Posted on 12/13/2023 8:33:06 AM PST by jimjohn
Leave The World Behind - A Free Republic Movie Review
By J. Johnson
When I read the first reviews from this forum it appears that most folks couldn't get past the executive producers (who shall not be named in this article). My thought was well at least someone has to watch it to give an honest review and take on this movie. So last night, I decided to “ take one for the team”, and donate 2 hours and 21 minutes of my life that I’ll never get back. Here goes…
Before grading, let’s start with that infamous line in the movies that you’ve all heard (paraphrasing), “You can’t trust anyone - especially white people”. Now, this is in no way defending this movie, but the criticism of that line is the book definition of taking something out of context. Without doing the ‘spoiler alert’ thing, the statement needs to be looked at in the context of the current situation in that movie at that time; which by the way becomes a virtually moot point later in the first. With that said, if my fellow Real Americans wanted to trash this moving, we can do so long before that line is even uttered.
Three things that stood out to me the most from this film:
a) too many musical scores in the beginning and they were too loud.
b) the too obvious LACK of extras in the film (e.g., you can't hit a beach on Long Island on a hot summer day where there is not a crowd). This movie revolved around 7 characters. The only extras I recall seeing are a little girl peeking through a window, and a woman that did not speak English. (a translation would have been nice, but I got the point with what little Spanish I could extract from her desperation).
c) Somehow, it appears this movie seems to either cut off before it should have, or someone edited the plot in post production. Perhaps budget cuts? A rush to get it out the door?
Example: There were several ‘acts’ in the movie, including one called ‘The Flood’. But I saw no flood. Perhaps I was mistaken.
The movie starts with this author deliberately covering the screen during the pre-movie credits so I would not see the names of the executive producers. What follows is that 2 seasoned actors (Juila Roberts & Ethan Hawke) decide to take their 2 foul-mouthed children to a house rental on or near a Long Island beach for a quick planned getaway. Shortly thereafter, all hell breaks loose. They later meet the character played by Mahershala Ali, which is pretty much where the movie truly begins.
Among the criticisms was the woke messaging throughout the movie, examples of which included the so-called ‘racist’ character played by Julia Roberts. I can say that I did not detect any racism in the movie, but a healthy distrust among all the adult characters in the beginning. But then again, with the networks down, no information coming through, and you’re in an unknown environment, the natural tendency is to become untrustworthy until trust can be gained, which did occur during the movie.
In fact, as far as any racist angle, there were a couple scenes in the movie among the adults where a viewer would begin to ask, “hey, where is this going?”. In other words - just the opposite of racism. Without going into detail, I would guess these were the points in the movie that included heavy script edits (giggle).
For an apocalyptic movie, this one was pretty soft. They were not in the cities, and had no visible signs of mass chaos. Yes, there was an issue with Tesla Motors, but no one pointed a finger at the company’s CEO, just the driverless technology. Clearly, the movie was not anti-gun.
Overall, I’d give the movie a C; mainly for the overhyping of a low budget movie that left gaping, unexplained holes (e.g. internet goes down, but not the power grids) . And if there were any ‘woke’ lessons I could take from this movie, here they are:
Sounds like “The Road.” Worst movie ever made.
I watched it too last night and agree with many of your points...especially the stupid music. I didn’t get “the flood” either..maybe it was a metaphor?
To be honest I didn’t hear or notice the white people line. I know Julia Roberts was supposed to be racist but as you pointed out in that situation she was just being mostly reasonable.
The Tesla thing bugged me because it was obvious (at least to me) that it was meant to diminsh people or scare people about Teslas...and that’s because we KNOW they have a score to settle (and many scores to come) with Musk.
The animal thing was never really addressed either...why they were acting weird. Are we supposed to think that nature was being THAT affected by what was going on?
Kevin Bacon is me, except I would have shot the guy who pulled the pistol rather than have a discussion. I dont think our opinions are much different. I do think the Kevin Bacon character was added to the movie to reinforce the ‘cant trust white people’ message, which is disgusting.
The producers certainly knew about the upcoming federal action on this and exploited it or invented it.
I was thinking about this in context and here's the tropes presented in the movie::
Julie Roberts - Racist, but secretly wants to have sex with black men.
Ethan Hunt - Ineffectual liberal white man. Secrently wants to bang young girls.
White Teen - Pervert
White girl kid - Weirdo obsessed with popular culture.
Kevin Bacon - Only looking out for himself.
Not one really redeeming quality out of all of them.
Julia Roberts and Ethan Hawke were whiny little girls.
Big Mike wanted it this way so Netflix did it.
