Panic in Year Zero! (1962)

So help me, I don’t ask for much. Really, I don’t expect much from a lot of movies, and it doesn’t take much to keep me happy. I only need a few basics, simple things really. So, is it too much to ask for a movie to have an intelligent hero? Now, I don’t need a genius, mind you, just a person who can make a rational decision from time to time. Yet on this matter I am constantly rebuffed. It seems that no matter where I turn, I am confronted with scores of blithering idiot protagonists. You know the type: when there’s a ghoul in a spooky old house, they run up the stairs rather than out the door. If there’s a killer in their midst, they advocate splitting up and exploring. When they stumble upon a long-forgotten orb marked “WARNING: Do Not Break! Ancient Demon Inside!”, they break it to see what will happen. These characters anger me to no end. Perhaps most infuriating are those stupid heroes that I might call the “noble idiots.” These are the heroes that refuse to kill a villain until there is already a massive death toll and a kidnapped girlfriend. Those that believe the Evil Emperor when he says that he will let the hostages go free if the Amulet of Invictus is surrendered, rather than just killing him where he stands. These situations are all too prevalent, and nearly always leave me yelling at the screen. That’s why Panic in Year Zero! was such a delightful surprise. This movie features an ordinary man in extraordinary situations—hardly a new concept in filmdom. However, Panic in Year Zero! eschews the usual conceit of these movies, that is, the ordinary man being pushed to heights of extraordinary heroism by his conditions. Rather, the clear-headed, ordinary man remains a clear-headed, ordinary man, albeit in a situation where simple maintenance of the ordinary has become extraordinary. Following? Good.

Panic in Year Zero! begins innocently enough, with a family heading out on a fishing trip at 4:10 A.M. This is an archetypal nuclear family, at least for the 50s-60s. The father, Harry Baldwin (Ray Milland) is a perpetually hat-and-suit clad breadwinner with a fancy for fishing and hunting. The mother, Ann Baldwin (Jean Hagen), is pure doting housewife. Finally, their oft-argumentative teenage spawn are Ricky (Frankie Avalon) and the fairly vapid Karen (Mary Mitchel.) Yes, everything seems geared towards a relaxing day out in the mountains. Then the nukes start dropping. First, a disconcerting flash of light in the background. Then another. Then another, brighter now. At first, the family believes this to be some kind of lightning, but all the radio stations are out, and there seems to be a fireball in the distance. Given this, and an increasingly worried wife, Harry decides to head back towards home. This is probably the only really dumb thing he does all movie. After all, this is the early 1960s, and if the tales my elders tell are true, one couldn’t go five minutes without some warning of nuclear preparedness, complete with descriptions of a nuclear explosion’s appearance. One would think that “blinding flash of light, brighter than the sun” would instantly send the Baldwins booking it to as far away as possible. Indeed, on the road back, an increasing number of cars are seen speeding away in the opposite direction, which further worries the confused Baldwins. Of course, once the mushroom cloud is visible there can be no further questions, and the family heads away once more. It is here that Harry makes his first RATIONAL HERO DECISION. Ann is deeply concerned for her mother back at home, and wants Harry to continue back to their house. He points out that if she was caught in the blast, there’s nothing that they could do for her. Furthermore, the four of them are alive, and maintaining that situation should be number one priority. On the drive out, however, things start to get ugly. An eatery’s supplies are rapidly exhausted by an increasingly massive influx of refugees, as are other stores along the highway. During a stop at a gas station, a man refuses to pay for a tune-up, and attacks the clerk before driving away. Now, this scene seemed a bit off for me. I know that this is all about the Panic of a nuclear attack, but things have devolved into anarchy and violence way too quickly—I was hoping for more of a gradual progression. But then again, I’ve just been following along with the Baldwins. For them, the attack was a far-off, nebulous menace, the kind that would inspire creeping dread of the sort I’d expect. For those nearer to the blast, like the hit-and-run tune-up guy, it’s not hard to imagine that frenzied panic has taken a more rapid hold. Witnessing this sort of panic both in the stores and on the highway, Harry makes his second major RATIONAL HERO DECISION: get away from the fleeing masses. While there may be more stores and more direct routes along the highway, Harry has enough sense in him to realize that they will be clogged with unrestful, potentially violent crowds. Thus, Harry hits the back roads and heads to a small, rural town to stock up on supplies. Luckily, it seems no one there has heard of the attack, and none of the other refugees have yet invaded. The family stocks up on supplies, both comestible and non, as from this point on, store-bought goods will likely be nonexistent. Once again, it is the simple, clear thinking of Harry that shines in this scene. While the teens are gathering foods, he warns them not to pick up eggs, fresh fruit, or drink cartons, as these will be difficult to transport and store. Next, it’s off to the hardware store for some woodsmen’s gear and firearms. Having just paid 赞 for the groceries, he doesn’t have enough cash for the guns, and writes a check instead. The shopkeeper, Mr. Johnson (Richard Garland), explains that state law features a two day waiting period for such purchases. This simply will not do, and in the end, Harry is forced to pull a newly-acquired .45 on Mr. Johnson. When Johnson attempts to wrest it away, a brief brawl ensues and the Baldwins escape. This does not make them looters, however, as they have the decency to leave the check for the slightly roughed-up Johnson. Alas, this does not seem to be the norm, and as time goes by, the family encounters a number of increasingly disreputable personages. This forces Harry to take some drastic steps towards ensuring his family’s safety. For example, he tells his son to shoot to kill if necessary, and strongly reprimands Ann when she nearly stops Rick from shooting the leader of a trio of marauding hooligans. Even when the family escapes from the roadways and finds a spot to hole up, their troubles don’t end. Indeed, the harsh reality that they are in a war for survival continues to plague them throughout the duration of the movie, and the ending, although relatively upbeat, leaves a world of uncertainty for the main characters.

