Highly Overrated But Still Good

Fantastic!

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

It's no secret that New Zealander Geoff Murphy didn't have a great deal of cash to make "The Quiet Earth", but quite why that convinces us that the film might have been made 10 or even 20 years before it was is the first mystery about this somewhat mysterious sci-fi effort. which draws on a novel from British-born, NZ-based writer Craig Harrison. Indeed, the film has a book-ish feel about it, and it's torn between rational detective-work about what caused the apocalypse and dystopia we see (work that doesn't seem to get too far, yet still appears to supply a means of ending the predicament) and more sociological-emotional comment about how things work when you're the only human being left (harking back as far as Mary Shelley's "The Last Man"). The latter strand then throws in a bit of Antipodean rebel stuff in which our hero Zach (Bruno Lawrence) goes through various stages of "gentrification", defies a number of (no-longer-apt) conventions and ultimately views himself as Emperor of all he surveys. Now this may be authentic behaviour to imagine for unimagineable circumstances, but it's hard to argue for it adding much to the film overall. For, like its zombie-plague-related predecessor "The Omega Man" and indeed "I am Legend", our movie here insists on pursuing that old (at-times annoying) plot device that in fact there are just a few people left, NOT just one. And, since it seems that New Zealand at least has 3 such survivors, and since that's first one man + one woman (played by the intrepid Lawrence plus Alison Routledge), and since the pairing eventually expands into an eternal-triangle (thanks to the appearance of an action-hero Maori character played by Pete Smith), we pass through two further interesting sub-parts of the film (which vaguely bring to mind the BBC's original "The Survivors" also including such storylines). What is quite fascinating here is how the sympathising (male) viewer quickly starts seeing the Routledge character as some kind of bewitching goddess figure, where perhaps she would not be very noticeable at all in a High Street full of people. That can only mean that the viewer has somehow been drawn into the bleak world of the film, empathising with the need for physical/emotional/sexual contact under a degree of isolation that goes beyond "desert island" level. Furthermore, Routledge as Joanne reflects stark evolutionary reality rather bluntly as she does the calculations as to which guy she's better off with, but mostly (one supposes authentically) flirts with both and flits from one to the other. Though blighted - like the piece as a whole - by cheapish special effects, the ending has its own power, and I again felt a wave of fellow-feeling for Zach - and thus for humanity - thanks to it.As a whole, I stick with my headline comment in believing that "The Quiet Earth" is a hair'sbreadth away from turning Turkey - bits of it are silly, incongruous, cheap, pointless and badly done. But the actors put in quite reasonable performances, and the temerity of Murphy has to be admired at some level. Furthermore, a score from New Zealander John Charles that seems OTT for much of the film somehow comes into its own in the final scene.In short, the people that put this film together really did try to do what they could with a big storty, and effort is always to be admired.

I cant believe I'd never heard of this before, and it took so much digging around to find! A nice, original, apocalypse movie, about the last man on earth. It captures the loneliness so well, but doesn't overdo it. My only complaint might be its management of time. It feels like the time it takes for things to get a little odd might be a bit short, and so, while in hindsight I realise there probably was a gap, while watching it I felt a little like it just tried to skip the slow progression to it. To avoid spoilers, I'll tell that that by a little odd, I don't mean a shift in the plot. I mean for the affects of loneliness to take its toll. And to top it all off, an amazing OST to match. I really cannot recommend this movie more, and it is terribly underrated.

I will start by saying I enjoyed this film very much. While I cannot say it is a great movie, it is certainly entertaining, interesting, and watchable. The cast do quite well in their respective roles, and the section on the effects of isolation on the main character is both funny and quite sad. The introduction of the other characters and the consequent tension is quite believable under the circumstances.However, I did find myself rather frustrated by the plot. I felt it hid behind vagueness and lack of explanation about what was going on. I especially found myself rather flummoxed by the ending. It was interesting, but it left too many questions about what the viewer was supposed to conclude had happened. I don't necessarily dislike ambiguity in a film, but I couldn't help but wonder if the scriptwriter was hiding behind lack of explanation because he didn't quite know how to end it.The effects are cheap, but the movie is older, low budget, and the effects were not particularly vital to the plot. It didn't really affect my enjoyment of the movie.So overall I would say 'The Quiet Earth' is no classic, but is a watchable, entertaining film.

This is a great little Sci-Fi from the eighties. A guy wakes up one day and it appears every other human on the planet has disappeared.In some ways it is a little bit dated with its 80's obligatory dream sequence and dodgy sound track; but coming from a time when censors actually censored stuff there is hardly any gore and sex. So unlike its modern counterparts it has to rely quite a lot on character, story, and setting.It hits all these areas easily. The 'quiet' sequences are very well done.The story is fairly linear compared to modern films so if you are used to things exploding every few seconds or expect a deviously clever twist at the end you may be disappointed.Otherwise this is a great movie and I am sure movie fans will be watching it 50 years from now.