PhilPaine.com

Har­lan Ellison’s post-apoc­a­lyp­tic black com­e­dy was writ­ten in 1969, and filmed in 1975, at the tail end of the wave of Hol­ly­wood eccen­tric films that briefly came out of Hol­ly­wood (after which things went back to Busi­ness As Usu­al). It is rea­son­ably faith­ful to the sto­ry, and appar­ent­ly won Ellison’s approval, except for the last line spo­ken in the film. Elli­son felt it this line was mysogin­ist, a crit­i­cism that had been unjust­ly made against the sto­ry. The kind of bit­ter, cyn­i­cal humour that was com­mon­place at the time prob­a­bly does­n’t sit will with the audi­ences of today. The satir­i­cal dystopia of white-face-paint­ed oli­garchs rul­ing a Walt Dis­ney­ish Tope­ka, Kansas in an under­ground refuge will prob­a­bly just puz­zle any­one under thir­ty. But this kind of humour, updat­ed in imagery, might be on the verge of a come-back. The lead actor, Don John­son, lat­er went on to star in the tele­vi­sion Mia­mi Vice. Jason Robards, a vet­er­an star from the 1950s, played the sin­is­ter ruler of the under­ground Tope­ka. Under-rat­ed vet­er­an actor Tim McIn­tyre pro­vid­ed the voice of Blood, the tele­path­ic dog.