Film Reviews by JB

A fun feature-length student film, this is almost up there with the other student-made cult classic, Dark Star, despite the madcap editing and acting which just adds to its charm. Expect juvenile humour, non-sequiturs, one-liners, fake beards, and happy bursts of song in the most unlikely places, such as when faced with starvation while lost in the Colorado mountains. Thankfully the cannibalism is somewhat incidental, about two thirds of the way through the film. This is not a cannibal film (the original title was Alferd Packer: The Musical) but based on the true story of an ill-fated group of gold prospectors in the winter of 1873, which adds to the interest. The final big song and dance number, a la Oklahoma!, takes place below the gallows from which our hero is due to hang. Unless there's a last-minute reprieve.

The artwork and futuristic concepts are varied, bold and very imaginative, but it's difficult to find anything else to like about this naive and embarrassingly obvious allegory. From the outset the animation and voice dubbing are crude, even for 1973. The protagonist, Terr, spends most of his time crawling around looking miserable, or running for his life with a rigid open-mouthed expression of horror. There are no moments of joy or humour that might have relieved the tedium. Neither the Oms nor their enemies the Draags are particularly likeable or sensible, and once it is clear that they are heading for mutual destruction, the Draag leader is left to abruptly concede, in the very last line of the film, that the two races will need to learn to cooperate if they are to survive (surprise, surprise) but with no suggestion of how (or why, in such a joyless world) this might be achieved. One gets the impression that the script was cut short as soon as this declaration had announced the film's raison d'etre.