Posted on 02/25/2015 5:50:51 AM PST by Travis McGee
"The Last Valley" stars Michael Caine and Omar Sharif, it's set in Germany in the 1640s during the Thirty Years War.I stumbled upon this forgotten masterpiece from 1971 a few days ago when I obtained some old VHS tapes from a friend.
Just update the story line 400 years, change it to Christians vs Muslims, give everybody an AK-47, and this may be what the future is going to bring.
The movie flopped at the box office for a number of reasons unrelated to its quality. The John Barry soundtrack alone is stunning.
"The Last Valley" is now on Youtube in 12 minute segments. At least watch the first two segments, if you have time. Many social and military issues in the movie are timeless. This is the best SHTF/prepper movie I can ever remember watching.
Remember the old song from Pat Boone about 50 years ago?
Where were you when the ship hit the sand?
I was sitting way up there on dry land.
When that first played on the radio it made heads raise and say...”Say what”?
Interesting, I’ll have to take a look later.
On my all time favorites list.
You’re spot on about lack of studio support.
It opened in NYC at a small to medium sized theater on W72nd and Broadway as opposed to Times Square Broadway the normal venues for big openings. If it had newspaper ads they were so small as to be un-noticeable. They only reason I popped in was that it was a block from my apartment and I passed it every day. As I recall, it was there for only a half week. I’m pretty sure that theater didn’t have a super wide screen.
I had talked it up to co-workers who tried to see it the following week end but it had gone. Poof now you see it, now you don’t.
At the time I was mystified at the lack of attention this great film received. Over the years I encountered only two friends that had seen when outstanding movies were discussed. Same as Peter O’Tooles “The Ruling Class”
Hurry up with your next book, bro, dang..!
My money is gettin tired...
He was probably just influenced by paychecks. British actors are notoriously mercenary, they do the work to the best of their ability and move on. Caine’s admitted to not even seeing many of the movies he’s been in, he just doesn’t care.
cool I will check this out.
Thanks, Trav. I watched it on YouTube—was a good movie.
bttt
Yes, a lone trader brings about a ten # block of salt to trade for preserved meat.
Bkmk
Later,,, marked,,,thanks,,,,,
Just watched - liked it very much, even Michael Caine’s “Germanish” accent!
Considering it was 1640, his guess at a German-ish captain’s accent was as good as any. I did not find it objectionable.
Darn, you explained that to him too quickly. I was hoping someone would have some fun with him first:)
I never thought of it as a SHTF movie but forty years ago, we weren't thinking about such things in those days and even figured we could probably survive a Soviet nuclear attack. Nowadays, with our rotten leadership and supine, Leftist population the possibility of surviving a catastrophic event is much more questionable.
I think it works much better today for several reasons, such as “post-SHTF” not having the same resonance then. Other than a nuclear war of annihilation, we never thought the USA would decline and collapse, or that our demise would be an inside job.
Also, the ultra-wide-screen format missed the Lawrence of Arabia wave, and really didn’t find a home in many theaters. That wide skinny format was a bust in smaller theaters and they didn’t want to show it. Today on your big screen TV or even your computer the story works fine.
It would be awesome to see a remastered print in a big I-Max type theater though.
Watched it all .......thank you.
Boy Howdy, have you got that right!
We never thought we would have tens of millions of Gibsmedats, either, willing to murder and pillage their neighbors like Muslims hordes if they got their "free" money and food cards cut off.
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