Zero Population Growth

You could say it was a unique glimpse of a future we now face, while those a little bit more sceptical would say that the world that Zero Population Growth displays was inevitable. Set in the future (though when is unknown) this 1972 movie finds Oliver Reed and Geraldine Chaplin playing a young couple whose hopes and dreams of the future are delivered a crashing blow.

 

After what could have been several nuclear wars, or at least some sort of radioactive disaster, the population live in a sort of Big Brother existence. The air outside is so polluted that it’s not advised to step out of your door without your compulsory gas mask. The citizens of the location the movie is set in live their lives looking back to the past, with museums of living history that talk about a long forgotten age where there were cars that took petrol, and couples that lived monogamous lives.

 

Into this world of dying commodities, and a population too high to live more than two generations, the governing bodies decide that there must be a complete curb on reproduction. For a whole generation it is made illegal to have children, the penalty for even attempting to consider childbirth is death, for the parents and the child.

 

The news of this terrible law comes as a terrible shock to most of the population, while for two couples Russ and Carol (Oliver Reed and Geraldine Chaplin), and George and Edna (Don Gordon and Diane Cilento) the news is truly devastating. While George and Edna adopt a robotic child, Russ and Carol have far more dangerous dreams.

 

Zero Population Growth follows in the wake of movies like Fahrenheit 451, giving a clinical and disturbing view of the future. Its ultimate storyline would not come as a surprise to anyone, two people daring to go out on a limb in order to have a child of their own. But what does come as a bit of a surprise is how unforgiving dull this movie is after so much potential. If you’ll forgive me, the world mind numbing would not even come close to being a fair description for this movie. Having spent a good forty five minutes slowly building up to what we knew was going to happen, what should have been the start of the action was pretty much the end of it.

 

Hollow is a fairly accurate way to describe this movie, I cannot help but think the movies director Michael Campus (a name who directorial history is unsurprising small) was deeply inspired by Staley Kubrick’s 2001, with lots of scenes with drawn out silences while doing mundane things, intermingled by big spectacular shots and equally spectacular music. Zero Population Growth is more of an artwork than a movie, but to be honest with you it does not really succeed in that department either.

 

The only thing that appealed to me about the movie was the disintegration of relationships as jealousy arises between the two couples who at one time happily engaged in a little partner swapping, this is after all the future! It’s this bitterness that you can not only understand and could see coming, really gets to the heart. You don’t know whether you feel sorry for Russ and Carol for being put in a dangerously distressing situation thanks to George and Edna’s want and need to be the parents of the child.

 

Regardless of brief plus points, there are overpowering failures that make the movie a laughing stock. During one scene where authorities are alerted to a breach of the law the carryon of shouting and general other associated noise is so horrendous that you really think it might be time to turn off the movie once and for all.

 

The movies performances do not even warrant acclaim, Oliver Reed is absurdly aloof through the entire movie, Chaplin incredibly whining and annoying, Gordon is obnoxious granted an issue of writing but he does actually seem to be revelling in this; while finally Cilento who I really rather enjoy in the original Wicker Man is just a joke too far to even discuss, shame on her.

 

I’m sure my comments will come painful to those that appreciate this movie, of which I gather has quite a fan base; but I put it that movies need more than stylish looks and a bit of prophecy in order to succeed, they need a decent storyline and some well rounded characters to make things work. While Zero Population Growth looks the part, sadly it’s not and the final thirty minutes of predictability are just some of the most obvious storytelling I have ever seen.