Quiet Earth (DVD)

In this New Zealand-based apocalyptic movie, Bruno Lawrence plays Zac Hobson, a man that has just woken up to find the world deserted. All animal life has disappeared, vanished without a trace. Cars and trains are left abandoned. Beds once slept in now only show the imprint of life. Planes have fallen from the sky, while both the pilot and passenger seats alike are empty. Zac returns to his place of work, a laboratory that had been experimenting on an energy field that would surround the Earth, only to find signs that 'Project Flashlight' is complete. So begins Zac's journey of trying to figure out exactly ...  Read the complete review

BBC2 should screen more like this. Well, they screened it about 6 or 7 years ago but it's where I first saw it. I have a thing about death. It is a very interesting subject and one which the Quiet Earth deals with in a few ways. Zac Hobson (Bruno Lawrence) is the last man alive or so he thinks at the start of the movie. Seeing his penis may put some people of the film but it doesn't stay on screen long. He awakes to find that everyone has gone. There's no one around. The way they achieve this seems rather simple but it certainly helps you understand the new world. Locked toilet with no one inside and my favourite the crashed plane. This is very ...  Read the complete review

Every one of us has seen a movie that has affected them profoundly at some time in their lives: for me it was Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey" from 1968, with its spectacular visions of future space travel, artificial intelligence, and eventual human evolution from man to superman. "The Quiet Earth" is another of those movies. It has nothing in common with Kubrick's masterpiece (it was made on a low budget, the special effects are average, and the New Zealand locations are fairly humdrum), so what makes this film so special? Simply put, it has the power to cause you to re-evaluate your position in society, and your place in the ...  Read the complete review

Made in 1985, THE QUIET EARTH concerns a man who wakes up to discover that he is alone in the world, but without knowing why. He sets out to find other people, and also to find out what has happened and why he (and the other people who he does find) have been left on the planet. As Zac Hobson (the man in question), Bruno Lawrence makes a good effort, and the best scenes in the film are those when he is trying to come to terms with what has happened, prior to his discovery of the other survivors. What is a shame is that the two other survivors are predictable - one is a woman (Caucasian, as is Zac), and the other is a black man. This is quite politically ...  Read the complete review