Panic in Year Zero! (1962)
Panic in Year Zero! (1962)
“An orgy of looting and lust. The day when civilization came to
an end!”
n the film’s tagline
I write this with the threat of Nuclear War all-but-forgotten because the
40-year-long Cold War between USA and Russia/USSR has been over almost as long
as it lasted. It ended shockingly abruptly in 1988
when USA President Ronald Reagan, who had previously been a Hardliner opposing
USSR, and Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev,
who had previously been a Hardliner supporting the USSR’s Invasion of
Afghanistan, publicly demonstrated radical changes in all their public positions
by walking arm-and-arm through Red Square in Moscow. Soon, after a change in
the USA’s Administration and with Peace still holding, President George H.W.
Bush and Gorbachev made the end official with a Mutual Declaration in 1989.
Our forgetfulness maybe a foolish.
The current Russian President, Vladimir Putin, and his minions have tried
to publicly engage in Nuclear Blackmail almost fifteen-times in the last year-and-a-half.
On a different front, North Korea’s Supreme Leader, Kim Jong Un, has done the
same many more times over a longer time-frame. (North Korea’s Government once
issuing a Music Video of a Korean Man Dreaming of American Nuclear Annihilation
(2013) to a tune Plagiarized from Pop Star Micheal Jackson’s “We Are the World”
(1985)).
Still, it just feels better to no longer live in the shadow of a Mushroom
Cloud, even if the Shadow is still there and we’re just pretending not to see
it. You see, when we could see it, we were terrified all the time.
A few dates to remind you how bad it used to be:
1945: The USA is the only Nation to use Nuclear Weapons in Anger, we did
twice, ending a Global War we were engaged in against Genocidal Totalitarians who
had been Hell-Bent on World Domination.
1946: USA had a never-friendly Ally in the Global War, Russia/USSR, but
they had been previously an Ally the Fascist Germans. By this date, USSR had increased
their Empire by taking over the Governments of multiple European countries by
fiat and were also moving on goals in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa. So, we
were faced with another Enemy Hell-Bent of World Domination and in reaction, the
USA made “Containment” its number one Foreign Policy goal.
1947: The term “Cold War” is coined.
1949: The USA founds NATO to counter the threat that the USSR represented. Meanwhile
the USSR tests its first Nuclear Weapon. In Hollywood, “The Iron
Curtain,” the first USA-made feature film addressing the concerns of the Cold
War, in released.
1950: The
first large-scale Proxy War of the Cold War, the Korean War, erupts. In
Hollywood, the first SF film to address this idea of the Aftermath of a Nuclear
War, “Rocketship X-M,” is released, though that film places the Holocaust on
another planet.
1951: USA
President Truman is forced to fire General Douglas McCarther because, among
other things, McCarther publicly insisted on using Nuclear Weapons against North
Korea. In Hollywood, “Five,” becomes the first SF film to address the Aftermath
of a Nuclear War on Planet Earth.
1953:
The Korean War ends with a Stalemate and a Cease Fire, but no Peace Treaty so,
in a very real way, the USA and North Korea remained at War, ready to turn Hot
again at any moment. This remained the case for the next 45-years, outlasting
the Cold War proper. Though a Peace Treaty was eventually signed, events
immediately following demonstrated that the paper was meaningless and that
smaller Cold War still rages even as I write these words.
1954:
“Atomic Attack,” the first USA SF film to attempt a Realistic portrayal of the
Aftermath of a Nuclear War is aired. This was made for TV, available for free
to millions of Terrified Citizens.
1957:
USSR launches Sputnik 1, the first Artificial Earth Satellite. It is
deliberately its set in a difficult low orbit to assure it would be visible to
the Citizens of the USA. The message was clear, the Oceans that had protected the
USA from far-away Invaders and almost all Foreign Bombardment since 1812
couldn’t protect us anymore.
That list is incomplete but shows the acceleration
of the Crisis in barely more than a decade, and the crisis would continue to accelerate
for decades to come. Now I’ll skip to 1960 – 1962, easily the worst three years:
1960: France develops Nuclear Weapons,
bringing the total Nuclear Armed Nations to four, and that number would
continue to grow. On top of that, both the USA and USSR were deploying Nuclear
Weapons in some Countries that hadn’t developed them themselves. The USSR
shoots down one of our Spy Planes, limiting our surveillance of what the USSR
was up to. The Nation of Cuba confirms its alignment with the USSR, making the
Enemy Empire both larger and closer to our homes.
1961: The USA sponsors an Invasion of Cuba
that fails. The USSR starts building a Wall around the part of Berlin, Germany that
they’d previously Annexed, turning that City into an open-air Prison for non-Criminals.
