radbond Review of The Old Man Who Cried Wolf

The Old Man Who Cried Wolf (1970 TV Movie)

All Too Believable Tale of Big City Corruption

[8/10 · 23 October 2017]

This film was made in 1970 when the average life expectancy of a white male in the U.S. was 68 so Emile Pulska has a right to be proud that he is celebrating his 70th birthday. When he claims that his friend was murdered and he was attacked during a visit to the decaying center of the city (unnamed in this film), his family suspects he getting senile. After all, didn't the police report state that a woman customer was in the friend's store when he had a heart attack and Emile fell down hitting his head? No matter how hard Emile tries to show his family the truth of his allegations, they don't want to believe him. They fled the city for the suburbs as so many other white Americans were doing at that time and anyway those things don't happen in our world. But there are people who know Emile is telling the truth, that he's causing trouble and has to be gotten rid of. People like the police and the city government. In the end, Emile proves to his son he was right with his dying word "See?" after being shot. This is a bleak film, typical of those in the early 70's, which shows the American city to be totally corrupt and rotten to the core. Excellent and worth a look if you are sick of the pablum that we are fed today.