I Guess The Premise Was Good

Theo Robertson

***** minor spoilers *****

Without doubt the best scene in DAMNATION ALLEY is the one set in the control room as the airforce men stand in stunned silence as the major cities of the USA are nuked . I don`t think as some critics have said that this scene is bland , it`s because the people in the control room are shocked that world war 3 has broken out and realise that civilisation has ended, it`s a very understated and haunting scene. Alas however as soon as the exposition subtitles come up ( And very purple prose they are too . They match the colour of the sky ) the film quickly falls apart . Two of the characters have now left the airforce which doesn`t strike me as being logical . After a major event , and they don`t come much more major than global thermonuclear conflict I`d have thought  , wouldn`t  martial law be introduced ? If so would servicemen be allowed to leave the forces when they felt like it ? And aren`t any men on the base related to anyone ? This really stuck in my mind that no one ever mentions loved ones who must have been wiped out during the war . Maybe they were married to the guests on THE JERRY SPRINGER SHOW ? If so I guess nuclear holocaust does have its plus points

The film then turns into an epic quest adventure but if you`re expecting LORD OF THE RINGS  don`t hold your breathe because it all becomes both silly and boring B movie stuff with the only point of interest being the line about killer cockroaches which made me laugh out loud . And I felt cheated by the upbeat happy ending . Strangely enough if you look up the resumes of the two screenwriters you`ll find they have a very good track record of writing  intelligent involving scripts so what went wrong here ?


One last point . Watch the scene where Jan Michael Vincent is riding about the desert evading the crap superimposed mutant scorpians . He`s supposedly driving around with a mannequin on the back of his motorbike but if you look closely just before he throws it off you can quite clearly see it`s an actress/ stuntwomen of latino/native American ethnicity

score 5/10

Theo Robertson 18 November 2002

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw0152591/