1962: USA increases its involvement in
Vietnam which will lead to another large-scale Proxy War. In October of that
year WWIII nearly broke out because of the Cuban Missile Crisis.
“Panic in Year Zero!” was released
in July of ’62 and was still in the theaters when the Cuban Missile Crisis
erupted. Clearly, Cuban President Fidel Castro turned this movie into a Monster
Hit, but I don’t think anyone from American International Pictures (AIP) even
sent him a Christmas card. Said Actor Frankie Avalon, "The
film came out to real good reviews … We did a tour of theaters in Los Angeles,
and it made its money back just in Los Angeles alone."
Both before and after “Atomic Attack” most films addressing
Nuclear War used Fantastical Elements to mute the Fears of Real Possibilities. Radioactive
Mutants, especially Kaijū, where how
the anxieties were most expressed. But the trend to attempt occasional Realism
slowly accelerated after 1954 with “On the Beach” (1959) and “This Is Not a Test” (1962, same year
as “Panic in the …”).
“Atomic Attack,” “On the Beach,” and “Panic in the …” were
all Adaptations of prose works (“Atomic Attack” was based on the novel “Shadow
on the Hearth” by Judith Merril (1950), the novel “On the Beach” was by Nevil Shute (1957), and “Panic in the …” was based
on two Ward Moore short stories “Lot” and “Lot’s Daughter” (1953 & 1954,
respectively)) Both “Atomic Attack” and “Panic in the …” toned-down the
bleakness and more controversial themes source material, though in the case of “Panic
in the …” it wasn’t by much. “Panic in the …” is a Violent film
wherein the whole of Society Collapses, the Philosophy becomes that of Guns and
Survivalism Less-Than-Overnight, and a nice, Law-Abiding, Nuclear Family successfully
transitions to Barbarity for the shake of the children and the American Dream.
It starts with the Baldwin family of a Suburb on the
fringes of Los Angelas, California going on vacation; they are the Patriarch Harry (Ray Milland,
who also Directed), his wife Ann (Jean Hagen),
son Rick (Frankie Avalon), and daughter Karen (Mary
Mitchell). They drive a Cadillac Fleetwood station wagon with a camper
hooked to the back, common enough in the day to be symbol of a brand-new USA. Our
vibrant Car-Culture emerged in post-WWII with new Highways and emerging Suburbs
with single-family, unattached houses, an image of the American Dream that was sold
aggressively to the dwellers of over-crowded Cities. Many things drove this,
but regarding the planning of the Infrastructure, a significant and an unappreciated
part of that Suburban Planning was Future-War Planning. There was a deliberate
attempt to separate Residential Centers from the Cities where those residents
were required for work; the reason was the City-Killing nature of Nuclear
Weapons. This Reality proved central to the plot of both “Atomic Attack” and
“Panic in the …”.
Los Angelas,
to the degree it was Planned (it mostly wasn’t) was Planned for sprawl, and
became among the least Walkable and least Population-Dense Cities in the USA, despite
having among the biggest Populations. Here in New York City we didn’t own
hitch-up campers like that.
After a couple of hours on the
road, the Baldwin’s are startled by an unusually bright light, accompanied by
the radio station going to static. Tuning through stations, they hear a
sporadic news report broadcast on CONELRAD (CONtrol of
ELectromagnetic RADiation, one
of the precursors to the Emergency Broadcast System) that seem to indicate both Nuclear
War breaking out and a hit on Los Angelas. The vague pronouncements are soon confirmed
when the Baldwins see a Mushroom Cloud in the far distance. Another traveler on the highway
reports, “I heard Los Angeles being torn apart, and saw it being
tossed into the air.”
Eventually they hear the President of the United States announces
that “there are no civilians … we are all at war.” He’s
justifying the coming Retaliatory Strike against the un-named Adversary
(obviously the USSR) that will inevitably kill more Civilians than Combatants,
but the speech also anticipates the violent Anarchy that will turn USA’s Civilians
against each other.
The United Nations declare “the Year
Zero,” a phrase later adopted in 1977 by the Real-World Monsters of the Khmer Rouge as
part of their Propaganda to Justify Genocide.
Ann’s mother is still in Los Angelas, and they do attempt to go
make and rescue her, but as the empty roads give way to snarled Chaos, Harry
exerts his Authority, Los Angelas is now a City of fleeing refugees, if they go
in, there would be no escape via the clogged roads. Abandoning mom was the
first of many pragmatic and cruel necessities, the first step on the road to a
new, and Crueler, America.
