The Late Great Planet Earth

Internet Explorer crashed just after I typed a large review comment, and I'm not about to enter it again. Suffice to say that these guys claim to know about the Bible and they do not. Their views are either uninformed or narrow. See the movie yourself and review it on its own merits, not on whether it matches your own set of beliefs.

They may call this a documentary but what I call it is something Hal Lindsey dreamed up and decided to write down as a book about the future. What makes it funny is how he is using the Bible as prophecy about nowadays. To me it sounds crazy to be using a book that was written 1,900 years ago to describe today's events. It's like someone in the year 2860 using Karl Marx's theories to explain current events that are going on.

Seriously I do not doubt the world is coming to an end but it certainly won't be in the near future. Besides, Jesus implied to his disciples that world would end when some of them were still alive. That didn't happen, did it?

The book on which this film is based is a fine COLD WAR era interpretation of revelation. Written in a era when NATO and the WARSAW PACT treaty nations trembled at the prospect of conventional and nuclear conflict; now that the mind numbing smog of hatred and fear is being blown out, this film needs to be re-written. Lindsey's approach caters to the right wing heavily. Many people have flocked to go see this film or read the accompanying book;or both! This film and films like them are from dime a dozen fear merchants who prey on the minds of the peaceful with a dogma of troop deployments to har meggido, marks on right hands or foreheads,and the U.S. government turning evil. The problem with this film is it is dated badly. Lindsy has since moved away from doing videos and has turned to a weekly current events right wing TV show on TBN. If the U.S. government wanted to do some good why not produce films like this one to offset the work of the fear feeding vampires in the Christian media world.

THE LATE GREAT PLANET EARTH was a book that was like nothing before it. Using cold war era interpretation the book and film heralded the second coming of Christ Jesus and the rise of the Antichrist. The film and book were smash hits because they catered to fear. People scared of the imposition of a mark on the right hand or the forehead went to see this film and read the book only got even more afraid because there was nothing it seemed they could do to stop these events. The book and film use use scenarios featuring a clash between the united states and NATO vs. Russia and the Warsaw PACT. China also flex's her military muscle and the Arab nations attack Israel. This series of clashes leads up to Armageddon. This is great but the Warsaw pact is disbanded (as of this writing)and Russia is no longer the threat it once was since 1989-1990 with the reunification of Germany. Still Lindsy clings to his suspicion of Russia invading Israel when he speaks on TV and in print. Some weeks it's demons invading as alien grey like beings. The problem with Lindsey is he can't make up his mind. The film is not a bad film for collectors of Christian cinema but on a intellectual level be wary.

I was a theatre manager when this tripe was released and audiences laughed out loud at the absurd theories and assumptions.

Along with it's equally funny partner CHARIOTS OF THE GODS?, LATE GREAT asks ridiculous questions and then presents lame answers.

This movie could have become a cult film had the "take the money and run" type distribution failed. It is that silly.

A relative of the old sex education sensational films that promised everything, both LATE GREAT and CHARIOTS had massive TV campaigns and suckered large crowds for a week or two, then disappeared taking all the prints on to the next town.

Was Satan's ambassador to earth really Gerald Ford? Probably not. Are we really nearing the end of civilisation? No, movies like this one stopped being made. Does the bible predict the future? No, that would be STAR TREK. The bible is about the past.