Customer Reviews

Late Great Planet Earth [VHS]

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4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I saw the film in 1979, and it had a tremendous impact on me. Hal Lindsey, while obviously further removed from the last days than we are now, did a tremendous job of paralleling the prophecies of the Bible with the current events of the late 20th Century. While the pace drags a bit here and there, and some of his speculations on possible fulfillments of Scripture obviously did not happen (the "Jupiter Effect"), the LGPE is still a good documentary on how the Second Coming of Christ, for the first time in history, has the potential to come to pass in our lifetime.

Hal Lindsays' teaching on Biblical prophecy as encapsulated in his best-selling book 'The Late Great Planet Earth' had a major effect on evangelical Protestantism during the decade of the '70's. An effect so profound that just about every pastor teaching prophecy today approaches the subject using the same methodological framework that Hal made so popular a quarter of a century ago.

This DVD released in '78 is a visual restatement of Hal Lindsay's prophetical teachings. Now that some 27 years have passed since it's release the information contained upon this disc is far from cutting edge material. It does however serve as a fascinating timecapsule concerning many of the current events of that generation and the theological underpinnings of how the Church interpreted those events from a Biblical perspective.

Whether you buy into the "End of the World" scenario as presented by Evangelical Christianity or not it's worthy of at least one viewing. There might even be a few surprises that you didn't expect.

Great movie of truth of the last book of the New Testament. It will make any Christian wake up and smell the coffee. I can't believe it is not available from your company.

The "Late Great Planet Earth", based on Hal Lindsey's book of the same name, was released in 1976. Watching this movie shows how much the world has changed in 23 years. It also shows how heavily current culture and society flavor intrepretations of biblical prophecy.

Some parts of the film are forward looking (cloning is mentioned long before there was a "Dolly".) Computers are identified as a way to control the masses--and that may yet come to pass. However the film doesn't see the Internet and the personal computer revolution.

The cold war, Russia and the fuel shortage of the early 70's figure heavily into the film's predictions of the immediate onslaught of the seven-year tribulation period. (Which the film boldly states will begin in 1982.) Opps!

As a period piece, this film is interesting. It also gives pause to think about prophecies yet to come to pass, but watching it is like getting into a time machine.

I first saw this video around 1979 and was impressed with it. Seeing it now in 2008 and being able to look "back" at some of the dated predictions made at the time of this films production made me shake my head. Too many liberties were taken by the writer(s) in terms of setting dates for the fulfillment of some of these prophesies. The production value is poor and the long drawn out filler scenes, such as the one at the beginning where a false prophet is chased down on foot for what seems an eternity, are boring and detract from the message of the film. The DVD "The End Times" is far better in every way. I'm sorry that I purchased this one. I was going to use it as a teaching tool but my students lost interest very quickly. I wasted my money. Save yours...

Although this movie is a bit dated the subject makes it a must have for any Christian home. Many of the issues discussed are visible today due to the time that has passed since this films fist screening.
This is a subject matter, in my opinion, that should be researched further by Christians in the way of sound intruction from reputable seminarians. There are some that tend to deminish the message. But this movie tells what world events are of importance and of the things to come in dramatic documentary style.

JRG

Please ignore the bigoted comments of the person above who obviously has an axe to grind with Christians. This movie left quite an impression with me as a teenager. Hal is a dedicated student of Bible prophecy and his book from which this movie is based has sold 10 million copies since it came out in the late 60's.

Hal Lindsey is not a prophet, nor ever claims to be one: He is simply a scholar of Bible prophecy that is unafraid to speculate on the meaning of the imagery presented in the book of Revelation. Keep in mind he saw the Islamic threat long before it became national headlines.

Yes, we are probably safe from killer bees. But with the current wars, rumors of wars, pestilences, earthquakes, tsunamis and hurricanes Hal's movie is more relevant than ever.

I bought this DVD hoping that would have events that would be closer to our times, since the description did not say the year of production, I just based my decision on the summary in the back of the case. For a moment I thought I was watching the old "Thief In The Night" series. I wish the production would have been more updated to what we are living now on Earth. I wish Hal Lindsey would make a new one for our time.

Thought this would be a good video dramatizing Bible prophecy, especially since Orson Welles appears prominently in it & Hal Lindsey's book was on the best seller list for a long time. I was disappointed. Unfortunately this is a very boring video. It drags on way too long & its subject matter is dealt with in a drab, uninteresting way.