The film is forceful because it does achieve
a higher-than-average degree of the Realism, the Screenwriters were the prolific
Jay Simms and the lesser-known John Morton. Simms work often combined ambitious
ideas with awkward dialogue, and here he triumphs, because of the raw Verisimilitude
of his details. Harry doesn’t succumb to the “Panic” of the title, he proves
himself mentally prepared, calculating, and skilled.
Wrote Critic Hank Reineke, “Ultimately, ‘Panic in Year Zero!’ serves as a
practical, do-it-yourself guide for even the most forward planning
survivalist. If Milland were still alive, I’m sure he might have been
able to carve out a small pension as a late-career pitchman for all the
doom-saying survivalist companies hawking their wares on today’s right-wing
radio stations. Whether burying foodstuffs in several secret locations,
setting up a temporary home in a remote cave, removing roadway signs or access
bridges to deter intruders, fending off teenagers, motorists, local yokels or
anyone and everyone competing for resources, the Baldwin’s are, without doubt,
a resourceful bunch.”
Wrote Critic Richard
Scheib, “Whereas in most other post-holocaust films you might expect characters
to slowly start piecing their means of survival together, Milland appears to
have almost have been waiting for the occasion. The moment the disaster
happens, not a concern does he spare for relatives in the city or anybody else,
rather he launches forth with a detailed list of practical survivalist advice,
even lengthy lists of the provisions they will need. The character’s instant
transformation from vacationing family man to practical hard-headed survivalist
immediately able to deal with the situation is amusing to watch.”
But Simms also fails,
because he raises very dark and real issues, and then gets quite smug about the
Virtue of abandoning Virtue. Scheib
again, “‘Panic in Year
Zero!’ is a repellent film in most regards.”
During the Chaos, much-Decorated US Navy SEAL Sniper Chris Kyle and an Associate traveled to New Orleans to
hunt Looters and later bragged about committing 30 Extra-Judicial Murders. He
wasn’t Prosecuted for this because, like the tales spun by the Chief of Police
and the Mayor, nothing in his story was true. His long series of public
falsehoods did threaten to ruin his public image, but these were all forgotten
and his reputation washed clean after his Murder, which was wholly unrelated to
any of this.
Actions like those of Lawson were justified by
more-than-half Myths of the worst assumptions of Strangers, wildly Xenophobic Fantasies
about one’s fellow Citizens who lived only a very few miles away and were in
legitimate need. Such things are inevitable but it is sickening how proud so
many are of behaving like Lawson. Lawson himself was repeatedly re-Elected
Chief, often running unopposed.
Throughout
the film, Harry protects his family from harm, but forever behaves as bad or
worse than the Villains, and none of those Villains are Foreign Invaders, they
are his fellow Refugees. Or as Dr.
Powell Strong (Willis Bouchey) warns, “Now, you stay on the back roads. And you
keep your gun handy. Our country is still full of thieving, murdering,
patriots.”
In the film’s best-executed
sequence, the Baldwins need to cross a highway that
is jammed with other’s cars. Harry spills kerosene on the road and ignites it,
worsening the jam and assuring only he and his family can pass. Richard Sheib
wrote, “Their car and trailer take on the air of a covered
wagon lighting out along the Oregon Trail, not with hope but survivalist
despair, and it often feels that way, right down to a nighttime highway
crossing that resembles a pioneer river crossing, suggesting how quickly
American society, in the wake of cataclysm, might revert to primitive
beginnings.”
When a Gas Station Attendant tries to gouge prices,
Harry violently Assaults him. When Harry runs out of money, he engages in Armed
Robbery against the wholly Innocent Ed Johnson (Richard Garland). Harry tutors
his son on this New World Order by putting a gun in Rick’s hand, “If he makes one stupid move, shoot him.”
The film makes Harry out to be
the Upholder of Good Middle-Class Values even as he casts them aside. “Don’t
write off the law. The law will come back, I just want to still be around when
it does.”
Also, “Now we don't know what lies ahead of
us. The unknown has always been man's greatest demoralizer. Now maybe we can
cope with this by maintaining our sense of values, by carrying out our daily
routine, the same as we always have. Rick, for instance, and myself will shave
every day... although in his case, maybe every other day. These concessions to
civilization are important. They are our links to reality, and because of them
we might be... less afraid.”
Ann: “Intelligent people don't just turn their backs on
the rest of the world!”
Harry: “Under these conditions, intelligent people will be
the first to try.”
Wrote Richard Harland
Smith “If the bomb dropped, this tells us, males would stop listening to the
compromise and compassion of the female point of view and set about scheming to
get everything they needed to protect and survive with as much force as they
could muster.”
