Les survivants de la fin du monde

I had fond memories of this movie having seen it as when I was young in the early 80's, and then I made the huge mistake of watching it again recently.

There is no real plot to speak of, it's a straight story of a trip from point A to point B, the acting, what little of it there was, was fairly bad, and the special effects were anything but special.

I must assume most of the budget was spent building the Landmaster, because the effects were horrible, even for the period when this came out, especially when you consider Star Wars came out the same year.

I would say give this a miss, especially if you saw it as a child.

This notoriously hard to get (at least legitimately) movie follows the travails of five nuke apocalypse survivors in the late 1970s. Their task is to drive their armored personnel vehicle cum Winnabago from Bakersfield CA to Albany NY. On the way they stop off in Vegas, Salt Lake City and Detriot bumping into maniac mutant cockroaches and some radioactive hillbillies along the way. 99% of the time the sky is a swirling orangish red that transfers its Gatorade hues to most sequences in this movie. The locations are all dust, sand and rock... this is after all Damnation Alley and the Earth has been tilted off its axis. An absolute trash B movie that I'm sure many of those associated with would rather forget, it is nonetheless hugely compelling. After viewing you can appreciate the cult classic status of this film, yet to not be entirely sure why that is so.

The beginning of this film really shakes you up. The careful, measured tones coming from the missile base loudspeaker announcing the progress of "the war" belie the fact that at that moment scores of millions of people are being atomized as the bombs fall.

However, the aftermath seems to be typical post-nuclear mis-adventure, with the survivors from the base starting out on a cross-country road trip. The "Landmaster" vehicles add a jazzy and technie touch to the otherwise predictable trip. Wild weather, crazed hermits, and killer cockroaches require a little suspension of disbelief, but still keep the pace going.

Fans of "The A-Team" will like seeing George Peppard in a lead role, as the by-the-book superior officer who tries to keep the non-conformist junior officer (Vincent) in line. Dominique Sanda adds some nice eye candy as the token female member of the intrepid band of pilgrims, rescued by Peppard and company from the ruins of Las Vegas.

Overall, a pretty good film if you are looking for an evening of distraction and non-reality, if you can get past the opening sequence.

Silly post-apocalypse road movie is amusing enough to give it some sort of cult status, even though it's really not that good. The actors giving the better performances tend to get less screen time. One can see that the filmmakers, led by director Jack Smight, are clearly working against the limits of special effects technology at the time, rendering this more of a cheese fest than anything else. Those light shows in the stormy skies ARE pretty trippy, though. Pacing is adequate enough; this runs a scant 92 minutes long. But that makes one wish that more could have been done with the source material, a novel by Roger Zelazny (adapted for the big screen by Alan Sharp ("Night Moves" '75) and Lukas Heller ("What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?")). The movie is modestly diverting, but also disappointing.

WWIII causes complete devastation throughout the continental United States. A team of Air Force personnel who have designed ultra cool tanks / vans dubbed "Landmasters" decide to take the safest path possible (which one of them has named "Damnation Alley") to Albany, the only place from which they've ever received a radio signal. The characters include domineering tough guy Denton (George Peppard), cheerful Tanner (Jan-Michael Vincent), leading lady Janice (Dominique Sanda), easygoing Keegan (Paul Winfield) and teenager Billy (Jackie Earle Haley).

The odd lack of continuity creates some guffaw-inducing WTF moments; watch as switches are made from real people to dummies. The visual effects can charitably be described as negotiable. Still, there's some fun to be had in seeing giant scorpions super imposed on the desert settings. And if people aren't squirming from seeing those, there's an onslaught of killer armour-plated cockroaches that make quick work of one poor guy. Hell, there's even a bunch of survivalist rednecks (led by Robert Donner, who sports a hilariously ridiculous looking beard) with which to contend.

Co-starring Kip Niven ("New Year's Evil") as another of the military guys, this also features Murray Hamilton in a noticeable but non-speaking uncredited role.

At the very least, this has some decent widescreen photography by Harry Stradling Jr. and a typically excellent score by the always reliable Jerry Goldsmith.

This is one of the rare cases where it would be interesting to see somebody attempt another version of the tale.

Six out of 10.

This is a really fun movie if you like post-atomic flicks! Or any Jan Michael Vincent flick, for that matter. The effects are sometimes cheesy, but overall the atmosphere and film-work on this are pretty decent! It's also fun to see Jan Michael 'AIRWOLF' with George Peppard "A TEAM" together. They make a good pair! The 'bug' scene is very fun- and includes some great Jan Michael motorcycle wheelies! The tornado scene is also cool. This movie definitely takes you to a different world, and the strange sky color throughout sort of makes everything seem - well- post atomic! It's a clever movie, not too violent, but it definitely is worth the buy! If you are a Jan Michael fan, this would be a MUST have as he looks fantastic as usual.