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You can read the IMDb.com listings for the details, so I won't rehash those here. As far as I can tell, "Five" is the first film with survivors of a global nuclear holocaust. "Things to Come" (1936) did deal with a post-global war devastation of civilization, but it wasn't nuclear. There were lots of survivors in Things to Come, but true to HG Wells' inclinations, they split into barbarians and technologists. (pre-Morlocks/Eloi)
"Five" presumes only five people survived. With so few characters, they do tend to fit into archetypes, each embodying something about humanity. For my two cents, Rosanne (whom the story really centers upon) embodies the Hope of mankind, and as such, is always looking back. She's always hopeful (even in a dower way) that her husband survived, that people can get along, that some others might have survived too. Michael embodies Pragmatism. He works hard, fixes the shelter, tries to plant a crop of corn, etc. He's always focused forward, defiantly refusing to look back (e.g. go down into the cities). There's a natural tension between the two.
Later arrivals, Charles and Mr. Barnstaple, add to the mix. Mr. Barnstaple, a doddering old bank clerk, seems to represent mankind's old ways of thinking -- jobs, capital, investments, etc. All that was blown away with the bombs, but Mr. Barnstaple (now suffering from radiation-induced dementia) keeps talking about being on vacation. Writer/Director Oboler seems to give the Old World a kind-hearted burial by letting Mr. Barnstaple go and see the ocean (which he loved) before he passes away quietly, on the beach. Goodbye old world.
Charles is a lot like Rosanne, full of hope, but not about finding parts of the old world survive. He's like Michael in focusing on the future. As an oppressed black man in late 40s America, his hope is tinged with freedom from the old world. Charles, too, is a hard worker. The scenes of white Michael and black Charles, working side by side with shirts off (fixing the roof, planting the corn) was a pretty bold racial-equality statement for 1951.
Eric, as another reviewer said, is the serpent in the garden of Eden. He represents the dark side of humanity. He's egotistical, lazy, lustful, greedy and willing to kill. As Eric is trying to whisk Rosanne away to the city in the wee hours, Charles discovers them. Eric kills Charles in a sort of Cain killing Abel parallel. In keeping with the serpent motif, Eric tricks Rosanne into coming with him to the city with the pretense that they were just checking for survivors. "Down in the city is everything we've ever wanted." Once there, Rosanne finds the skeleton of her husband. No hope in the city anymore. Eric scoffs at Rosanne's request to go back. "You think I brought you here to take you back? You're mine as long as I want you." In the ensuing scuffle, Eric's shirt is torn, revealing the welts of radiation sickness. He doesn't handle it as nobly as Mr. Barnstaple. Eric runs away crying.
Rosanne eventually makes her way back to the cliff-top house and Michael. Along the way, her baby dies. This struck me as odd at first, since the baby seemed to represent the new-beginning motif. But on second thought, the baby represented the last vestige of the old world. Rosanne's baby from her dead husband Steven. Once that last vestige of the old was gone, Rosanne was ready to stop looking back at the old, and face the new. The movie ends with her walking up to Michael who is re-tilling the corn field. She carries a shovel too, and says, "I'm ready to help you now." (helicopter lift pan out)
Like many of the post-apocalypse genre, there is a hope of mankind rising phoenix-like from the ashes. Civilization was destroyed, but not man himself. "On the Beach" (1959) was a bold departure from this formula. There, everyone died and stayed dead. In "Five," mankind's pragmatic nature triumphs, but only after letting go of hope for saving the old world, and shedding the sinful old man (as typified by Eric).
Like several other 50s sci-fi films, there is a strong dose of religious point of view. The film opens with nuclear blasts, clouded skies and quote from Psalm 103:16. "The deadly wind passeth over it, And it is gone: And the place thereof Shall know it no more..." (note: the word "deadly" was added. It's not in the Bible). The Charles character quotes from a black poet who wrote a paraphrase of the creation account in Genesis, but it's the poet's words, not biblical quotes. The end quotes from the Book of Revelation (ch.21) about the coming of the New Heaven and New Earth. Amid all the human struggle in Five was a spiritual undercurrent.
While any mention of God seems to really wrankle some sci-fi fans, the Christian cosmology makes an interesting background to the action in "Five." Man's self-destruction isn't seen as a great Oops, but as expected. The modern world didn't make a wrong turn, so much as it knowingly drove off a cliff. The survival of a remnant is also, then, seen as prophesied. The remnant of mankind didn't WILL itself to survive, but was ALLOWED to live. The more religiously minded 50s audiences would have gotten this. The more godless minded of today miss this completely.
Finding a copy of Five was a major challenge. It's little known, but there are some sites out there which have copies. I think Five was worth the effort. It's a great addition to a post- apocalyptic movie collection.
score 8/10
inews-2 18 September 2007
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1732288/ |
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1-4-2021 18:07:38