Except for Ann, the female Characters receive little
development, and she is not much respected in the script. She's defined by her
Denialism and Submission.
Ann: “I know I should be grateful we're still
alive, but... I love you, Harry, but not more than a future without hope. I've
got to have hope to go on. I've got to know there are other people like us,
like our children. People who are better than just animals!”
“Better
than just animals” is a telling phrase. The Philosophy of Anton Szandor LaVey, the pseudonym adopted by Howard
Stanton Levey, the Founder of the Church of Satan, is quite similar to Harry’s even
though Harry leads his family in Prayer over meals. LaVey didn’t really worship
Satan but was an Atheist in highly Theatrical garb and described his own Religion
as “Violent” and “Selfish” in interviews. One of his more famous quotes was “If
a guest in your lair annoys you, treat him cruelly and without mercy.” He also loved
to remind people that humans are “just animals” and all of our Moral Restraints
are Artificial. But animals are sometimes, even often, better than
LeVey or Harry.
A flock of crows is called a Murder. A flock of ravens is
called an Unkindness. But both highly intelligent Species with strongly
Communal Flocks and, under observation, are noted for their Kindness towards
each other. Though selfish Ideologies are generally Tribal, under Harry’s
Authoritarian Rule, the Baldwins go beyond that, rejecting all Community, they
seem to think that they can live by an “I built that” Ideology that is
unsustainable. Harry is a Looter, and as understandable as his Motives are, he
deserves no Moral High-Ground above the other Looters. If everyone behaved like that, everyone, including Harry, would be
Doomed. He insists, “I’ll return when civilization becomes civilized again.”
This film anticipated the utter gratuitousness of
Survivalist prose fiction, a popular sub-Genre of SF during the final years of
the Cold War and is noted for its gun-loving Sadism and Ideological Extremism.
At the same time SF cinema embraced a similar Viciousness, though in film it
was generally more flamboyantly Fantastical, lacking both in Realist Posturing explicit
Ideological Statements. Like those works, all of the Heroes Wickedness is
Justified by the Writers.
But the SF that “Panic in the …” was actually aspiring
proved to be is the SF it proves to kind the film is most at odds with. Virtually
every other Post-Apocalyptic prose or film that attempted, like film did, to
present Social Realities remembered the Social part. All other serious fictions
on this subject, regardless of ideological -isms, are about the challenges of
re-building, or creating whole-cloth, Cooperative Communities, but not so with Harry.
He tells Ann, “Survival is going to have to be on an individual basis.”
When the Baldwins reach their safe Haven, chosen by Harry,
they abandon their trailer because it offers no protection from
Radioactive Fallout so the take shelter in a large cave, decided by Harry.
Then
Harry encounters Ed, who he had earlier Robbed, in the woods. Good-Hearted Ed
proves to be surprisingly understanding given how Harry treated him. Ed and his
wife set up home in the Baldwin's abandoned trailer. He tells Harry that he had
to flee his hometown because of the hordes of Refugees from Los Angelas
destroyed everything in their path.
Harry
also sees smoke from a distant farmhouse, so he has many more
neighbors than he first thought. Despite Ann's disapproval, he chooses
to avoid further contact or provide any aide to Ed, his wife, or the unknown
people in the farmhouse, because he doesn't want the Baldwin's
cave hideout discovered.
When Ann finally is convinces Harry to check on
Ed and his wife, she's been Raped and both have been Murdered by a Gang of
Hoodlums (Richard Bakalyan, Rex
Holman, and Neil
Nephew).
A somewhat later film, “No Blade of Grass” (1970,
based on John Christopher’s novel “Death of Grass (1956)) is strikingly similar
as it’s about a nice, Law-Abiding, Nuclear Family successfully
transitions to Barbarity for the shake of the children and the (in this case)
British Dream; it even had Youthful Rape Gangs roaming the England’s green
and pleasant land. But in that film, more sophisticated than this one, we’re rooting
for the family but still transition is treated as a Tragedy, not a Triumph.
It’s a great deal better Written, but doesn’t have this films force, mostly
because the Director Cornel
Wilde’s Gimmickry and the wooden Acting. And the two short stories
on-which “Panic in Year …” also deny any Triumphalism.
Later Harry tells Ann, “I looked for the worst in others and I found it in myself.”
That’s a little too
little, a little too late. It’s also immediately followed by the film’s worst Hypocrisy.
After Fetishizing Anarchistic Savagery and Selfishness (as
long as it was Harry doing it) the story sudden then argues that our Society
and Institutions are essentially good and strong.
The
whole of the story unfolds in a two-week period, then resolves itself abruptly.
