This Is Not a Test

This was definitely a lower end 'B' movie, in terms of acting and production values. For a movie with such dramatic, relevant and plausible importance at the time it was made, it was surprisingly boring at times.

But it's worth seeing, because this really did almost happen in the year it was made, 1962. It's a time capsule, even if lower end, of such a drama made at the time, not interpreted decades later.

People who make fun of the paranoia of the cold war should remember this fact. The only thing that's really changed, is the perception. The possibility of nuclear war, is still with us.

This film takes place on a stretch of lonely highway where a bull headed state trooper has been ordered to set up a road block. Strange messages broadcast from the radio. A nuclear war is on the way. Holding back a group of stranded motorists that arrive at the road block, the state trooper soon begins to lose control of the situation. The film deals with the various reactions of an odd assortment of characters when they realize the end is coming. Being a low budget film with a cast of some professionals and amateurs, the performances are uneven. The dialogue ranges from good to silly. But the film is intelligent and well made on a small budget. The films makers did not attempt to do anything that could not be done with the limited budget they had, and instead decided to tell a simple but intelligent story. This film is hard to find and I was lucky to find a copy of it at my local video store. Don't believe what critic John Stanley says about this film. If it turns up on T.V. or you can find a video copy, by all means see this film!

*****SPOILERS**** Futuristic-type movie made back in 1962 about an impending USSR nuclear missile attack on America and how it effected a number of motorists and a deputy sheriff stranded in the dark and cold California desert.

We see the people start to panic as the hour minute and second of doom gets closer and closer and how all civility as well as the respect for law and order starts to fall apart. The movie for a while takes on an almost soap opera-like quality as some of the people there, Karen and Al, begin to have an affair at the expense of Karen's husband Sam which leads him to get very depressed and later to kill himself.

There is also Clint who's an escaped psycho murder who hitched a ride with Al, on his tractor-trailer, who takes off when Sheriff Colter tries to talk to him. Clint ends up hiding in the desert brush popping up in the movie every now and them. Clint seems to be there for no other reason but to show the audience that he's still around when the world comes to an end.

By far the most interesting person in the movie "This is not a test" was Sheriff Colter who we see changed from a cool and in charge type of guy to an paranoid lunatic. Sheriff gets every one into Al's tractor-trailer and stuffs the air vents with mud to keep the radioactive air out after the inevitable nuclear blast. Which was really dumb on his part since without air, radioactive or otherwise, you can't survive.

Colter also goes nuts when he spotted Karen's little dog, for a moment Colter was looking at the poor mutt like he wanted to eat it, and crazily grabs and kills it by twisting it's head off why? According to Colter the dog was using up the air inside the truck. Colter becomes almost as dangerous as the coming nuclear blast is to the people who had the sad misfortune to be stuck with him as he loses his grip on things more the anyone, with the possible exception of Clint, else of the movie.

Pretty effective for a low-budget movie with a cast of unknowns that doesn't cop-out in the end as you would have expected it too. It's good to see that it's available on DVD for people to view it and see just what kind of fear and terror of a nuclear war that was on the minds of so many Americans back then in 1962 the year that a real nuclear war almost broke out during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

It may have helped that I stumbled on this by complete accident, but

this is the end of the world on a Coleman Fransis budget and it works

fine.

The story is taut and surprising; I liked the way the horrible

authority figure can never quite be dismissed, he might just save all

there lives. The ironies packed into its 72 minutes are all handled with

a light touch.

The cast seems inexperienced but mostly do just fine. Mike Green

would go on to play the boss in Albert Brook's great meltdown scene in

"Lost In America." Few know about this film, see it if you can. It stands nicely

along side "Miracle Mile." I wonder if history will ever make these

movies obsolete?

This is Not A Test is no masterpiece. But, it's not a bad movie either. In fact, I will argue that it's rather well made. 

It is essentially an elongated Twilight Zone episode combining elements of Martian in a Diner with The Shelter and Maple Street. 