Must be why ‘they’re’ hyping it……to recoup some of their money
Under the guise of….’this is racist’…this movie is being hyped big time!
I agree.
After the black lead stated something like “you’ve been preparing for this for years!” Bacon’s character responded to the request with “what I have is not your concern.”
Spot on actually.
Just because I have it and you don’t doesn’t mean I am OBLIGATED to give it to you.
Filled with overt and covert racial and idealogical messages. Here’s what I got:
*Junior Racist black teen who flatly dislikes, distrusts, and sees the worst in whitey.
* White dad who doesn’t have a clue and is the last to catch on to everything. Cliche, but Hawke plays it pitch perfect.
* White “Karen” who is the mom; she’s both the manager and the first person who would demand to see a manager
*Tanker runs ashore, named after first slave ship “White Lion”
* Clocks and mugs read 666 in whitey room
* Radio station set to 1619 (slave ship year)
* Blacks relegated to wooden basement, looks like below deck of ship
* Whites usurp black home, live above level with sea painting subliminal that keeps changing as chaos grows
* white Teslas crashing
* House is White (White House) black family no longer lives there, but owns it (still controls operation of White House)
* White prepper seen as new enemy in post apocalypse, simply because he’s thought ahead to this, but viewed as greedy bad dude for not contributing health care to the obtuse white dad and his boy
* White kid teeth fall out, showing loss of financial and social security (my own opinion! Losing teeth in dreams... )
* Deer is “nature”, judging man for encroachment...climate statement.
* Flood waters at our door scene, but man tries to shut it out and turn his back on it.
* Latest addition to guy’s music collection has crude lyrics, common to where we’re at now, culturally
* Young girl says “fck” in front of adults without hesitation, just rolls off her lips.
* Spanish speaking only immigrant tries desperately to get help from white man, to no avail.
* Straw bedding on floor, where someone was sleeping in grape wood Shack, indicative of slave quarters.
* Black and white painting keeps changing throughout movie, until it becomes more gray, showing equality among races, since everyone is now screwed at an equal level.
That was the kind of scene to make one want to avoid beaches at certain times of the year.
And no explanation or reason for the unusual behavior of the animals.
One statement about the cyber aback affecting migration patterns???? And another about the animals trying to warn them??? Of a cyber attack???
The many “slow reveal” scenes (when the character sees or hears something and the camera slowly turns to what they’re looking at) were agonizingly slow and drawn out, with way over the top dramatic music.
Like the guy didn’t notice the plane wreckage when he walked over the hill to the beach, but only after he looked up form the body part buried in the sand to sloooooooowly turn to see the, unrealistic and horribly low budget airliner wreckage.
Also, over use of the camera flying around at random odd angles did not help.
Pass on this one people.
You want to watch a real horror story, watch World War II: From The Frontlines.
” I did a search for a photo of the beach in 1941 and discovered it was in fact possible as you could not see the sand for the people.”
IIRC, Coney Island is at the end of a transit line from NYC, and they have Nathan’s Hot Dogs stands. That might have something to do with it.
There’s speculation here about the nature of the attack... EMP? Aliens? Cyber?
My analysis is that it came in three parts, but the culprit is not 100% clear.
However, it came in three waves:
1) Cyber attack, affecting planes, ships, newer autos, grids - but not everywhere.
2) Disinformation triggering societal distrust, especially among Muslims and Asians. In desperate, scared times, they’d be the first shot with questions asked later (or never). Easy to identify, easier to hate.
3) Nuclear/radiological attack in major cities with sonic or microwave weaponry.
In this fictional scenario, who would be most likely to launch this unconventional warfare, causing internal division and destruction from within - and against Asians and, presumably, Asian/Middle Eastern Muslims?
Is there a predictive programming message being sent or is it just good, old fashioned fun?
>I thought Kevin Bacon was in this movie?....................
Cameo. Maybe 2 minutes screen time.
It’s been proven yet again that obama would probably have benefitted by turning the task of writing over to bill ayers; for the third or fourth time.
“I thought Kevin Bacon was in this movie?...................”
I thought yesterday I was having a Mandela Effect because I swear when I first started hearing about this movie it was Kevin Bacon, and then sometime during the day it turned into that other guy. Weird.
He is in the movie but in a smaller role.
You are correct, Bacon wasn’t portrayed as evil, like the rest of the movie the scene was like a dress rehearsal and not satisfying or convincing, but he was written as a normal cautious person/prepper, until he casually gave away the secret to the best-equipped and best-built survival bunker this side of Cheyenne Mountain as a little gift.
How about the random supernatural stuff they tossed in sometimes?
Like the animals, or the little girl?
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