Customer Reviews

ZPG: Zero Population Growth

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

 

 

Set in a dystopian future, Z.P.G. ("Zero Population Growth") tells the Malthusian tale of a world where the planet's natural resources have been consumed to such a critical level that the "World Federation Council" puts a 30-year ban on childbirth in the hopes of curbing the drain. All pre-edict children are marked, and any births after nine months of the edict result in the summary execution of the lawbreaking parents and their offspring. Throughout the smog-filled landscape, desperate people watch for errant infants they can turn in for extra food or oxygen.

In the world of Z.P.G., people spend their free time going to museums where they can see stuffed house pets, demonstrations of how gasoline was used to fuel vehicles, and films of forgotten relics like lakes and streams. Deprived of children, they also turn to technology for comfort. We first meet Russell McNeil (Oliver Reed, displaying none of his usual screen presence) and his wife Carol (Geraldine Chaplin) at Baby Land, a retail store where adults buy surrogate robot children that are creepy as heck as they slowly amble across the floor chanting, "You're my mummy!"

And while births are forbidden, that doesn't mean sex is discouraged. The government even passes out pornography, and state-funded psychiatrists are on call to encourage good behavior. Unfortunately, post-coitus a woman must check for conception, and she presses a handy-dandy "abort" button if such a misfortune has taken place. Kind of takes the fun out of it.

Eventually Carol can't take it anymore, and she insists on having a child. She's surprised by how supportive Russell is. They come up with an elaborate scheme to hide the child, keeping Carol in a concealed room like Anne Frank. It's only when Carol screws up by taking the baby out for an emergency clandestine doctor appointment that the McNeils' secret is discovered. Rather than turning them in, neighbors George and Edna Bordon (Don Gordon and Diane Cilento) blackmail them into sharing parenting with the baby. Eventually the Bordons want the child more and more to themselves, putting the McNeils in quite a quandary.

A response to Paul R. Erlich's 1968 The Population Bomb, Z.P.G. feels like a cross between THX-1138 and Logan's Run. Moreover, it's certain that some of the ideas in the film inspired PD James for her novel Children of Men. Written by Max Erlich and Frank De Felitta, this Scandinavian production has a nice look to it courtesy of director Michael Campus (The Mack), but even with the scope of its screenplay doesn't have enough story to sustain the running time.

I loved this movie and can't really see what was so awful about it. There are times when movies are given the B rating and people seem to just go along with that. I thought Oliver was fab and that the story was sufficiently Retro Futuristic, A'la 70's style, to totally hook me when I first saw it on late night TV in the early 80's.

I loved the staging and the sets, right down to the funky white (read for sterile) outfits and the sociological fly on the wall insight into the lives of the two protagonists desperate to enrich their seemingly emtpy lives/failing relationship by breaking the ultimate taboo. I guess in many ways I was primed for this kind of thing by reading lots of Ray Bradbury growing up and I adored the stark funky realism of the whole gas and curfew thing!

Let me simply say that if you have an Arty eye towards Sci-Fi and the sociological, loved films like Soylent Green and Farenheit 451 then this movie will not dissapoint you! I loved it and I think *getting it* is what this movie requires from the viewer.

This is an early 70's film that takes place in some unknown, futuristic society on earth. One might assume it's a future England, but there are enough Americans to make it seem it could be anywhere and that maybe so far in the future, borders and countries no longer exist. A totalitarian regime rules this society,it's leaders and enforcers hovering above the smog in some sort of flying machine that is all seeing/hearing and issues commands and announcements on a loudspeaker. To stop the total decline of society, birth is outlawed for 30 years and citizens wanting children are issued bizarre walking/talking dolls. Smoke and fog covers almost everything(which helps instead of building expensive sets)and we are shown museums which are propaganda driven to show the "evils" of the 20th century-one shows a family at a Thanksgiving table-with all kinds of burping and sounds of indigestion playing as visitors walk by and recieve lectures on how those indulgences led to the world they have now. A dinner out, in this society has all the choices of the 20th century-just served up in disgusting blobs of artificial protein paste from tubes. People are also allowed to smoke(why not? It's polluted anyway!)and view pornography to keep their minds off of children. One couple(Reed and Chaplin) however wants a child so badly they concieve one anyway and conceal the pregnancy and eventual birth, knowing that ultimately they must escape this society. In a scene that predates the Internet by decades, Reed attempts to gain access to forbidden information at a computer and in a sudden shocking twist, is literally wisked away to a secret room where he's repremanded, and and attempt is made to re-brainwash him to behave himself, but he holds on to his ideals. Eventually, Reed invents a ruse of him,wife and child, getting caught, and uses this to his plan of escape. We find out later,that this world survived a massive nuclear war-there is a memorial plaque for the burial of "The Last Polaris Missile" and that, in an ending that resembles CHILDREN OF MEN(2006), the family attempts to escape to a wilderness, they can be left alone. Will they get out?

