7.2 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
"Millions Flee from Cities! End of the World!" From a Manhattan skyscraper, Ralph Burton surveys the emptiness announced by that chilling newspaper headline. Nuclear doomsday has come. Ralph is sure he is the last person alive. Then a woman appears and the two form a cautious friendship that's threatened when a third survivor arrives. Unlike other post-apocalyptic thrillers from The Time Machine to I Am Legend, there are no external monsters to battle here.
Starring: Harry Belafonte, Inger Stevens, Mel FerrerSci-Fi | Insignificant |
Drama | Insignificant |
Romance | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.35:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
BDInfo verified
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 0.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Almost every "last man on Earth" film I've seen has disappointed me, and usually for the same reason: other people eventually show up. I Am Legend and its predecessor The Omega Man both drop in quality after Robert Neville meets two different "families", while the New Zealand production The Quiet Earth devolves into a boring love triangle. One of the earliest examples in this genre is The World, the Flesh and the Devil: written and directed by Ranald MacDougall, it shares both negative elements of those other three films. Fortunately, it shares the positive ones as well...and also carries high production values that clearly influenced dozens of films and TV shows in the ever-growing genre.
It's a decent enough life for resourceful Harry, but loneliness still creeps in: soon enough, he's talking to mannequins and even brings home a few for roommates. It's right around this time that Harry gets a real visitor: 21-year-old Sarah Crandall (Inger Stevens). who's been secretly tailing him for weeks. Theirs is a complicated relationship: Sarah thinks Harry's nice enough, but he keeps his distance because of skin color. A mutual attraction is obvious...but what this film posits is that eliminating outside influence doesn't immediately erase old scars. The divide is amplified by another man, Ben Thecker (Mel Ferrer), who Harry rescues after a long voyage at sea. Ben immediately takes a liking to Sarah, and his somewhat aggressive sexual advances stand in contrast with Harry's guarded behavior.
There's a potentially great film to be mined from the combination of post-apocalyptic drama and racial message movie, but The World, the
Flesh and the Devil never quite fuses the line. Both halves occasionally work against one another in frustrating ways: the setup never pays
off, while its second half rarely depends on the first. It's especially disappointing because the production design is great: lots of work went into
creating those barren landscapes where Harry searches for new life. Soon after it arrives, we wish it hadn't. But the film certainly has its moments
and works more often than not, while its clear influence makes it an important landmark for fans of the genre. Those who fall for its charms will
appreciate WAC's new Blu-ray, which arrives roughly nine years after their own remastered DVD.
Presented in its original 2.35:1 aspect ratio, The World, the Flesh and the Devil makes great use of the wide canvas. Although some of its compositions aren't overly creative, almost everything is smartly framed and the desolate city landscapes are given plenty of room to breathe. Of course, the real star is WAC's excellent 1080p transfer, which is sourced from a recent 2K scan of the fine-grain master positive and yields a startling amount of image detail. Clothing and other textures are well-defined during close-ups, while plenty of depth is achieved in wide shots; perhaps the only exceptions are a few obvious matte paintings, but a lack of color probably helps maintain the illusion. Shadow details and contrast look very balanced, although a handful of scenes appear more harsh with lower levels of image detail; either they were sourced from lesser elements or perhaps optically zoomed. Noise is also more prevalent than expected during these moments, but they're mostly few and far between. The majority of The World, the Flesh and the Devil looks near-flawless in 1080p and easily outperforms WAC's earlier DVD edition by a wide margin.
The sporadically-reliable IMBb lists both Mono and four-track Stereo as specs for The World, the Flesh and the Devil, and this Blu-ray's DTS-HD 2.0 Master Audio mix sounds somewhere in-between. Echoes and other wide elements are effectively used during the film's dominant "empty street" moments, which really goes a long way towards selling its oppressive, desolate atmosphere. Dialogue is clean and crisp (again, not a lot of overlap here for obvious reasons), while Miklós Rózsa's orchestral cues are balanced nicely without fighting for attention. Low end is well-represented during a few stretches, including the opening cave-in and distant echoes during a subsequent rescue attempts. Overall, it's a surprisingly dramatic mix that should even sound great on a modest setup, although those with larger front speakers will clearly benefit the most from this disc's considerable strengths.
Optional English SDH subtitles are included during the film only (screenshot #14). Unlike most recent WAC releases, these are formatted properly -- not ALL CAPS -- and sit inside the 2.35:1 frame with no obvious sync issues.
The World, the Flesh and the Devil is packaged in a standard keepcase with attractive poster-themed cover art.
Imperfect but clearly influential, Ranald MacDougall's The World, the Flesh and the Devil remains a serviceable slice of early post-apocalyptic drama. The first act is promising and star Harry Belafonte is up to the one-man challenge...but like many films in the genre, things get less interesting once more people show up. And while the second half has its moments, the social politics feel out of place and make its ending land with a thud. But there's still a lot to like here, from its ambitious production design and scope to the knowledge that later films borrowed more than a few ideas and visual elements. WACs Blu-ray, which replaces their own 2011 DVD, offers a top-tier A/V presentation but no new bonus features. Die-hard fans should enjoy themselves, but newcomers may want to try before they buy.
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