Zero Population Growth (1972)

Penultimate Armagedon

Imagine: No more wars; Cancer and Heart Disease cured; science and technology have acted to destroy wildlife and plantlife such that more living space is created. More and more people sticking around putting a strain on available resources (sound familiar?) It gets to the point where childbearing is outlawed to put a cap on stressing growth. The penalty? Death! The effort examines the effect that type of dystopian existence can have on not our physical selves but the spiritual sides. I would rate this higher if there were more character development but part of the message is that individual character is slowly being sapped from the people in the society. One evidence is the seeming mandatory wearing of calming blue clothing when in public acting as a pacifying agent. So there goes the plus for costuming. The cinematography is excellent. The parts requiring special efects (Invisible tattoos on pre-edict concieved children) may seem not hard to pull off but in 1972 it was a good effort. There's no pyrotechnics. Cars are a thing of the past so for props there isn't much to rate, well, except there is this neat thing that flies through the polluted skies lecturing on morality. No, not Zardoz, but hey that's pretty close. I liked this movie. Ms Chaplin is at her 28 year old prettiest and most talented while reacting to Mr Reed who is so good at playing off the other characters. There is some ingenuity in the plot twist which turns this into the pre-apocalytic it is. See, humanity just can't live caged up like that and here it is very well presented and shown on the verge of its collapse. If you don't know that everythings about to implode, the movie's dull. Knowing it, makes it one of the better investigations of the future of the human condition.

My DVD had no added features to watch. (Which could have manifested itself as a plea for donations to a zero population growth trust fund I trust. )