A brilliant, gripping, all-too-believable look at the future - I didn't quite buy a world in which every single person was infertile, but I did the depiction of that world: the shared devastation when the youngest person in the world dies, the ceaseless, self-satisfied propaganda videos on buses and trains, the wild creates living along the train tracks, the segmentation of society, the survival of bureacracy, the way the most effective opponents to the fascists are just as ruthless and bad themselves however noble their ideals, the grim streets, the flustered and angry police and soldiers who are sick of their jobs, the anger towards refugees (who are not depicted as saints but as pests desperate for a new life), the effectiveness of a rural ambush, hippies fleeing into the countryside and taking refuge with dope.
For a movie set in the future it feels more like early 70s England - unions running riot, IRA setting off bombs, the country plagued by strikes, a general air of pessimism and gloom. It's got that cynical loathing vibe you saw in science fiction films of the time as well such as the Apes movies.
It's incredibly well made. Few films have such tension - you're in agony the whole way through, because the violence feels so real in it's suddenness and randomness (bullets to the neck, sudden explosions). The long takes work brilliantly, the pace slows down at key times (eg pushing the car to get started) in building suspense. Not a bad performance across the board. A modern day classic.
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