While this really must have either caused shock in 1980 for its horrific view of what we now call a pandemic or scales of laughter for its over-the-top dramatization of the end of civilized society, it has a bit of an impact 40 years later with the coincidences it has in common with today. Someone refers to the outbreak of a deadly virus as "that Italian disease" as to where the broken vile of the virus originated from. A plane crash has it spreading over Germany and ultimately it makes its way across the globe. The effects are disastrous and the symptoms unbearable to watch, even in fiction. At least they had a fictional president (Glenn Ford) who was doing something about it, and to watch the governments of the world collapse underneath the threat of this is jaw dropping. Veteran Ford allows himself to be made up to look beyond haggard, like a walking corpse suffering in an indescribable agony that adds to the impact of his performance.
The only place where the virus cannot cause any harm is where the temperatures drop below freezing, and for the variety of cultures locked together in a huge station in the South Pole, it's quite a difficult task for everyone to try to get along. The limited number of women among a ton of men results in hideous acts of sexual perversion like none in recorded history, and the looks on the faces of these women as they face a horrible future is shocking and tear enducing. But for commander George Kennedy, it's amazing that anybody puts up with him the way he bellows.
The real plotline after the end of society is made clear comes from the physical impact of the pandemic, both natural and manmade which includes an earthquake and the launching of nuclear missiles. When British submarine commander Chuck Conners arrives in the completely abandoned United States capitol, he finds Washington D.C. to be a shell of itself. And then there's the aftermath of that as the lack of supplies causes more damage.
This Japanese movie has moments of greatness that are perhaps able to flow better in the 2 1/2 version which would give more back story and more of a detailed conclusion. There's a very pretty theme song that opens and closes the film, the version I saw being just under two hours.
A very funny scene that is disturbing in many ways has Conners (sans any attempt to sound English) continuously pushing and punching the Japanese scientist insisting that he go to Washington DC with him and jumping all over him even after being smacked down, over and over, played a bit like a Three Stooges fight. I found myself engrossed in this after the initial scenes of society's fall, having had this in my collection for years and passing by. The wait was worth it, not knowing how much darker this is than what history is bringing us in the present.
The only place where the virus cannot cause any harm is where the temperatures drop below freezing, and for the variety of cultures locked together in a huge station in the South Pole, it's quite a difficult task for everyone to try to get along. The limited number of women among a ton of men results in hideous acts of sexual perversion like none in recorded history, and the looks on the faces of these women as they face a horrible future is shocking and tear enducing. But for commander George Kennedy, it's amazing that anybody puts up with him the way he bellows.
The real plotline after the end of society is made clear comes from the physical impact of the pandemic, both natural and manmade which includes an earthquake and the launching of nuclear missiles. When British submarine commander Chuck Conners arrives in the completely abandoned United States capitol, he finds Washington D.C. to be a shell of itself. And then there's the aftermath of that as the lack of supplies causes more damage.
This Japanese movie has moments of greatness that are perhaps able to flow better in the 2 1/2 version which would give more back story and more of a detailed conclusion. There's a very pretty theme song that opens and closes the film, the version I saw being just under two hours.
A very funny scene that is disturbing in many ways has Conners (sans any attempt to sound English) continuously pushing and punching the Japanese scientist insisting that he go to Washington DC with him and jumping all over him even after being smacked down, over and over, played a bit like a Three Stooges fight. I found myself engrossed in this after the initial scenes of society's fall, having had this in my collection for years and passing by. The wait was worth it, not knowing how much darker this is than what history is bringing us in the present.