Panic in Year Zero!

The Baldwin family sets off fishing early in the morning. On the road the sky behind them lights up and the radio goes quiet. Los Angeles has been hit. Harry Baldwin turns the car, but he drives towards the mountains rather than the city. Along the way he takes fuel from a petrol station by force and supplies from a shop by force, and explains to his wife that the old rules no longer hold. They find a cave. There are other people in the hills doing the same arithmetic. Harry is caught between what he does to protect his family and the man he is trying to protect. Ray Milland directs and plays the lead. Jean Hagen, Frankie Avalon and Mary Mitchel are in the cast. It is an American production. The film was made in 1962, in the years when the fear of nuclear war was at its height. The narrative never shows the attack; the explosion is distant and the film is concerned entirely with afterwards. The matter it treats is how quickly morality comes apart; within hours the father counts theft and a gun as normal. The film puts its hero in the right in an uncomfortable way, and that choice is arguable. The narrative works on a low budget; the shooting is at the roadside and in the hills. Frankie Avalon was known then as a singer and plays the son here. The film also shows the strain inside the family, with the mother carrying the opposing voice. The ending says order has returned without clearing anybody. Its limit is point of view; the narrative keeps male authority at the centre and it is uncomfortable today. Who it is for: viewers who like cold war science fiction. Who it is not for: it is dated, morally contested, and the ending cold.