The Quiet Earth
THE QUIET EARTH (15)
D: Geoff Murphy
Cinepro (Sam Pillsbury & Don
Reynolds)
New Zealand 1985
94 mins
Science Fiction
W: Bill Baer, Bruno Lawrence & Sam Pillsbury
[based on the novel by Craig Harrison]
DP: James Bartle
Ed: Michael Horton
Mus: John Charles
Bruno Lawrence (Zac Hobson), Alison Routledge
(Joanne), Peter Smith (Api)
A suicidal scientist wakes up to discover that he
appears to be the last man left on Earth, but after finding other survivors, deduces that the apparent holocaust is due to a scientific experiment gone wrong.
New Zealand's equivalent of The Omega Man is a
very decent low-budget effort. The performances are generally good, but the story isn't quite as memorable as other films of the ilk. Still, for a work where budgetary constraints
would have posed a factor in the filmmaking process, director Geoff Murphy does an excellent job.
8/10