The family learns via radio that the War is over and the USA won. Law, Order,
and Public Services are slowly returning to Cities and Suburbs though Rural
areas remain Out-of-Control. Also, Rick has been badly injured, forcing the
Baldwins to leave the cave and seek out Modern Medical Care.
On
the road, they encounter another car. Ann shouts, "Oh Harry, the Army. Thank God!" Military
Rule has been established but the implications of this are not addressed as we’re
now only moments away from the closing credits. We learn the Hospitals and Shelters
have been set up for California’s internal refugees. The end title card states: "There must be no end – only a
new beginning.”
So, the restoration of order
looks easy, and Harry can Redeem his Civilized Credentials just as fast as he
Degenerated into Savagery. And that’s a lie. Look at any post-War Hell,
especially post-Civil-War Hell, of any Nation ripped apart by violence.
The film was flawed in ways
other-than Philosophical. The score by great Composer Les Baxter couldn’t have
been more inappropriate or intrusive if it tried. Day and night shots are
confused. The Editing is poor.
Milland was among the most bankable Actors in
Hollywood during the 1930s & ‘40s, and though he’d subsequently marginalized,
he still carried marquee name-recognition with the audience and this was his
tenth Directorial credit. Watching this
film, one would expect that he had a substantial future in the Director’s
chair.
But this would prove his second-to-last-time taking on
the responsibilities of a film Director though his professional career would
continue for more than two decades. Producer/Director Roger Corman, who worked
with Milland as an Actor repeatedly, seemed to have a dim view of his
Directorial skills, "the subject [of this film] was exciting, but
the technicians who worked on the film, who were my technicians, told me that
Ray had been somewhat overwhelmed. He wasn’t organized enough to act and direct
at the same time. He lost time on a three-week schedule, and forgot his
scenes." Milland, whose 1946 Oscar
was for the hard-hitting examination of Alcoholism, “Lost Weekend” (1945), was
himself a Alcoholic and that likely contributed.
Still, among those Technicians,
there was great talent. The Cinematography by Gilbert Warrenton is
quite good. His long career began in the Silents was an important contributor
to the Classic Era Universal Monsters.
Where
Director Milland did excel was with his Cast, which might explain why is
Directing Career in live-stage outlasted that of his in film. The movie is at
its best when it is closest to the intimate.
Milland is Stoically Under-Plays
Harry but his rage is an ever-present, un-vocalized, growl. His career was
built on Psychologically Damaged Characters and he’d not lost his touch.
Hagen, a former Oscar nominee, is
equally reserved as Milland, and gives us an Ann far more compelling than how
she was written.
Frankie
Avalon is most famous for the Light-Buffoonery of the “Beach Party” franchise
(first film 1963) but his Acting career started in more Serious Fare which,
except for here, he never seemed completely comfortable in. He projects Rick as
scared (mostly of his father) but still courageous (when facing a physical
Threat). He also injects great Warmth and a touch of Humor. His best line, “There's
nothing like eating under the open sky... even if it is radioactive.”
“Panic in the …” had a Budget of around $225,000. Compare
that year’s top grossing movie, “The Longest Day” Budgeted at $7.5 million. And
even though AIP was notoriously cheap, the Budget for Corman’s “Premature
Burial” (also starring Milland) of the same year was $1.25 million.
So, the film is sloppy and sick-souled but still
has undeniable power. Extremely topical, it received better reviews than it
really deserved, but later became somewhat divisive among Critics; it cited as
among cinema’s worst in Michael and Harry Medved’s “The Golden Turkey Awards’ (1980)
but singled out for honor in Stephen King’s “Dance Macabre” (1981). All the
Critics quoted above are more recent, all were negative, but among more recent
Critics, the film still has support too.
Michael Atkinson, "This forgotten,
saber-toothed 1962 AIP cheapie might be the most expressive on-the-ground
nightmare of the Cold War era,
providing a template not only for countless social-breakdown genre flicks … but
also for authentic crisis—shades of New
Orleans haunt its DVD margins...the movie is nevertheless an
anxious, detail-rich essay on moral collapse."
Glenn Erickson, "Panic in Year Zero! scrupulously
avoids any scenes requiring more than minimalist production values yet still
delivers on its promise, allowing audience imagination to expand upon the
narrow scope of what's actually on the screen. It sure seemed shocking in 1962,
and easily trumped other more pacifistic efforts. ‘The Day the Earth Caught
Fire’ [1961] was for budding flower people; ‘Panic in Year Zero!’ could
have been made as a sales booster for the gun industry."
Trailer:
Panic in Year Zero!
Official Trailer #1 - Ray Milland Movie (1962) HD - YouTube
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