I love this movie so much

This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Writer / producer / director Arch Oboler conceived this landmark, meagerly budgeted post- apocalypse drama, one of the very earliest of its kind. It brings together five strangers: a poet & philosopher named Michael (William Phipps), a young pregnant woman named Roseanne (Susan Douglas Rubes), a black man named Charles (Charles Lampkin), a bank clerk named Mr. Barnstaple (Earl Lee), and a mountain climber named Eric (James Anderson). After the bombs decimate much of American life, these five people find each other, and spend time at an isolated cliff side house (Obolers' real life, Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home). Various personality conflicts form the basis for the plot as these people struggle to survive, debate methodology, and air grievances.Also utilizing a poem dubbed "Creation" by James Weldon Johnson, Oboler tries his hardest to create something fairly profound. Stark b & w photography by Sid Lubow and Louis Clyde Stoumen is an asset, and the tale is enacted with sensitivity by its well chosen cast of actors who were, at the time, relative unknowns. The biggest sparks fly when Eric is revealed as a racist, and also somebody who will question things and be certain that there have to be other "immune" survivors living out there somewhere. On the other hand, Michael isn't sure that the cities will be safe. Roseanne is understandably distraught not knowing the fate of her husband.As one can imagine, this is a pretty intimate story, and it attempts to show how human flaws can still manifest themselves under extreme circumstances. It's at its most chilling when showing how truly alone our characters seem to be, with shots of forlorn streets and buildings and skeletons that are the grim reminders of the devastation wrought by the atomic explosions."Five" earns points for good intentions and ambitions, and it stands in contrast to more action-oriented giant monster features of the Atomic Age.Seven out of 10.

A decade before The Last Man on Earth and its updated remakes, The Omega Man and I am Survivor, this apocalyptic film came along to describe the day after tomorrow. Missing special effects, silly soap opera and stars, it focuses on how people try to change old habits and temptations, dealing with the deadly consequences of a nuclear attack. The one key sequence in this that helps it rise into something unique is when two antagonistic survivors make a tentative truce, citing the realization that this is important for continuing peace. A disturbing scene has the pregnant heroine venturing into a city which was obviously a target. More profound than the silly science fiction films with radio-active monsters, it suffers as a result of too much silence which makes these five face a fate worse than annihilation: isolation.

Set against the backdrop of the director's own starkly beautiful Frank Lloyd Wright home, five survivors of a new type of nuclear bomb try to put their lives back together.Those looking for blast effects will be disappointed. Like _Testament_ and _The World, the Flesh, and the Devil_, this film is a character study. It skips the firestorm and focuses on the psychological aftermath.The five survivors include Roseanne, a pregnant widow; Michael, a reclusive poet; Eric, a European adventurer; and Charles and Mr. Barnstaple, two coworkers from a bank. Each has escaped the deadly radiation by coincidence, and all come together by chance as the story unfolds.Conflicts erupt as the survivors attempt to reconstruct some sense of normality. Roseanne remains stuck in the past, unable to grasp the uncertainty of her husband's fate. Michael is burdened by the guilt he feels at finally getting to enjoy a solitary existence. Charles, probably the most level-headed of all the characters, is locked in conflict with racist Eric, who cannot get past the now-irrelevant fact that Charles is black. The elderly Mr. Barnstaple simply cannot acknowledge the scope of the tragedy and thereby, in a particularly bittersweet scene, ends up being able to live his dreams.The film is marred by several glaring inconsistencies. Though the war was only several weeks prior, the bodies of the victims have been reduced to dry skeletons. Eric has somehow managed to "walk across Asia," find a plane, fly across the ocean, and arrive on the beach in California. Surely the budget could have included some tweaking of the script and the hiring of a few extras to lie there in place of the skeletons.Despite these flaws and a saccharine, too-predictable ending, _Five_ is a thoughtful, historically relevant diamond in the rough.

A bit overwrought and florid, but very enjoyable. Several reviewers pick on it because they seem to think that the characters are walking around in a totally depressed state throughout the movie. I don't see this at all. In fact, I perceive them as incredibly upbeat and positive about their situation, all things considered. One of the aspects of this film that I enjoy the most is the pure villainy of the bad guy. It's rare nowadays to see such an uncompromising and ungrateful jerk written into a script. He's human and believable, but he has no redeeming qualities at all. Also, he accomplishes this without the aid of technology, secret weapons, or even any sort of clever scheming or evil plans.The cinematography is pretty good, with some startling shots and quite a bit of hand-held camera.Finally, and I simply can't pass on this, the title is numerically correct for the majority of the movie. A couple other reviewers have stated that it is incorrect and I'm not sure if they're numerically challenged or what.