This would be fun as an impromptu graffiti.
Day the World Ended (1955) is a messy, grimy take on a messy, grimy subject, when mankind takes that unconscious decision to end it all through the unplanned aggregate of selfish actions that results in a most deadly war.
Throw in some zombies, symbolic of the consequence of the un-wisdom exercised by those who couldn’t tolerate their rivals, whether it be because of honest self-interest or faux-divine, present in this very cul-de-sac of survivors, and it’s something of a complete traversal from the fellow trying to save this little chunk of mankind, to the hot head who can only think of himself, to the creatures waiting to destroy them in the hot zone above them.
Salt with way too much literal power for the individual, whether it’s the guy with the gun or with the nuclear weapon, and this is your favorite soup, metaphorically seasoned with arsenic.
Unfortunately, sympathizing with the characters is a little hard, and I’m not sure why. It may simply be the fact that the movie was made in an unfamiliar era, a time when we were transitioning from a more communal society to a more individualistic society, so it’s harder to slip into the personas of these characters.
Or maybe they’re not well-presented by the script, or well-portrayed by the actors.
But it’s a raw take, to be sure, thrusting the audience into an unfamiliar scenario and watching the various personality types react. It’s interesting, and yet a bit horrifying.
If you do stumble across this, enjoy.
