The Late Great Planet Earth (1976) ** out of *****
Cast: Orson Welles, Hal Lindsey Based on the book by: Hal Lindsey and C.C. Carlson Written and Directed by: Robert Amram and Rolf Forsberg Running Time: 86 minutes Date Reviewed: July 28, 1999
One-sided "doom and gloom" documentary about the possible annihilation of the human race as foretold by the Bible. Orson Welles narrates and appears in the film in which he, along with best-selling author Hal Lindsey, discusses various prophecies from the Bible and relates them to recent (well for 1976 anyway) events.
The film is dated badly, as many things that are supposed to happen in the "future" never do. For example, the planets of the solar system were supposed to line up in the year 1982 and cause chaos here on Earth. We're still here. The arms race between the Soviets and America was supposed to kick-off the apocalypse. We're still here. Some of the more ludicrous moments come when it's alluded to that people like Jimmy Carter and Henry Kissinger may actually be the antichrist (!). Also, there's ten minutes of stock footage at the end of the film meant to give us an idea of what the battle for armageddon might be like. If it's anything like it's depicted as here then it's going to be incredibly boring.
The Late Great Planet Earth is available on DVD from VCI Home Video. It contains the film in standard form (aspect ratio of 1.33:1), although some moments of stock footage are letterboxed. Also included are brief bios on Orson Welles and Hal Lindsey, as well as a trailer for another recent VCI Home Video release, Chariots of the Gods. Audio is mono Dolby Digital, and the video is fair to good for a film like this. I believe this is the first appearance of this film on any home video format so any condition at all is fine with me. Certainly I never expected a remastered print.
Curiously, the menu screens on this DVD look nothing like the menu screens pictured on the back of the case. But they're menu screens... so who really cares? [PG]
The Jacksonville Film Journal -- Film Reviews by Chuck Dowling URL:http://users.southeast.net/~chuckd21/ Email:chuckd21@leading.net
© 1999 of The Jacksonville Film Journal. No reviews may be reprinted without permission.
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