THE QUIET EARTH
Only The Lonely
RELEASED OUT NOW! 1985 | 15 | Blu-ray Director Geoff Murphy Cast Bruno lawrence, alison routledge, Pete smith
New Zealand genre cinema isn’t all Peter Jackson, y’know. Predating even Jackson’s ’80s splatter-horror flicks, this low-budget three-hander is an understated take on the “last man on Earth” story.
Bruno Lawrence plays scientist Zak Hobson, who wakes to discover the planet deserted: kettles left boiling, breakfasts half-eaten, crashed cars littering the roadside. Humanity has vanished, and Zak concludes that an energy transmission project he was working on is responsible.
It’s a film neatly divided into three sections, of which the first is the most effective. As Zak goes loopy from loneliness – playing saxophone in the rain; blasting holes in a statue of the crucified Christ; declaring himself President of Earth to an audience of cardboard cutouts – Lawrence is entertainingly unhinged. There are some impressive shots of deserted city streets, and the soaring strings of John Charles’s score are suitably bittersweet.
In the last two thirds, Zak meets two more survivors – the free-spirited Joanne and macho Maori Api – and discovers that “The Effect” is set to repeat, with devastating consequences. The love triangle that develops doesn’t entirely convince (would Joanna, a sort of proto manic pixie dream girl, really fall for both men, one after the other?) but the mystery of why the trio were immune intrigues, and the film’s final shot is wonderfully enigmatic. A memorably idiosyncratic spin on a familiar template.
Extras Disappointingly for an Arrow Video release, there are no contributions from cast or crew – just critics. Kim Newman provides a potted history of end of the world movies (17 minutes). A “video essay” on the film (13 minutes) wastes half its duration explaining the plot. And the commentary is frustrating: its writer is wellinformed, but gets in a tangle switching between delivering potted histories and reacting to what’s on-screen, to the point where “But anyway…” and “I’ll be talking about that later” become catchphrases. Plus: gallery, trailer, booklet. Ian Berriman
“The Effect” occurs at 6.12 am. In The Book Of Revelation, the sixth seal is opened at chapter six, verse 12…