1. ZPG (Zero Population Growth) Review

Two very different views of the future
1. ZPG (Zero Population Growth) Review

This pretty much lost science fiction movie from the early 70s was just exhumed last year by Legend productions for a dvd release, as they pick through the vaults for lost( some for a good reason) movies. It caught my interest mainly for the presence of Oliver Reed whose always good value for money even when he’s slumming it which lets be honest, quite often he was. In ZPG he isn’t though, although he is uncharacteristically low key, although in typical Reed fashion he still looks ready to punch someone in the face at the slightest prevarication. The film this most reminded me of was Silent Running in its themes of man coping badly in the future with the damage his 20th century counterpart did to the planet, although it is also the flip version of Children of Men, and would make a great double bill, their endings are also curiously similar with small manned boats on the ocean. In that movie, the world has become sterile and is preparing itself to dying out. In ZPG having children is made illegal at the film’s start because of chronic overpopulation- ‘hello, China,’ with any transgressers being terminated. Needless to say after shopping for some very creepy artificial children who look like Chucky prototypes, Geraldine Chaplin, Reed’s wife gets pregnant and decides not to use the arbortmatron which seems like a prop turned down from Woody Allen’s Sleeper. The rest of the film deals with them trying to keep the baby a secret, and when they’re neighbours and former best friends find out, being blackmailed into sharing the child. I enjoyed the movie, which also brought up memories of Soylent Green and Rollerball( the original not the terrible remake), and even The Omega Man’s Woodstock scene, with people in a cinema salivating at pictures of real food, even as the narrator berates the gluttony of the 1970s. Infact, Charlton Heston sci-fi movies score a hat-trick of references with the final shot on a beach very reminiscent of Planet of the Apes, but at least we get a happy ending in this case which you feel not only the characters, but the audience has earned. However, this film is definitely not for those suffering from an attention defecit as it moves very slowly and also cleverly gets around its budget by having everything clouded in a fog of pollution, so three actors and lots of voice-over can represent a crowd, and cover up any unfuturistic sets. The actors are fine although I found myself getting increasingly irritated with the behaviour of Chaplin, as first of all she mopes about not having a child, then having to have it in secrecy, then not being able to see a doctor etc. Reed shows great self-control in not punching her in the face after he’s suffered her whims and mood swings for months, most of which seem unintentionally designed to get them both executed. The ending is also too easy, although a certain amount of suspense builds between the power struggle of the two couples, with 70s stalwart Don Gordon regressing from amiable friend, to bully, to broken loser within a few scenes, and Diane Cilento(ex- Mrs Sean Connery) as his Lady Macbeth like wife who starts all the trouble in her desperation to be a mother. Indeed, along with Inside, this is probably not a good film to show a pregnant or new mother as I’m sure their maternal instinct will either get very upset or angry. Anyway, I enjoyed it, in a good for a wet Sunday afternoon way, and no film where everyone is wearing grey Logan’s Run body suits and huge medallions can be all bad, but I doubt I’ll watch it again for five years. 6/10