Many here ridicule this film saying it's horribly done, bad acting, etc. This is wholly incorrect. Most self appointed experts on films commenting here and other places often complain in like deed and manner, using the same phrases and complaints. 

This film was shot, composed, scored, and sound recorded professionally, albeit with a lower budget than A pictures. 

This film was shot with skill. The sound is without any noticeable errors, drops, or sound asymmetry, with dialog, Foley, score, incidental music doing what they are supposed to do. Comparing this film to Ed Wood's is way off base. Wood's films are very poorly made (and lovable). 

Too many times, people trash old films making clichéd generalizations that it's 'crap' or 'shoestring budget' or has 'wooden acting' etc. I'd wager those who make such comments have never made a movie, or probably anything else creative in their lives, certainly not on a scale of a motion picture, even a lower budget one. Sorry, Youtube videos don't count. Such people, and we have a lot of them these days, find it easy to make such blanket statements. 

Ignore them. For it is the easiest thing in the world to ridicule something as if you are an authority, and it's the most foolish thing in the world to believe it. 

I'm not saying this film is great. It's classic B movie drive-in fare. But, that doesn't mean that skill wasn't involved, or that professionals didn't do their best with what they had to work with to put an entertaining picture on the big screen. I urge you, if you care, to just take any shot in the film, pick any one, or any scene, and look where the camera was placed, what angle, how is it composed? What can you see in the shot, does the camera move, and if so, is it smoothly done? How are the shots mixed? Does the variety of divergent shots create a feeling you can describe? How is the mixture of shots set up to build tension? Are close ups used? Long shots? Mid shots? Two shots? Overhead shots, low angles? Thru windows, around objects? Dolly shots? Crane shots? Moving vehicle shots? What shots were done in a studio? How many did it take to complete a scene?

How are the actors' eye lines? Do they match up, or are they looking in the wrong direction, wrong angle, wrong side of the frame? Do they move off their marks?

Did they flub their lines? How is the wardrobe? Do they look "wardrobed"? How about their hair? Does their hair change suddenly shot to shot, as is often the case when continuity is not managed well? 

How is the cutting? The editing? Does it make sense? Is it convincing that things are happening in real time, even though a 1 minute scene may have taken all night or one week or month of nights to shoot? Did the editor develop a rhythm within each scene, and an overall one for the entire story? Were sound bridges used, where actors' lines, or sound effects cross over visual cuts? Were many lines delivered off camera, so we can see reactions to the lines from the other players? 

How are the sound effects used? Are they convincing? Or out of sync? The crickets? Do they suddenly stop for no reason shot by shot, or are the sound effects consistently maintained? Is the police car radio convincing? How about the static from the other cars' radios? Door slams? Were they foleyed well? Do you see any mic booms? Light set ups? Can you even tell how they lit each scene, so we could see what we should see and not see what we shouldn't? There is no large lampposts, yet we believe we should see them. How is this violation of reality accomplished so the viewer doesn't have it ruin the illusion. 

The above is only the tip of the iceberg of what a filmmaker goes through for each second, each frame of film that is shot. Remember this is film, not video.

If you are the type of person who makes fun of B/W movies, old TV shows, music made before you were a teenager, then don't bother watching it. You've got greater issues to deal with and you need all the time you have left on earth to deal with them. 

If on the other hand you are one who has an open mind, and enjoys fun movies, then take a peak. You may like it. It may stay with you. You may surprise yourself. 

One of the worst things to ever happen to cinema, to old movies in particular (and all movies become old movies eventually) was Mystery Science Theater. Even though it was very funny, and a good concept - we often did the exact same thing in college way before MST did it, as did probably many of you out there - it cued many young people into thinking ALL old movies, ALL B movies should be made fun of. This was a dire mistake and has transformed into a tragedy. It has brought upon us an avalanche of cynical so-called experts who strive to elicit the end-all cut or put-down of such fare as This is Not A Test. 

The challenge in life is not to find things to ridicule, but rather to find the beauty in things others can't see, and maybe, with a little luck, show it to them. 

Good luck.