It was a Scandinavian production,done at the obscure Sagitarius Studios-but features alot of British talents both on screen in in the crew(such as Derek Meddings doing some miniature work of the flying machine and a long shot or two of the smog-covered city) as well as Americans.

The film played off alot of Dr Paul Erlich's warnings of that time. Now here, in the 21st century with warnings about climate change, food shortage and so on, it's no wonder the film has found it's audience again.

I had this movie on VHS and was glad to finally see it released on DVD. By the way, once this movie was released on June 3rd I searched and I could not find this film anywhere in stores or online except at Amazon.com.
If you like sci-fi movies from the late sixties to the mid-seventies you should like this one. It is not an action/sci-fi film, but the story line is good and acting excellent, especially by veteran actor Don Gordon who you may have seen in a couple of the original Outer limits TV series episodes(1963-64). Oliver Reed's acting was great also. I give it 4 stars rather than 5 only because I wished they had made the android child a little more realistic and maybe a longer role in the movie. But then again this was 1972. Some may say this is a sleeper movie, that it may be. But if you can relax and enjoy an arty, thoughtful and atmospheric sci-fi film like I can, then this one is great and I recommend it!

A truly amazing film for lovers of 70's apocolyptic sci-fi. The movie is a must-see for everyone who relishes end-of-the-world, Soylent Green-esque environmental disaster films. Plus, who couldn't love the creepy psychiatrist and the baby-simulacra. One thing, WE NEED THIS ON DVD!

A must see if you love cult Sci-Fi with a weird storyline, but one day could become our future. The famous
Charlie Chaplins daughter (Geraldine Chapman) in real life, plays the role of the wife & mother acting in this movie.
(just a bit of trivia)

Science fiction film has a sensational premise but it doesn't do anything with it, not really. In a futuristic society, childbirth is forbidden and punishable by death. People go to museums to see dogs and cats and plants as they no longer exist. In a gallery of notorious 20th century criminals, there are images of the Pope. Lakes and rivers are filled in to make room for the overpopulation. The air is so polluted that citizens must wear oxygen masks when they go outdoors. Couples are given plastic dolls as baby substitutes. Yet one woman (Geraldine Chaplin) is so obsessed with having a child of her own, she intentionally (and without telling husband Oliver Reed) breaks the law. It's hard to find sympathy for Chaplin's predicament as she doesn't think of the consequences of her act and the child and the world is overpopulated. The acting, with one exception, is pretty dull. Even the normally charismatic Reed seems pretty dead. The one exception is Diane Cilento who's excellent as a neurotic wife who must be brainwashed into accepting her plastic baby.

The DVD courtesy of Legend films is a decent anamorphic wide screen (1.78) transfer.

ZPG (Zero Population Growth) This was a good movie I saw it years ago. The meaning was freaky but it will be here soon. This was a good transaction and fast delivery.

This was an absolutely excellent movie. I'm not at all sure why this movie is not as popular today as when it came out. The actors and actresses were all great in their performances and some were very famous as well, along with being recognizable. It depicts accurately what people thought the future would turn out to become. The technology, clothes, hair styles, television, buying products, and so on, did look accurate to what would be the future world. It incorporated all these aspects, while at the same time showing the trade offs of overpopulation. The world in the future did have a lot of advantages but also disadvantages in regard to pollution and overpopulation and the hogging of food which would appear unseemly in the future. This might have been overlooked due to the fact that you could not reproduce for about 20 to 25 years or so. Not exactly a great thought, even though you did have all the conveniences and luxuries of a nice future, although the wildlife was not able to be desired. It makes you wonder if the future would be all that great. If we had to give away some things for a better future, would we do it, the movie seems to say. It is also a warning to our overabundance and disregard for everything. Although the trade off would be to not be around noisy kids, I'm assuming people in the future would still like to have a child, for whatever reason I guess.

ZPG was neither a critical nor commercial sucess, nor should it have been. Aside from the subject matter, zero popularion growth, it's very forgettable, but it addresses an issue that isn't going to go away--Earth's ever growing population. ZPG's method of population control is extreme, of course. The penalty for giving birth to a child is the literal sacrifice of the mother's life, but not even that ultimate threat is sufficent to dissuabe everyone. In this case, Geraldine Chaplin and Oliver Reed are the unlucky couple.

In many respects ZPG is comparible to Farenheit 451. Both address attempts at societal controls of what most people view as issues of personal choice. Society's attempted control of people's right to read what they choose is clearly an unwise choice from which no good will come. Ray Bradbury make that very clear in Farenheit 451. ZPG is different. Earth's burgeoning population is a threat to everyone--all people everwhere and many non-human animal and plant species--and we humans aren't doing a very good job of contolling our growth. Just as too few people were a threat to earlier humans, too many people are proving to be a threat to modern humans. ZPG is well-worth watching, if for no other reason than to awaken ourselves to the very real threat of overpopulation.