We'll Need All New Calendars

Panic In Year Zero, the movie that I wanted to write about so badly after the first time I watched it, I actually took notes the second time I watched it.

Set in either the late 1950s or early 1960s, the U.S. has gotten into a nuclear war with someone, and we follow your typical family of four (who were spared because they went on a vacation early that morning) as they try to survive. You've got Harry (the father), Ann (mother), Rick (son), Karen (daughter). Harry (played by Ray Milland) is I think what really bugged me about the movie. Even beyond the fact that he's an overbearing fellow who is not a fan of open dialogue amongst the family*, he can't seem to make up his mind. Is he part of civilization or not? Will he help to put it together, or wait until that's happened to rejoin it? Just how far can you go to protect your family at the expense of others?

At one point as they're driving, Ann criticizes one of his decisions (this is about all Ann gets to do, besides cook and wash clothes, and fire a gun at some beatniks** at one point), and Rick defends Harry, stating that order and law are gone. Harry immediately tells him not to write off the law, as it'll be back. This comes after he just robbed a hardware store (the action Ann is criticizing) because the owner wouldn't give him the firearms he wanted (and foolishly loaded a .45 as part of a demonstration on how to do so, then left it sitting on the counter). Why wouldn't Mr. Johnson give him the guns? Because Harry didn't have enough cash, and Mr. Johnson had a policy against accepting out-of-town checks***. Fortunately for Harry, Mr. Johnson and his wife are later killed by the aforementioned beatniks/greasers. Why is it fortunate? Because the family heard over the radio that the President had ordered that looters would face the death penalty, so it's good for Harry there's no more store owner to press charges. I'm being unfair, as Harry really did promise to pay, and even wanted a receipt, but he did take the guns.

And that's pretty much how it goes, with Harry focusing solely on #1, usually over his wife's objections, which he responds to with yelling. It's like a primitive form of Grand Theft Auto. He stands idly by while another man punches a gas station owner, because he didn't have the $4.10 to pay for his gas. He robs the hardware store. When he comes across a gas station owner who has hiked prices all the way to $3 a gallon, he punches the guy out, and leaves the $10 he feels the gas should have cost (because the sign said 34 cents a gallon, you see, and Harry doesn't believe in supply and demand). When he wants to get his car across a highway packed with cars fleeing the cities, he pours some gasoline on the road, and lights it up. A car drives through it and catches on fire as well, the driver gets out, and who knows what happens to him, but it doesn't matter because Harry's got to reach Shibes' Meadow. Once he does, he hides the sign mentioning it, and destroys the bridge leading into it. Oh, and later he kills a couple of guys, but they probably sexually assaulted his daughter (the movie's not going to come right out and say it), so I cut him slack on that one. Still, there are missions in GTA where you could argue justifiable homicide, too.

There's something else. Harry's been ordering everyone around, making contradictory statements****, not offering explanations for what he's doing, generally being an ass. After he's killed those two, he actually seems to be coming to grips with how he's been acting. He had run into Mr. Johnson in the woods, and interrogated him. How did he know to come here, where's he staying etc. Mr. Johnson wanted to know where they were staying, offered to buy some food from them, and generally seemed to be trying to form an alliance, but Harry sent him packing. Now Mr. Johnson's dead. Perhaps if the two families had joined together, they could have fended off the beatnik/greasers without killing them. Harry doesn't actually mention this, I'm just pointing out his isolationist tactics screwed other people over really badly. Anyway, Harry's worried about Karen, but can't bear to face her. Ann tells him Karen is more worried about him than herself, and they should talk. Harry gets up to go talk to her, and we cut to the next day. I think seeing Harry talk to Karen, perhaps actually try and explain what he's thinking and feeling to her, could have helped him seem like less of an overreacting looney tune. But no, it's not to be. What's more, he's still being bossy and generally unwilling to compromise afterward. When they get word there's a government-established emergency relocation center in their area (albeit 135 miles away), everyone else is ready to go. Not Harry, he's worried too many of the wrong people heard that broadcast too.

I suppose he gets some comeuppance for that, as Rick gets gravely wounded shortly thereafter, but the end of the movie suggested Rick was likely to survive, so I doubt it. Rick himself is an interesting study. Played by Frankie Avalon (and no, they didn't add a gratuitous song sequence for him*****), he's clearly enjoying his dad's new hardcore persona. He backs Harry's play at every turn, with considerably less questioning than Ann or Karen. He's also the only one Harry tends to trust to include in the plans. When Harry and Rick go scouting around the cave, Karen asks to come, and Harry turns her down. 'Not this time', he says, but we never see him actually let her come along, so does he not trust her? During the gasoline on the road stunt, Rick drives the car, and the womenfolk are in the trailer unaware of the plan the whole time. Harry probably is right to worry that Rick was enjoying the power of the gun a little too much, but that means Harry ought to be encouraging him to use it a little less, because I think it's warping him. He's points the gun at Mr. Johnson even more aggressively when Mr. Johnson asks if he could buy food off them. He's offering to buy it, for pete's sake, calm down!