THE LATE GREAT PLANET EARTH (1979)
directed by Robert Amram & Rolf Forsberg
approx. 1 hour 26 minutes

"The earth is defiled under the inhabitants
thereof; because they have transgressed
the laws, changed the ordinances, broken
the everlasting covenant. Therefor hath
the curse devoured the earth and they that
dwell therein are desolate."
~Isaiah 24:5,6

This is the video adaptation of Hal Lindsey's hugely successful book of the same name. The Late Great Planet Earth book popularized the dispensationalist interpretation of prophecy. This movie version is features narration by the great Orson Welles, and the production value is surprisingly high.

The first twenty minutes is made up of a reenactment of John the Apostle's visions on the Isle of Patmos as recorded in the Book of Revelation. After this reenactment we see the first onscreen appearance of Mr. Lindsey. He explains how two of three major events that were predicted in scripture have occurred during the twentieth century. These are the forming of the nation of Israel in 1948 (Ezekiel 38) and the Six Day War of 1967 (Luke 21)*. The effect of the latter was the capture of Jerusalem. Lindsey says that the next event to occur will be the the rebuilding of Solomon's Temple atop Mount Moriah. Today, the Islamic Dome of the Rock occupies this space. How a new temple will be built on this space is not dwelled upon in this video.

Next we move onto an as yet unresolved situation involving power plays for Jerusalem. Lindsey believes that the energy crisis will lead to strong tensions between the oil states and the West and that this will be used as leverage in gaining territory. Welles speaks that Jerusalem will become the "burdensome stone" (mentioned in Zechariah 12), and that many will be united against Israel.

I would say that this is the point that the video takes a less focused turn. However it is also easy to see why the book version of Late Great Planet Earth was popular with hippies. We witness the collapse of the natural world, the injustice of famine, the toxic effects of technology and pollution and the overwhelming brutality of nuclear war. Lindsey reasons that the Biblical prophets were using ancient terminology to describe modern phenomena, so for example when the apostle John writes that a plague of "great hail" will rain from heaven (Rev.16:21) and this is a foretelling of airplanes dropping explosives. The strategy of this video is not to say that the world will end a certain way, only that life as we know it will get progressively worse due in part to mankind's actions. There is a sequence regarding poison in the water and our food supply that would fit perfectly into something from the Sierra Club. The scene on the killer bees sounds paranoid due to the chosen example, is a warning against the practice of genetic engineering. If this video were made today, perhaps they would have substituted the bizarre practice of human-pig "xenotransplantation".

After the segment on catastrophies, Lindsey takes us through the fragmentation of society. In the 1970s many saw the civil unrest and political conflicts as precursors to a period of violence. People wanted answers and solutions. During the same time, many new religions and guru types were popping up, promising to lead people. Lindsey himself muses about what the antichrist might be like. He says that the antichrist is alive at the time of the filming, and that he doesn't know what his destiny is for mankind's future. Footage of several prominent figures is shown, including Henry Kissinger, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan and Fidel Castro.

Finally we have an extended sequence on end times political alliances which will mobilize against Israel. The Treaty of Rome, which led to the European Common Market (which ultimately became the E.U.) is suggested to be the ten crowns of Rev. 17:3. There is a very interesting experiment in this segment where footage is edited together so as to demonstrate what the opening stages of the battle of Armageddon will look like. There is no dialogue for almost five minutes! This is followed by a montage of the beauty of the natural world, presumably a sign of eternal paradise.

This is a good video, although obviously it is very dated. I will say that I do not agree with some of the interpretations in this tape, but it is less spotty than the eponymous book. This is definitely a "cliff notes" take on theology and certainly should NOT be your only source on these subjects. Thankfully the central focus of the video isn't the "pre-trib rapture" found in so many dispensationalist products. Nevertheless I would recommend the tape, even to non-Christians, as it demonstrates a set of concerns not normally attributed to fundamentalists.

Here are some of the people that appear in this video:

Dr. Aurelio Peccei, Club of Rome
Dr. George Wald, Nobel Prize
Dr. Norman Borlaug, Nobel Peace Prize
Dr. Emile Benoit, Columbia University
Desmond Morris, author of 'the Naked Ape'
Dr. John Gribbin, author of 'the Jupiter Effect'
Dr. Paul Ehrlich, author of 'the Population Bomb'
Dr. William Paddock, author of 'Famine'
Rep. Joe Waggoner, Jr. (D-LA)
Dr. George Kistiakowsky, Harvard scientist
Dr. George Rathgens, M.I.T. professor
Maj. Gen. Chaim Herzog, UN ambassador
Dr. Jacques Piccard, Swiss engineer
Albert Rosenfeld, author of 'the Second Genesis'
"Babetta", witch, Penthouse magazine model
Tal Brooke, author of 'Lord of the Air'
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, trancendental meditation guru
Robert Nisbet, Columbia University sociologist


*- please note that these verses aren't explicitly mentioned in the movie,
but they are probably those which Lindsay is referring to.