Shadow on the Land

I saw this movie on the ABC network movie on Friday night. I was just out of high school. I had always been interested in becoming futurist. Read many books and articles on how our futures will be if we are not mindful. This movie was so in time with the times. Even now if it were should it would makes us so aware of our freedoms and how much we take them as a matter of fact. It had a documentary feel to it. Marc Strange had a troubled feel of a man doing a job that it hated and saw it as being wrong. The powers that be had cut the links that make it answerable to it's citizens. I statement from the "Killers Elite:There is no government any where in the world that gives a damn about the people that it is suppose to service" This movie written before big government got married to high tech is a look into where we are on our way. It was a warning that I have never fail to me mindful of. I highly recommend, hippies where not just trouble makes they saw something that others didn't. If you get a chance rent it, study it, compare it to now, and remember always be mindful.

I too saw this movie , twice , I was living in Berkely Ca. and was about 20 years old . At the time James Rector had just been killed by the police , we had riots in the street , the weathermen , Black Panthers ,SDS and others , these were our call to unite it never happened , at least not on a scale that the movie suggest . It was almost real ,I remember watching this with my father , both times being the far thinker he was , it made him shiver it was that real . What has happened to this movie , does the government control the movie industry ? .

I wonder if finding a copy of the book is possible ( Sinclair Lewis ) or has that too been banned in the name of Freedom . Soon I will leave this country and go live in another , I know it matters not , all government's are corrupt , or perhaps live in a small town in the mountains . This movie forever changed my life and made me aware of how corrupt and immoral the US really has become.

Will Rogers or mother Teresa never watched this movie .

Any one with a copy please contact me , so I can show my grandchildren that we were warned .

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When it aired, "Shadow on the Land"'s premise was barely credible: an unexplained national emergency so terrifies the country that Congress grants the President virtually unlimited emergency powers, which he promptly uses to establish a national security agency charged with hunting down the nation's external and internal "enemies." Soon the country is awash in curfews, traveling papers, checkpoints and managed news. Dissent is unpatriotic and quashed in the name of security and national harmony. In response, a small underground emerges dedicated to revealing the corruption and our loss of freedoms.

Run as a TV movie, "Shadow on the Land" should have done better than it did, and might have made an interesting series had it received better viewer response. Unfortunately, its cautionary message of a fearful America willing to surrender basic freedoms seemed preposterous. Not helping was a fairly plodding script, generally heavy-handed characterizations and an absence of any sense of impending menace or danger.

Still, "Shadow" featured such dependable lead actors as Jackie Cooper, John Forsythe, Gene Hackman, Carol Lynley, Marc Strange and Janice Rule, supported by a strong cast of future character actors including Scott Thomas, Bill Walker and Ken Swofford. All the actors -- Cooper and Hackman especially -- gave solid performances despite the script, which must have seemed something of a fantasy to everyone involved.

While many of the casting decisions were predicable, there was one truly inspired piece of casting that set the show apart: John Forsythe as General Wendell Bruce, head of West Coast security and the resident villain. Setting his likable "Bachelor Father" (1957-1962) persona on its head, Forsythe created a disturbingly complex and believable nemesis: intelligent, dedicated to his duty, sophisticated, articulate and likable, with a ready smile and well-tailored suits. It was truly chilling to watch him, and helped build a case for the type of people who might someday convince us they were only there to "protect" us.

Given the current political and social climate, "Shadow on the Land" was clearly a show forty years ahead of its time – an unusually cautionary tale raised in a television era still dominated by fare such as "Beverley Hillbillies," "Batman," "Death Valley Days: and "Hawaii Five-O." Someone ought to find it in the archives, dust it off, and either run it or redo it; I think we'd be far more willing to believe its vision of America than we were in 1968.

Still, given that same climate, one has to wonder if the show could be done today. The premise strikes far too close to home, and patriotism isn't what it used to be. We've clearly demonstrated that as a people we are now perfectly willing to sacrifice a little freedom for security and safety, just as were the citizens of "Shadow."

On a final minor note, one has to wonder if our Homeland Security folks realize that their eagle logo bears a haunting similarity to "Shadow"'s homeland security agency emblem. If we don't learn from history – even fictional ones – we are somehow doomed to repeat it.

When this film came out, it was decried by both critics and science fiction fans as being preposterous because in America such an event could never happen.

Now the conspiracy theorists say that our current President is ready to have events occur which will bring this movie to a realization.

I have always been surprised that this movie has never come out on tape or DVD as a warning that it COULD happen here.

The movie is flawed in many ways, but having to show id at airports, being screened at airports, on roads, at bus & train stations was unthinkable 40 years ago, yet it has occurred.

Sinclair Lewis was right. We did not learn from his book or take heed the warning of this film.

Politicians once they have power will do anything to keep it, even usurp the Constitution which they have sworn to protect and defend.

This movie is a great movie for those people who love alternate history. The acting is well done, but many of the sets look as if it were filmed on a closed factory. I hope that someday it will appear on video. If you do like this type of movie then you must read "The Devils Advocate" by Taylor Caldwell it too is about a military dictatorship in the 1960's US.