# The Book of Eli and The SDMB Post-apocalyptic Film Festival **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 11, 2010, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-book-of-eli-and-the-sdmb-post-apocalyptic-film-festival/524448 "2010-01-11T00:20:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2010, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-book-of-eli-and-the-sdmb-post-apocalyptic-film-festival/524448/1 "2010-01-11T00:20:54Z")
With the release next week of _The Book of Eli_, following closely on the heels of an adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s _The Road_, it seems that films set after the collapse of civilization are approaching film noir or westerns as a major genre. Whether through war, environmental disasters or zombies run amok, we can’t seem to get enough of tragic characters in tattered clothing wandering through a blasted landscape. I’m kind of a fan of the genre myself. Some of my favorites include: Mad Max The Road Warrior The Quiet Earth 28 Days Later Children of Men Others I’ve seen but didn’t necessarily care for include: The Postman The Stand (made-for-TV version) Waterworld I am Legend The Omega Man …but I haven’t come close to seeing all the films of this type that may be out there, I reckon. Feel free to fill in the gaps with some more obscure favorites of your own. As for _The Book of Eli_, looks to be nicely filmed, but from what I’ve seen of the story, it appears to be a something of a rehash of _The Road Warrior_, with the main characters fighting over a Bible(!) rather than gasoline. I’m not too optimistic. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2010, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-book-of-eli-and-the-sdmb-post-apocalyptic-film-festival/524448/2 "2010-01-11T00:23:44Z")
_The Postman_ is my favorite post-apocalyptic movie of all time and most people who bash it haven’t even seen it. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2010, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-book-of-eli-and-the-sdmb-post-apocalyptic-film-festival/524448/3 "2010-01-11T00:39:42Z")
There are three versions of _Day of The Triffids_ to choose from. I’m partial to the [1962 version](http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5534209725612326856&ei=l3JKS9S-FYWUqAOogJnlDg&q=day+of+the+triffids&hl=en#) myself. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2010, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-book-of-eli-and-the-sdmb-post-apocalyptic-film-festival/524448/4 "2010-01-11T00:49:42Z")
**The Day After** TV Special depicting the US after a nuclear war with Jason Robards, arguably it’s just an apocalypse movie, only part of it is post-apocalyptic. **On the Beach** Nukes again, based on the book by Nevile Shute. **12 Monkeys** ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2010, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-book-of-eli-and-the-sdmb-post-apocalyptic-film-festival/524448/5 "2010-01-11T00:54:59Z")
It’s probably a terrible movie, and I’m letting vague memories of seeing it a dozen times at the Drive-In while higher than a kite (oooh, pretty colors!) affect my memories, but I can’t help but throw out [Damnation Alley](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0075909/) ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2010, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-book-of-eli-and-the-sdmb-post-apocalyptic-film-festival/524448/6 "2010-01-11T01:02:16Z")
Oh damn, now I’m watching clips of Damnation Alley on YouTube. The whole movie is there. > [@Equipoise](#): > > (oooh, pretty colors!) [This, on LSD](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKWTIY3Pjto). Good times! ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2010, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-book-of-eli-and-the-sdmb-post-apocalyptic-film-festival/524448/7 "2010-01-11T01:39:24Z")
_A Boy and His Dog_ _Cyborg_ _Le Dernier Combat_ (_The Last Combat_) ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2010, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-book-of-eli-and-the-sdmb-post-apocalyptic-film-festival/524448/8 "2010-01-11T03:40:46Z")
I recently re-watched “Children of Men,” “28 Days Later,” and “28 Weeks Later” and they’re all pretty damned good. The scene in “Children of Men” when all the soldiers and immigrants stop fighting to let the newborn baby and mother go by brings me to tears even thinking about it - one of the most powerful moments in all cinematic history, in my opinion. Both of the “28… Later” movies had moments in them that just frustrated the hell out of me; yeah, for lack of a horseshoe we lost the war and all that, but damn! So frustrating when one little error causes SOOOO much devastation. It’s not a complaint about the movies, mind you, just more about life in general. I really enjoyed “Zombieland” and “Shaun of the Dead,” too. The movies that should have been so much better than they were in this genre are “Independence Day” and “The Day After Tomorrow.” They were horribly frustrating for me, a lover of this genre, because they were so close to being awesome, yet managed to miss the mark. I actually really like the tv series of “The Stand.” There was some truly excellent casting for that (and some awful casting, too - Molly Ringwald as Fran and Laura San Giacomo as Nadine were real clunkers). I’m thinking about re-watching that soon, too. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2010, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-book-of-eli-and-the-sdmb-post-apocalyptic-film-festival/524448/9 "2010-01-11T11:33:13Z")
City of Ember (about a Fallout 3-like underground city/shelter) Doomsday (Rhona Mitra as a sort of sexier Snake Pliskin) Escape From New York I am Legend (remake of The Omega Man, which ws a remake of the original I Am Legend) The Matrix films Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (Hayao Miyazaki anime) Tank Girl The Terminator films ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Baldy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Gary\_Baldy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Baldy)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2010, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-book-of-eli-and-the-sdmb-post-apocalyptic-film-festival/524448/10 "2010-01-11T14:13:54Z")
> [@El\_Kabong](#): > > it seems that films set after the collapse of civilization are approaching film noir or westerns as a major genre. I’m guessing that you didn’t live through the Cold War, because it is a genre usually called post-apocalyptic. Much like film-noir can overlap crime movies, the post-apocalyptic genre can overlap dystopian, scifi, fantasy or a combination of these. Anyway, the bulk of these movies were made in the late 1970s to the early 1990s. Mad Max probably helped spur 100s of these films. I’ve literally sat through at least 100 of these films that were produced by Italian film companies or independent US film companies. Most aren’t very memorable. Here are some movies not mentioned yet that are memorable (not necessarily in a good way): 2019, After the Fall of New York Cherry 2000 Death Race 2000 Five Hell Comes to Frogtown Night of the Comet Panic in Year Zero! Parasite The Quiet Earth Rats: Night of Terror Six-String Samurai Threads The Ultimate Warrior Zardoz ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2010, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-book-of-eli-and-the-sdmb-post-apocalyptic-film-festival/524448/11 "2010-01-11T14:31:51Z")
