The Quiet Earth opens with a naked man lying in a bed. He gets up and we learn that he is scientist Zac Hobson and that he is in New Zealand. He drives around looking for people, saying “Hello!” in a loud voice a lot, and finds nobody. Absolutely nobody! It appears that everyone is dead, and he may be the last man on earth. The Quiet Earth is primarily a character study, as Zac Hobson’s growth as a person is the main thrust of the film for me. Hobson is played by jazz drummer and cult icon Bruno Lawrence, who also played Teddy in one of my favorite movies, Jack Be Nimble. Lawrence spends the first half of the movie wandering around looking for people, and trying to discover the cause of “the effect” which apparently just wiped away almost every human on the face of the earth, like a dry eraser on chalkboard. He goes a little nuts after a while and starts wearing women’s clothes and delivers lectures to cardboard cut-outs of Hitler and Gandhi. The last half is all about discovery, as he meets first Joanne, a pretty young red head, and Api, a Maori, who are the indigenous people of New Zealand. Lawrence soon finds himself odd man out, but also remarks to them near the end that sometimes he feels that he is the only one really alive, and that Joanne and Api are figments of his imagination, spirits sent to aid him on his personal journey. I concur, maybe!
No comments:
Post a Comment