The End of the World

It was good. Now I'll just have to watch Himmelskibet (A Trip to Mars).

Basically the story is very simple. Some scientists notice a comet that is going to hit the earth and they release this information and it causes a panic. The main focus of the film is not the event of "the end of the world" itself but how the people cope with that. It is very much a drama with scientific speculative fiction on the background.

Overall the film was nicely paced, not too long although it stayed in some places a bit too long for no good reason and acting was solid. The story was also quite interesting although slightly predictable and I enjoyed it. It also has a pretty uplifting ending.

The qualities and faults I mentioned above with respect to A TRIP TO MARS (1918) pretty much apply to this film as well - with which it's been ideally paired on an otherwise bare-bones DVD from the Danish Film Institute. Still, I'd give the edge (if ever so slightly) to THE END OF THE WORLD - even if it does take forever for the titular cataclysm to begin!

In fact, the first half gets bogged down in scenes of domestic melodrama - though these are countered by interesting passages involving a wicked financier, who's willing to cheat at the stock market by having the catastrophe downplayed in his papers! Amusingly, he then makes a fist at the sky whenever he happens to glimpse the falling meteor (an obvious painting, it's visible at all times) because it will naturally mean his ruin (he seems to be less concerned, however, that it will most certainly also prove to be his undoing in a physical sense!). He still decides, somewhat perversely, to hold a 'last day on earth' meal for his family and friends - since he intends to escape through a secret passage which leads from his house to the underground mines he owns...but hadn't quite counted on the working-class, who have themselves planned to 'celebrate' the apocalypse in grand style (by turning on their long-standing aristocratic oppressors!).

The scene in the mine actually displays some atmospheric lighting - and the special effects, though clearly primitive, are fairly effective (in particular, the images of the mining-town with the smoke from its factory-chimneys mingling with that from the flaming meteors). The catastrophe also sees the town convincingly flooded; an elderly priest's subsequent clumsy attempts to control a boat in water provides some unintended chuckles. The ending - following the disaster, a couple is reunited - seems to be reaching out for spirituality, but the fact that only they (and the aforementioned priest, who had been practically holed up in their house the entire film!) seem to have survived makes it look contrived more than anything else...

By the way, renowned French film-maker Abel Gance made a similarly-titled film in 1930; regrettably, when it was broadcast (for the first time ever in my neck of the woods) on late-night Italian TV - incidentally, on New Year's Eve of 2005 - I missed it...because, at the time, I was staying in Hollywood!!

As with "A Trip to Mars," visually this is remarkable for a film from the early days. The special effects are good. But that's about where it stops. Both this film and the former are basically religious allegory. And they are also full of silly actions by their characters. The thing begins in a mining town, where two sisters live and have romances with local guys. One is true blue to her sailor man. The other betrays her miner boyfriend for a rich man who sweeps her off her feet at a dance. She runs off with him and joins him in the lap of luxury. Her old boyfriend is ticked. Anyway, this fellow is a wheeler dealer on the stock exchange. He is already loaded but wants more. When scientist discover that comet is going to enter earth's orbit and cause wholesale destruction (the end of the world, basically), he buys up all the stock, then gets his newspaper editor to announce that there is no danger. Now he can sell the stock at par value and add to his empire. The most ludicrous event of all is that he returns with his wife to the mining town. They have a big house there and it has a secret passage into the mines. He is going to take her down there and emerge when the catastrophe is over (but why did he need the money?). Then the most idiotic thing of all. He invites all his rich friends to a party instead of going into the mine and protecting himself and his wife. The miners revolt and attack the party. He didn't even bother to take supplies underground or gas masks. Also, there is a shootout. The conclusion is also about as moronic as can be with a trip back to Genesis. It's a curiosity and nothing more.

Apocalyptic films, where the Earth is facing pending destruction, have entertained people sitting in the comforts of neighborhood movie theaters for generations. The long history of such motion pictures aims to scare viewers with the possibilities of massive deaths and environmental annihilation caused by either internal or external forces. Most of the films in this genre kick off with introductions of its characters, where normal everyday life is examined. Then an impending catalyst is revealed, guaranteeing that life on earth as we know it will be changed forever.

The first film produced in cinema showing such dislocation is Denmark's April 1916 "The End of the World." August Blom, who was a main force for the Danes' "Golden Age of Silent Movies" from 1910 to 1916, directed this pioneering drama. The impending doom illustrated here is a comet hurtling from outer space towards our planet. The film hit a reflective spot for those who had witnessed Halley's Comet six years earlier and had been stirred up by some in the media of the possibility it would hit the earth. Blom shows the effects of a civilization anticipating a comet descending on our planet: the stock market crashes, a revolution of workers taking up arms to usurp the industiral hierarchy, and individuals selfishly stepping over others in the attempts to preserve their lives.

As seen in "The End of the World," as the comet comes crashing down, mass destruction awaits: burning cities, rising oceans and the release of poisonous gasses into the atmosphere. The film was produced during the middle of War World One. Although Denmark was a neutral country during the war, its economy was still affected by the nearby warring nations and its citizens witnessed the terrible destruction next door in Belgium and in France. In a way, "The End of the World" can be seen as analogous to the war and to all its fury unleashed.

Blom, director to such classics as 1910's "The White Slave Trade" and 1913's "Atlantis," was wrapping up his career in films. His departure coincided with the diminishing output of Danish and European films on the whole. WW1 greatly impacted the movie industry worldwide, with the exception of the United States. The continental disarrangement caused by the war proved to become the inflection point where America began to influence cinema as opposed to the other way around.

Full review on my blog max4movies: Verdens Undergang (international title: The End of the World) is one of the earliest preserved science fiction feature films. The plot is about an imminent collision of a comet with Earth, possibly resulting in a catastrophe in North-Western Europe. Due to the social commentary, the comparably well-made special effects, and the allegorical nature of the plot (cp., many have interpreted the social unrest as a result of World War I), the movie is considered a science fiction classic and is still an interesting watch. However, technically there are some drawbacks, not only regarding the visual presentation (e.g., heavy artifacts and muddy shadows), but also regarding the uneven plot and the disappointing character presentation.