When they kill the two fellows, they learn the farmhouse belonged to someone else, and one member of the family is still alive, a young woman named Marilyn, who looks as though she's been getting abused by the guys too. Rick though, keeps trying really hard to strike up a relationship with her, and because it's a movie, it works. Personally, I think he was moving fast, a little too eager to hold hands (yeah, it never gets past that), and didn't seem willing to give her space. I'm worried he sees his dad taking whatever he pleases, destroying what he pleases, doing as he pleases, and starts thinking "Why not me?" Harry's made it clear it's about individual survival, and doing what's necessary for that, so why can't Rick just do as he pleases? Dad says not to write off the law, but he's barely paying it lip service.

The first half is probably the stronger half, if only because it's interesting to see how Harry justifies his actions, but the second half has some interesting lines near the end. After Rick is injured they head for a town, and luckily, the doctor had stayed in his house. He treats Rick, and asks only for some spare ammunition, which Harry supplies. The family had heard over the radio that whoever the U.S. was fighting has sued for peace, which I guess means the U.S. won. When Harry mentions it, upbeat, the doctor responds 'Well, ding-ding for us'. Harry is put off by the doc's sense of humor, so Dr. Strong replies 'Would you feel better if I told you unless your son has a transfusion in 3 hours he's going to die?******' He then advises them to stick to back roads, ending with 'The country's full of thieving, murdering patriots', which is either simply a statement about America in the movie, or maybe a larger statement about the behavior we excuse in the name of our country, or that we excuse in our own self-interest.

Right at the end, they run into some soldiers*******, which make them happy, and the soldiers tell them where they can find a doctor (after hearing that they'd been up in the hills when the bombs went off). As they drive away, one soldier remarks that there go five more untouched by radiation sickness, and his buddy calls them five more good ones. Question 1: Is the use of "good ones" meant to be a joke, since the soldiers don't know all the crap Harry's pulled over the course of this film, or are we supposed to agree, because they survived, so they're good, and Harry's actions were justified? Question 2: What if the family hadn't been in the hills, and could have potentially had radiation sickness? Would the soldiers have turned them away? Shot them? Let them on through but accompanied them, so they could tell the docs to keep them isolated? The whole mention of them not having fallout sickness seemed truly ominous.

I'm not sure the movie thinks much of the United Nations. The only thing it does in the movie is decide that from henceforth, this year will be known as Year Zero. There's nothing about how it might have helped bring the conflict to an end, or how countries worked together through it to devise plans to help the countries hit hardest by the bombs, or anything. Also, the musical score is completely wrong for this movie. It's a jazzy, upbeat thing, better suited for Ocean's Eleven, or maybe that movie where Cary Grant's a cat burglar. A lighthearted caper flick, not a grim survival story in a post-apocalyptic world.

* When they've settled into a cave to stay for awhile, he calls for a family discussion. Which consists entirely of him explaining how they're going to follow their daily routine, because this will help them stay connected to reality somehow. yes, he and Rick shaving every day will certainly help them stay connected to the reality that they're hiding in the woods because their home was destroyed by a nuclear blast.

** Or were they greasers? They said stuff like "dig it", and "crazy kick", but one of them wore a leather jacket, so I don't know.

*** Or there was a one or two-day waiting period to purchase firearms. He mentioned something about that as well.

**** During the first confrontation with the beatniks/greasers, his son wounds one. When the bad boys leave, Harry chides Rick for nearly missing. Rick explains Mom shoved the gun, and she explains she didn't want Rick to kill a man. Harry explodes at her, since he was in danger of being killed, then after she retreats back into the trailer, and Rick expresses a bit of awe that he could have killed that guy, then Harry gets pissed that Rick's enjoying the thought. Rick is supposed to use the gun, but hate it. Supposed to be willing to kill, but hate it. That's civilization, according to Harry.

***** Unlike certain movies, say Rio Bravo. "Oh we have Rickey Nelson, we must have him sing a duet with Dean Martin!" Here's a better idea: Spend more time on Walter Brennan being crotchety and amusing, or on Angie Dickinson flustering John Wayne. Or just spend more time on Angie Dickinson in general. I'm not watching this movie for singing, damn it.

****** I would think the answer was no, but perhaps Harry appreciates the honesty.

******* Initially, even when we see they're soldiers, they're faces are hidden in shadows, and it isn't until they tell the family where they need to go for a doctor that we get a look at them. A similar thing was done earlier in the film, when the family is trying to reach Shibes' Meadow, and reaches a town that had barricaded the road, wanting to keep outsiders out. All their eyes are in the shadows of their hats, which makes them look as though they're wearing masks. I don't know what to make of that, personally. They aren't behaving any differently than Harry, it's simply that the entire town has banded together, instead of a single family. Is making them faceless making them inhuman, the Other, who can't be trusted, and so Harry's actions would be OK?