because the thing is actually a morality play with various types of characters displaying their flaws in the face of StReSs. A sort of Ship of Fools on the side of the highway.
|||
|||
|||
||| -
-
Swift-12 — 16 years ago(July 30, 2009 10:33 PM)
Like a thousand monkeys on a thousand typewriters, I sometimes have my moments. Thanks for the encouragement; maybe I'll start writing reviews around here again.
And thanks for bringing it up again, because it's a fun movie to talk about. It could be fun to watch with a group of people if the group was right. (Squeamish dog owners beware)
|||
|||
|||
|||