Hey, we made Threadspotting! > [@Equipoise](#): > > It’s probably a terrible movie, and I’m letting vague memories of seeing it a dozen times at the Drive-In while higher than a kite (oooh, pretty colors!) affect my memories, but I can’t help but throw out > > [Damnation Alley](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0075909/) I dimly remember that one, and likewise dimly remember that it’s fairly dire. The ‘Landmaster’ vehicle featured in the film is pretty cool, however, and there seems to be quite a lot of info on it floating around the 'Net. It occurs to me that the first one of this type of movie I ever saw was “The World, the Flesh and the Devil”, wth Harry Belafonte. Was this (and _On the Beach_, both 1959) the first of the genre? I have no idea. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2010, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-book-of-eli-and-the-sdmb-post-apocalyptic-film-festival/524448/12 "2010-01-11T14:36:28Z")
> [@Gary\_Baldy](#): > > I’m guessing that you didn’t live through the Cold War, because it is a genre usually called post-apocalyptic. Actually, I am a Cold War baby (born 1954), but for whatever reason, a lot of the minor films you mention have always flown below my radar. It just eseems that there has been an increase on the number of A-list films with this general theme in the past few years. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Baldy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Gary\_Baldy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Baldy)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2010, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-book-of-eli-and-the-sdmb-post-apocalyptic-film-festival/524448/13 "2010-01-11T14:37:20Z")
> [@El\_Kabong](#): > > It occurs to me that the first one of this type of movie I ever saw was “The World, the Flesh and the Devil”, wth Harry Belafonte. Was this (and _On the Beach_, both 1959) the first of the genre? I have no idea. Nope. “Five” was made in 1951. “Captive Women” was made in 1952. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Baldy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Gary\_Baldy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Baldy)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2010, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-book-of-eli-and-the-sdmb-post-apocalyptic-film-festival/524448/14 "2010-01-11T14:42:06Z")
> [@El\_Kabong](#): > > Actually, I am a Cold War baby (born 1954), but for whatever reason, a lot of the minor films you mention have always flown below my radar. It just eseems that there has been an increase on the number of A-list films with this general theme in the past few years. I see. Yes. The disaster film started making a come back when Global Warming became the new social/political theme that Hollywood jumped on. From what I understand, alot of people started noticing a few years that 2012 was coming up and the Mayan calender/end of the world meme reappeared. So a bunch of scripts were written on that theme, since the end of times is coming up… So, if you are just considering A-list movies in this vein, there are very few. Which reminds me, has anyone said “Planet of the Apes” yet? ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2010, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-book-of-eli-and-the-sdmb-post-apocalyptic-film-festival/524448/15 "2010-01-11T15:33:36Z")
> [@Gary\_Baldy](#): > > I see. Yes. The disaster film started making a come back when Global Warming became the new social/political theme that Hollywood jumped on. From what I understand, alot of people started noticing a few years that 2012 was coming up and the Mayan calender/end of the world meme reappeared. So a bunch of scripts were written on that theme, since the end of times is coming up… > > So, if you are just considering A-list movies in this vein, there are very few. Which reminds me, has anyone said “Planet of the Apes” yet? Maybe, but I can really only think of one film that deals with Global Warming (The Day After Tomorrow), and one that deals with the Mayan 2012 thing. And both of those are pretty recent. I think the reason such films have become more noticeable of late is simply that the big budget sci-fi blockbusters in general have become more and more common, with more marketing behind them, so the sub genre of apocalyptic movies get more advertizing, money, and attention then they used to. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2010, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-book-of-eli-and-the-sdmb-post-apocalyptic-film-festival/524448/16 "2010-01-11T15:52:09Z")
No mention of the Resident Evil and Romero zombie films? Also they are remaking Romero’s 70s film The Crazies. FWIW, I’d like to see more “society slowly unraveling” films like On The Beach, Children of Men and the original Mad Max. In that sort of “pre-apocalypse” genre of films, you have Miracle Mile and When Worlds Collide (also being remade). There is also some indie film I saw about 5-10 years ago that follows a bunch of people in LA I think as they try to get to each other before some inevetable (but vague) catastrophy. I can’t remember what it was called though. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2010, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-book-of-eli-and-the-sdmb-post-apocalyptic-film-festival/524448/17 "2010-01-11T15:57:58Z")
How about something French? [Time of the Wolf](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_of_the_Wolf) was kinda similar to The Road, and came out five years before the movie adaptation. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2010, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-book-of-eli-and-the-sdmb-post-apocalyptic-film-festival/524448/18 "2010-01-11T16:01:33Z")
Oh, crap. How could I have forgotten _Reign of Fire_? Frankly demented plot and a bit of a guilty pleasure, but I put it in the favorites column anyway. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2010, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-book-of-eli-and-the-sdmb-post-apocalyptic-film-festival/524448/19 "2010-01-11T16:02:07Z")
Can’t believe I’m the first to mention _Planet of the Apes._ ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2010, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-book-of-eli-and-the-sdmb-post-apocalyptic-film-festival/524448/20 "2010-01-11T16:03:58Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Can’t believe I’m the first to mention _Planet of the Apes._ Sorry. Post #14. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-book-of-eli-and-the-sdmb-post-apocalyptic-film-festival/524448.md?page=2)