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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
EARLY 'END OF THE WORLD'/SPECIAL EFFECTS FILM, July 18, 2003
This review is from: Deluge (1933) [VHS] (VHS Tape)
In lieu of so many recent Armegeddon films, depicting major world wide disasters, this was one of the first. It also shares many of those uneven flaws that most films of this genre too often suffer from: Spectacular devastation scenes counterbalanced with droll melodrama. The first twenty minutes are very tense and even frightening as scientists discover that the world's weather has gone haywire; earthquakes and gigantic floods are taking their ecological and human toll, and a brutal global storm is brewing out on the horizon. For a change, no pseudo scientific reason for the disaster is offered, so the story takes on that dark, mysterious twilight zone aspect. The highlight is the astounding destruction of New York, as it is obliterated by one hell of a gargantuan tidal wave (ominously foreshadowing When Worlds Collide). For the time it was made, the F/X are surprisingly not that bad and show some creative ingenuity in that pre digital CGI era. I can imagine audiences being really stunned by it back then, for it has that grim, nightmarish nihilistic edge, that Hollywood usually shies away from. The major flaw is that all the mayhem occurs in the first reel, and, thus, the rest of the story concerns a handfull of survivors and their usual melodramatic ordeals, (love triangle and all), and it all considerably pales in comparison to the compelling beginning (though it does deal slightly with the rape/murders of a few of the women. Daring for the time, which was also at the end of that pre code era). When your greatest scenes happen too early on, the rest will inevitably become anti climatic, and thereby hangs the film's biggest, unfortunate drawback. Frankly, the whole film should have centered upon the destruction of the world, and all the mounting tension and sense of impending doom leading up to it. That could have been a truly frightening classic.Nevertheless, Deluge is still quite impressive considering its age, more of a historical curio, but it is the precursor to most other disaster films that came many decades later. I suspect that Irwin Allen may have caught this back in his school boy days, as well as those responsible for Deep Impact, Independence Day and Armegeddon. (Not that I think that highly of them, for they tend to slip more into that 'interesting failure' grouping that far too many potentially great classics too often do).All quibbles aside, Deluge is still worth taking a keen look at, in spite of it's "old school" shortcomings, but as an early cinematic F/X experiment, it remarkably carves it's own innovative niche.I still feel that the great definitive classic end of the world film has still yet to be made.
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great Special Effects, Too Melodramtic, Once Lost, February 11, 2001
This review is from: Deluge (1933) [VHS] (VHS Tape)
This once lost film is actually quite enjoyable. The special effects that destroy New York are fantastic, however the melodramatic (And I mean MELODRAMATIC) acting and soap opera style stories detract from the over all enjoyability. Although not my favorite film, I'm glad that I own it and will forever be greatful to the lucky person who stumbled upon the lost and only print and gave it to film buffs.
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3.0 out of 5 stars
EARLY 'END OF THE WORLD'/SPECIAL EFFECTS FILM, July 19, 2003
This review is from: Deluge (1933) [VHS] (VHS Tape)
In lieu of so many recent Armegeddon films, depicting major world wide disasters, this was one of the first. It also shares many of those uneven flaws that most films of this genre too often suffer from: Spectacular devastation scenes counterbalanced with droll melodrama. The first twenty minutes are very tense and even frightening as scientists discover that the world's weather has gone haywire; earthquakes and gigantic floods are taking their ecological and human toll, and a brutal global storm is brewing out on the horizon. For a change, no pseudo scientific reason for the disaster is offered, so the story takes on that dark, mysterious twilight zone aspect. The highlight is the astounding destruction of New York, as it is obliterated by one hell of a gargantuan tidal wave (ominously foreshadowing When Worlds Collide). For the time it was made, the F/X are surprisingly not that bad and show some creative ingenuity in that pre digital CGI era. I can imagine audiences being really stunned by it back then, for it has that grim, nightmarish nihilistic edge, that Hollywood usually shies away from. The major flaw is that all the mayhem occurs in the first reel, and, thus, the rest of the story concerns a handfull of survivors and their usual melodramatic ordeals, (love triangle and all), and it all considerably pales in comparison to the compelling beginning (though it does deal slightly with the rape/murders of a few of the women. Daring for the time, which was also at the end of that pre code era). When your greatest scenes happen too early on, the rest will inevitably become anti climatic, and thereby hangs the film's biggest, unfortunate drawback. Frankly, the whole film should have centered upon the destruction of the world, and all the mounting tension and sense of impending doom leading up to it. That could have been a truly frightening classic.Nevertheless, Deluge is still quite impressive considering its age, more of a historical curio, but it is the precursor to most other disaster films that came many decades later. I suspect that Irwin Allen may have caught this back in his school boy days, as well as those responsible for Deep Impact, Independence Day and Armegeddon. (Not that I think that highly of them, for they tend to slip more into that 'interesting failure' grouping that far too many potentially great classics too often do).All quibbles aside, Deluge is still worth taking a keen look at, in spite of it's "old school" shortcomings, but as an early cinematic F/X experiment, it remarkably carves it's own innovative niche.I still feel that the great definitive classic end of the world film has still yet to be made.
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