Shadow on the Land

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.

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.

"Shadow on the Land" was the first made-for-TV movie produced and broadcast on ABC and includes in its cast Jackie Cooper, John Forsythe, Gene Hackman, and Carol Lynley. Its producer, Matthew Rapf, produced series like Ben Casey and Kojak. Its screenwriter, Nedrick Young, won an Oscar as co-writer of The Defiant Ones.

I was 16 when I saw it and its portrait of the United States devolved into a fascist dictatorship made an indelible impression on me. It's one of the most important films in the library of liberty ever made, and it deserves to be revived and seen by every lover of freedom who weeps that the United States is well down the path to tyranny shown in this movie.

But this film also shows seeds of hope, in its portrayal of an underground called the Society of Man.

Watch this! It has more power than a dozen tracts on economics and politics, or political campaigns.

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.

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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