The Day the Earth Caught Fire
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DVD details
Actor: Bernard Braden, Edward Judd, Janet Munro, Leo McKern, Michael GoodliffeDVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: Anamorphic, Black & White, Closed-captioned, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 98 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2001-06-12
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Starz / Anchor Bay
DVD Reviews of The Day the Earth Caught Fire
DVD Review: An intelligent drama about the newspaper business.
Summary: 3 Stars
In brief, atomic bomb testing causes the earth to shift orbit, resulting in a new course that directs it towards the sun. Towards the end of the film, the U.S. government devises and implements a plan to bring the earth back to its rightful orbit. An interesting twist, appearing at the very end of the movie, is that we are shown two version of a newspaper headline, one heralds the earth's doom, and the other announces the earth's return to a safe orbit.
The film begins with scenes of the dried up Thames River and deserted streets in London. Spooky music takes the form of a whirring sound with drums playing a slow, 2-tone melody.
A man (Peter) drives a car through the deserted streets and stops at a newspaper office. He goes in, and tries to insert a paper in his typewriter, but the platen (rubber cylinder) has melted. The man gets on the phone, and talks to the operator, "Jenny, see if you can find someone to take a story for me. My typewriter has seized up." We see Jenny (Janet Munro) at her telephone switchboard, and then we see another newspaper man, the one taking the story. Pete dictates a short monologue: "It is exactly 30 minutes since the corrective bombs were detonated. Within the next few hours, the world will know if this is the end or a new beginning--the rebirth of man or his final obituary . . ." The film is tinted sienna color for this flash-forward sequence and the tinted film then segues into conventional black and white, where we see the beginning of the drama.
GOOD THINGS. The cinematography is first rate. Plenty of interesting images are shown inside the newspaper office, filmed at creative angles, many of them filmed with the camera at waist level. Every scene appears to have been carefully planned by a seasoned photographer. Typewriters abound. Men walk to and fro in the background. Big clocks cling to the walls. Newspaper machines whir and hum. We learn in commentary provided with the disc that a real newspaper office had been re-created on a set, and that the goal of Val Guest (director) was for the plot to occur as though a movie camera just happened to be in the room.
An amusing moment occurs when Pete finds that his watch is broken. While walking through an office, he pauses to lift up an office-worker's arm to view the man's watch, and then he sets the man's arm back on the desk, and marches off. A similar technique is used later on, when Pete witnesses an eclipse in a town park, and plucks a camera from a tourist's hands, explaining that he is a newspaper man, and needs to borrow the camera for a moment.
Intrigue occurs in the plot, in that a newsman acquires confidential information from the telephone operator (Janet Munro), who overhears conversations during the course of her job. The confidential information is from government scientists monitoring the earth's possible demise. Another good thing are the pleasant scenes of the newsman with his son, taking place in an amusement park. The fast-moving dialogue is enhanced with clever nuances, double entendres, and other forms of wordplay. The script features an adult-level dialogue (there are no bad words at all). Because of the fast-moving dialogue, kids under 16 won't likely be interested in this movie.
Still another good thing, at least for gentleman viewers, is an extended cheesecake scene of Janet Munro. Baby boomers will remember Janet Munro was Sean Connery's sweetheart in DARBY O'GILL AND THE LITTLE PEOPLE, a Disney movie.
Towards the beginning of the movie, we see a religious fanatic proclaiming that the end is near. This is a similar technique used in the science fiction movie, CONTACT, with Jodie Foster. We see a couple of riot scenes, where we see feet trampling over a newspaper, where the headlines proclaim that the nuclear bombs had caused the earth to shift orbit. We see sheep collapsing of thirst. We see the youngest employee of the newspaper office, a young man, collapsing of heat stroke. We see government officials talking about the climate changes, in the T.V. in the pub. Towards the end of the film, we see young vandals terrorizing the streets, partying, theiving, and wasting water. One of the falls down an elevator shaft, while another vandal (girl) screams.
There are some special effects. For example, we see a storm in London where automobiles are overturned by the wind, where a man is blown off a dock into the water while his girlfriend screams, where an unpredicted eclipse occurs, and where a "heat fog" mysteriously envelopes London.
BAD THINGS. The dialogue is sometimes impossible to understand. This can be remedied by watching the movie three times. The talking is either too muddled or too fast or both. Even with a third watching, I was not able to understand these parts, during the first 30 minutes:
(1) "?????? navigation trouble."
(2) "? ? ? ? must have been a hell of a big bang."
(3) "?? ?? ?? Mr. Holroy's on the same floor."
(4) "? ?? ?? ?? California's eight hours behind us."
(5) "?? ??? ? ? no matter how much you love her."
(6) Also, the waitress in the pub is totally incomprehensible.
Another criticism, is that the movie just does not feel like a science fiction movie. At any given moment, the plot is likely to concern the newsmen conducting their day to day business, that is, in conferences of two men at once, or conferences of three or four men at once, with plenty of walking from office to office in the newpaper building. Through the newsmen, we learn of unusual weather conditions (storms, sunspots, eclipse), that the earth shifted its orbit to head to the sun, and that all this was the result of two bombs had been set off at the same time (U.S. and Russia). The newsmen decide to look at historical records to see if the strange weather patterns had ever occurred. But all this could be any detective story. Something is missing. What is it? Not much sense of alarm, doom, or panic. Most of the movie takes place in the newspaper room, where the men go about their business like surgeons in a hospital. Much of the movie takes place in more romantic situations, e.g., a park where Pete tries to make friends with Jenny ("why don't you go over there to the bikini section," she coyly suggests), or in Jenny's tiny apartment. Although the film is fun to watch repeatedly, perhaps once or twice a year, it just does not seem like a science fiction movie.
If you want a classic science fiction movie that actually seems like a genuine science fiction movie, I recommend THE BLOB with Steve McQueen, IT CAME FROM BENEATH THE SEA with an octopus provided by Ray Harryhausen, THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL ("Klaatu barada nikto"), Galaxy Quest with Tim Allen, or WAR OF THE WORLDS with Tom Cruise. The movie has all the elements of a frightening build-up, as is found in the original black'n'white INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS. But one thing prevents t his sort of build-up. The rational, intelligent, coherent, and focused manner with which all of the newspaper men carry about their business serves as an anchor that prevents this movie from soaring.
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