leeper@mtgzz.UUCP (m.r.leeper) (05/03/85)
DEFCON 4
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
There is a certain genius to making low-budget films to compete with
high-budget films. DEFCON 4 has a nuclear war, satellite warfare, flying
missiles, and a post-holocaust battle for survival, all on a pocket change
budget. In the first half of the film, the producers almost make the story
work in spite of its budget. In the second half, the film bogs down into a
rather cliched story of good guys trying to escape from the bad guys'
encampment.
In the Fifties, cheap films wanting to show nuclear blasts used
government footage. The same nuclear blasts would show up time and again in
films. DEFCON 4 has the entire nuclear war watched from a satellite and
computer graphics provide the visuals. Just when the story starts to drag
our heroes are pulled out of orbit and into a battle against some soldiers
setting up their own dictatorship. The feudal society is shown at first
with some wit--sort of a ROAD WARRIOR meets PANIC IN THE YEAR ZERO--but the
story quickly degenerates to one of good guys trying to escape the clutches
of bad guys. In the first half the wit and the tedium run neck and neck; in
the second half the tedium pulls out in front. then it really starts to
bore. Because the post-holocaust world is shown with so little regard for
scientific accuracy and because so much of the film is cliched, this one
rates a -1 on a scale of -4 to +4. The few good moments don't outweigh the
many bad ones.
Mark R. Leeper
...ihnp4!mtgzz!leeperliang@cvl.UUCP (Eli Liang) (05/08/85)
> > DEFCON 4 > A film review by Mark R. Leeper > > Because the post-holocaust world is shown with so little regard for > scientific accuracy and because so much of the film is cliched, this one > rates a -1 on a scale of -4 to +4. The few good moments don't outweigh the > many bad ones. > > Mark R. Leeper > ...ihnp4!mtgzz!leeper You forgot to mention, "and because the scriptwriter didn't know how to write." -eli -- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Eli Liang --- University of Maryland Computer Vision Lab, (301) 454-4526 ARPA: liang@cvl, liang@lemuria, eli@mit-mc, eli@mit-prep CSNET: liang@cvl UUCP: {seismo,allegra,brl-bmd}!umcp-cs!cvl!liang
markg@nvuxf.UUCP (M. Guzdial) (05/09/85)
What, exactly, is inaccurate about DEFCON 4? Admittedly, we're missing
a nuclear winter, and the camp of people about the fort might also be
far-fetched, but the talk of "the disease" isn't really unbelievable at all.
Imagine a community of people cut off from all "civilization" (if any were
left), frightened and paranoid from the devastation that they'd witnessed.
It seems quite reasonable that when faced with ordinary (?) radiation
poisoning, something that none of the community members had probably ever
seen before, they'd assume that this was some sort of "mutant disease" and
treat it as such ("they shot and burned Baby!"). People in this sort of
situation can't be expected to act too rationally.
Mark Guzdial
{houxm,ihnp4}!nvuxf!markg