It would be both cliché and untrue
to say that “I have seen no other film quite like Luc Benson’s The Last Battle (1983).” In point of fact I’ve seen several movies
very similar in both setting and tone, but I have seen few of those that aspire
to and reach such great heights artistically and as pieces of
entertainment. Benson’s picture is
unique also, as it either predates or outshines so many other visions of a post-apocalyptic
vigilante dystopia. His work here is
beautiful, bare bones in nature, and completely without equal within the subgenre.
Paris has fallen to a drought which
appears to have covered the world in desert.
Human life is scarce. Water and
shelter are difficult to come by. Sand
dunes dwarf and engulf the skyscrapers that once lined the industry
district. There is no vegetation. Holed
up in a former office building is a man (Pierre Jolivet)—our hero. The only evidence that he ever lead a life resembling
ours is a wallet sized photo of a woman and child, but they may only be there
to inspire fantasies of a different world.
Here, women seem to have vanished from existence.
The man occupies his time by masturbating
and checking in on his closest neighbors, a surly bunch captained by a sinister
figure dressed all in white. They
congregate near the office building in huddled dilapidated cars, all of which seem
to have gone decades without moving. In
the trunk of the captain’s car he holds a dwarf, bound to his servitude by
chains. The dwarf is roused occasionally
to fetch water from an underground reservoir that only he can access through a petite
pipe. Our man watches these actions from
a distance. He’s prepared to go to war
with these men if he has to, as their cars may have batteries which could power
his own transportation— a homemade airplane.
Violence does indeed erupt when the
hero makes an attempt to acquire his treasure.
He makes a narrow escape in his newly completed makeshift mobile, and
for a few moments as he flies he seems to experience real joy, total and
complete, for the first time in the film.
The questions this scene brings up about the scarce opportunities for
happiness in this future say all there is to be said. These moments are short-lived here as well, as
the plane soon crashes.
The man is forced to adapt almost immediately
to new predators in his new environment.
He encounters a skeptical doctor and another lone vigilante (Jean Reno),
who the film dubs only “the Brute,” the two of which already match wits in an attempt
to control a relatively well-stocked hospital complex. The man’s presence is eventually welcomed by
the doctor, but the Brute sees him as a natural enemy. It is a credit to this film, and to Benson’s
skills as a filmmaker, that with minimal sets, and almost no dialogue (the film’s
only lines are the man and the doctor’s hesitant “bon jour”s) it manages to convey
a world in which none of these happenings or these character’s motivations seem
unrealistic. Like in the Star Wars films, the actions in this universe
seem totally plausible because it never treats them as though they aren’t. I don’t even question how, on an earth
reduced to desert, it could rain fish.
It does…and it works.
There
are mysteries, solved an unsolved, contained within this film. How did all of this come to pass? Is there any
hope for a future? Do the doctor and the brute have ulterior motives? At the film’s conclusion I was almost as satisfied
as I have been by only a select few pictures throughout this 200 movie review process. This is an engaging and visually stunning
motion picture, shot in stark black and white in a 1: 2.35 ratio that gives it
the effect of an epic. It is not a Mad Max rip off, nor “Late Late Movie” bunkum. Clearly it influenced the Kevin Costner vehicle
Waterworld (1995), which replaced the
sand with saltwater, but The Last Battle
never descends into parody of itself. It
manages to avoid all such pitfalls and emerges as one of the clearest filmic visions
of the future decline of the human race.
As
with Robert Bresson’s L’Argent (also
1983; #41) I feel that the authors of the 1001 compilation are overzealous
in ascribing certain qualities of social commentary to Benson’s film by describing
it as a “comment on youth alienation in the materialist 1980s.” While I feel
that reading too much into this movie might be dangerous, there is no denying
that it is both entertaining and powerful, and that like all great Sci-fi it
causes us to question mankind’s urges, both creative and destructive.
Language:
French (two lines)
Runtime:
92 Minute
Grade:
4 Hats Off
0 comments:
Post a Comment