I’m going to go against my usual style of comprehensive summary on this one, because there are many scenes that I cannot begin to do justice to. I really liked this movie. The characters were complex and fascinating, if only for the fact that they could pass as real people. There were a few exceptions to this: as mentioned before, daughter Karen was pretty much a ditz. Also, the trio of marauding hooligans, who go on to become the Baldwins’ major nemeses later in the movie, were portrayed as pure, irredeemable evil. They seemed rather out of synch with the tone of the movie (i.e. panic, not calculated misdeeds), but admittedly, it stands to reason that they were bad guys to begin with and the crazed lawlessness around them merely allowed their dark sides to come to full fruition. That this environment can so quickly warp a person is seen especially well in the character of Rick, who at one point starts to enjoy killing until Harry brings him back to Earth. I really can’t emphasize enough how much I enjoyed Ray Milland as Harry. I’d like to think that this was “his” movie, as he both starred in and directed it. Say what you will about Milland’s lower-budget forays, but Panic can securely be placed high and above X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes. In a lesser movie, Harry would have to pay for his isolationist, non-altruistic behavior, while his wife Ann, who constantly advises more humanitarian measures, would be the voice of reason. In Panic, Harry is the voice of reason: cold, hard reason in a world of insanity. This soon after the attacks, any attempts by the Baldwins at humanitarian aid would simply be subtracting from their chances of survival, and Harry won’t let that happen. (Ugh, I’m starting to sound like an objectivist.) Even so, don’t think that Harry has lost his humanity in all of this. Though he doesn’t allow his family to see it, we the audience find that Harry is a deeply distraught, worried man struggling against increasing remorse for his actions. There are so many good things with the film, it’s difficult to bring up the problems. They are present, but for the most part don’t detract from the film as a whole. Perhaps the biggest problem is the soundtrack, a jazzy score that is totally and completely inappropriate in almost every scene. The effects are at a bare minimum. Other than the mushroom cloud at the beginning, there are really no special effects, but actually, this is probably for the best. For one thing, this allows the movie’s tone to be driven by the characters. Rather than having a desolate landscape or bombed-out city express strife, it is illustrated through human interaction in seemingly normal surroundings. Also, since this is an AIP film, it helps that there aren’t a bunch of mutant puppet-bat effects to distract the viewer with their laughability. Heck, I might even go so far as to say that this is the best AIP film I’ve ever seen. I don’t want to raise expectations too high, as this movie isn’t sheer brilliance, but it is a solid flick (also, some of my glowing praise may be due to the fact that I watched Full Moon’s Witchouse immediately prior, but that’s another story.) So, if you’re looking for an AIP film that can be enjoyed seriously, rather than for camp value, I recommend watching Panic in Year Zero!*. Even if you’re not, check it out if you can—I doubt one could find another post-apocalyptic movie quite like it, both in quality and storyline.


*-A note on the title: In case you were wondering where that whole “Year Zero” thing comes from, the UN decides that the time following the devastating nuclear attacks (and counterattacks) would be designated Year Zero of a new age.