Is it a horrendously sad and dangerous time when a civilisation becomes infatuated with its own destruction? The 2000’s saw a resurgence of movies focusing on end of the world scenarios, particularly those involving undead cannibals, and video games like Fallout 3 have brought about a fresh interest in the genre; but mainstream cinema has not seen the like of The Road and Book of Eli since at least the early 1980’s.
The very idea of post apocalyptic fiction is that it takes place after an event that laid waste to the world. However much of the focus in fiction in a world where our televisions and computer screens show us up to the second updates of news items from around the world, has been on the event. The images captured on 9/11 and other tragedies like it have haunted the minds of the world, and as a mirror on society film has attempted to capture that feeling of being amongst disaster and experiencing terror first hand. Now we come to a point in our cultural journey where we start to contemplate the consequences of our actions, the turn of the tide after disaster. Very few films recently have dealt with the fallout of a disaster, the notable exceptions being Neil Marhsall’s ode to the genre Doomsday, 2009’s Zombieland and Terminator Salvation. It does seem that such a genre has the odd entry every so often, but not until now has interest been sparked by the genre as a whole, rather than just the particular film that incorporates it.
In 1981 Mad Max Two hit the world stage, the very same year as John Carpenter’s Escape from New York was released. Both starred up and coming tough guy actors, Mel Gibson and Kurt Russell respectively, both took place in a world ruined by disaster and both became benchmarks of what would be considered the post apocalyptic film. They depicted gangs, unhindered by law or rules, hunting and preying on the weak, boasting big cars, big guns and big egos. The looks of these people who populated the post apocalyptic world has become somewhat iconic: the ragged, makeshift dress that formed the uniform of the survivors is something that has become a staple of films of this type, perhaps drawing inspiration from Walter Hill’s dystopian gang film The Warriors, war paint, goggles, gas masks and dirt became the fashion of the future.
It is to this, aesthetically at least, that Book of Eli and The Road return. Promising tales of epic quests and grand journeys through post apocalyptic wastelands, the look and feel established in such films as Mad Max Two, and smaller cult films like A Boy and His Dog (a great influence of the Fallout video game series and forerunner of films like Mad Max Two), Hardware and Le Dernier Combat, looks to make a comeback.
The genre is an infinitely interesting one, providing backdrops for allegorical stories of war, loss and environmental disaster, as well as for the exciting possibilities that a world returned to primal, medieval or even American Western sensibilities opens up. Despite the hiccups, post apocalyptic film remains a proud genre; and with the dawn of art-house dramas like The Road, and prophetic action films like Book of Eli, a whole new generation of people will be introduced to the end of the world.
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