Movie Review #47 - The Day of the Triffids
Sep. 1st, 2007 07:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
catalyst2I know this isn't strictly speaking a movie - this is the 1981 miniseries version not the 1962 movie - but I watched all 6 parts on the DVD in a single so and it felt like a movie - and a good one at that!
First check of the watch - several times during Bill's hospital monologues but after they finished, never again.
I really liked this adaptation of John Wyndham's book - it's much closer to the feel of the book than the 1962 film at any rate. It also concentrates, not on the whiz-bang of SFX, but on the personal consequences of the change in social structure. It has a post-apocalyptic feel about it that feels more authentic than the instantaneous devastation that seems to be shown these days.
The diversity of reactions is fascinating - from the idealistic version that Coker tries to set up, with such devastating consequences for all concerned, to the fascist polygamous society that Soames tries to impose on the survivors through to the religiously based conclave that Durrant tries to form. It is interesting that all of these fail, utterly and devastatingly, and the only stability that Bill and Jo finally find is an ordinary reproduction of a fairly conventional family, even if a bit extended. I'm not quite sure what comment that makes but whatever it is, the movie does it well.
What few SFX there are are the usual BBC 80's plastic-things-on-strings type but in compensation, the triffids really are a side issue here (as they are in Wyndham's book, interestingly) so we don't see them too much. Mostly they hang around in bunches (sorry unintentional pun) and rattle menacingly.
Overall, I liked this - it has a very natural personal feel to it and so draws you into the characters' struggles all the more.
First check of the watch - several times during Bill's hospital monologues but after they finished, never again.
I really liked this adaptation of John Wyndham's book - it's much closer to the feel of the book than the 1962 film at any rate. It also concentrates, not on the whiz-bang of SFX, but on the personal consequences of the change in social structure. It has a post-apocalyptic feel about it that feels more authentic than the instantaneous devastation that seems to be shown these days.
The diversity of reactions is fascinating - from the idealistic version that Coker tries to set up, with such devastating consequences for all concerned, to the fascist polygamous society that Soames tries to impose on the survivors through to the religiously based conclave that Durrant tries to form. It is interesting that all of these fail, utterly and devastatingly, and the only stability that Bill and Jo finally find is an ordinary reproduction of a fairly conventional family, even if a bit extended. I'm not quite sure what comment that makes but whatever it is, the movie does it well.
What few SFX there are are the usual BBC 80's plastic-things-on-strings type but in compensation, the triffids really are a side issue here (as they are in Wyndham's book, interestingly) so we don't see them too much. Mostly they hang around in bunches (sorry unintentional pun) and rattle menacingly.
Overall, I liked this - it has a very natural personal feel to it and so draws you into the characters' struggles all the more.
