Customer Reviews

Five

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This DVD transfer looks worlds better than previous VHS versions, but is still marred by problems that go back to the condition of the master print. But it's an excellent reminder that Arch Oboler was ahead of the pack in so many respects. Here he is, creating the first film about the survivors of a world-devastating nuclear exchange, establishing the language and tone--and setting the bar--for many films that followed. For all its apparent simplicity, FIVE contains complex characterizations and uncompromising moments of confrontation and narrative development, as well as some unforgettable images.

The official review about this film is correct it is the first post nuke film that i know of. I do not have this copy of the movie but I do have a bad copy made from an old film.

The movie is exactly how I remember it from the first time I say it on TV over 30 years ago maybe close to 40 years. It is about a group of 5 people who gather in Arch Oboler's house (yes it was filmed in his Frank Loyld Wright house).

This movie will disappoint all of the five year old's out there because it is a slow moving introspective picture about the 5 who try and to some degree fail to live together in this house. The movie was made at a time when action was not the only prerequisite for a movie. There are no explosions and no real scenes of mass destruction and of course it is in black and white, so there is another reason for the 5 year old's to not like it. There are 4 men and one pregnant woman at the beginning and at the end it is more of and Adam and Eve beginning.

Five, filmed in 1951, is the original movie where only a few people are left alive on earth after nations kill poison one another with nuclear isotopes. This is a pretty good transfer to DVD. Actually, it's the best copy of the film I've viewed. FIVE is not an exciting movie, but it is a good story. Like the original B&W film "On the Beach" with Gregory Peck.
It covers some racial issues too. If you're into these type of films, you'll like "The World, the Flesh, and the Devil" with Harry Belafonte. Again, some racial issue here. Going more sci-fi, check out "The Last Man on Earth" (Vincent Price), and "The Omega Man" (Charlton Heston". The house used in the movie is a famous hilltop building by Frank Lyoyd Wright.

A low budget marvel that is worth sticking through for some truly terrifying, brave scenes. More radio play than movie, it IS talky - really, what are you GONNA do after the end of the world BUT talk? Unless you're battling mutants or some other cliche, talk is what the survivors would do, so - DUH! It's worth noting that this film is probably the first to deal with an apocalypse that is not a flight of fancy; it is only since the creation of the Atom bomb that the end of the world seems TRULY possible, even likely, and it's profound impact on the American psyche is showcased here... Shameful that this striking, original film is being treated like Plan 9 From Outer Space, marketed as So Bad It's Good If You're Drunk. So a film landmark is kicked to the curb while truly awful films are hailed as cinematic triumphs and given deluxe 3 disc special editions. Five accomplishes more, with almost no budget budget, than Michael Bay has with all his billions.

A beautiful, stark, moving film about the end of the world. One of the best post-apocalyptic movies. Quiet thoughtful and very sad. Great acting by actors not normally put to the task. It's a shame some think the movie mock-worthy. Give it a chance.

The subject of this film may seem commonplace - the world destroyed by nuclear holocaust, one woman and several men the only survivors, - but it was the first to tackle this subject matter, and it does it very well. This one does have one interesting catch - the woman survivor is pregnant.

I'm usually on top of new classic releases, but this one escaped my attention until DVD Savant named it the top disc of 2009. I hadn't seen it since the third grade - Thanskgiving 1966 - and it made quite an impression on me at the time, so I thought I'd purchase it and see if it lived up to my memories. It did and then some. I can't really share any details of the story without giving anything away, except perhaps the character of the survivors. The woman is understandably obsessed with returning to the city and finding out for sure if her husband is dead or alive. Of the four men one is disqualified as a suitor because of his age, and another is disqualified because, after all, this is 1951 and he is African American and the woman is white. Of the two actually eligible suitors by 1951 standards, one is a brutish slob and the other is thoughtful and forward thinking, setting up a Cain and Abel dynamic between the two.

The film audio and video quality are excellent. From 2000 - 2005 Sony put out some of the more technically challenged classic film discs I've seen, but in the last three or four years they've really turned things around. Highly recommended for fans of 1950's sci-fi.

I had not heard of this movie before researching end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it movies and literature on Wikipedia. I found it very different and thought provoking. It was well worth the purchase price.

FIVE belongs to that rare class of science fiction film that lingers in the memory even decades after a first viewing. Director/producer/writer Arch Oboler tried for something daring in an era that was dominated by threat of nuclear war. He combined stark black and white images with literally no special effects with five survivors of an atomic armeggedon who faced both the harshness of survival and personal crisis to produce a film that some reviewers have termed simplistic and pretentious. Such negative reactions are, I think, more of a reflection of the desire of most audiences to have slang bang action sequences with Rambo punching out hordes of Commie troops. Here Oboler went with a more low key, more believable approach. When the nuclear dust settles over the world, the lucky few survivors will indeed be fortunate to find each other, and when they do, Oboler suggests that the prejudices and hates of the Old World will not go away.

William Phipps is Michael, who survives only because he happens to be in an elevator in the Empire State building. He meets Roseanna (Susan Douglas), who similarly survives because she was rolled into a lead-lined X-Ray machine. Against all odds, they meet in a house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, where they must overcome the emotional baggage that each brings. He with loneliness, she with pregnancy and a desire to find her husband. Michael tries foolishly to kiss her and she repulses him. They work around this and slowly grow attached to each other. And all the while they talk. This talk is the ordinary stuff of life, ordinary only in the extraordinary circumstances of their new life. Far from viewing this torrent of words as pretentious, I saw it as a sincere desire to hold on to the fast evaporating vestiges of the post-war mindset. Soon they meet three other survivors, all of whom believe in the power of words to alter reality. At first these three talk of food. Then they shift to other topics, some of which are ignoble (blunt racism) while others are a disjointed attempt to hold onto the past life even against all logic. The camera work is grim and grainy, and in a film like this, it adds a powerful note of realism. FIVE begins with two, expands into five, then shrinks back to two. The ending is one that Rod Serling may have had in mind a decade later when he presented a TWILIGHT ZONE episode with Charles Bronson and Elizabeth Montgomery in a similarly themed post war Adam and Eve allegory.

FIVE is a brute demolition of the hope that in an emergency people will overcome their cultural and moral divides to reach a living compromise. In Arch Oboler's hands, the reality is unsettlingly different.

an early 1951 post-apocalyptic movie about 4 men and 1 woman who ultimately find each other after the nuclear holocaust. anxiety about nuclear destruction and the cold war were very common themes in some sci-fi and horror movies of that time period. this movie isn't as campy as other reviewers may make it out to be. the acting isn't the best and not much for special affects, but still it is an entertaining movie. drama, conflict, racism, murder, are all blended in with a minimal background (filmed in director's arch oboler's frank lloyd wright cliff house). bonus material is fun: "how to be an arch villian" and "secrets of deception" are a couple of shorts, with recipes for a dirty martini and secret martini. also included is the trailer which really promises more than this movie could deliver. overall, an enjoyable viewing if you like the earlier b&w end of the world type of movies.

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