​SURVIVAL ADVENTURES ON BLU-RAY

While students prepare to survive final exams and end-of-semester projects over the next few weeks, two underrated films dealing with more extreme types of survival just came out on Blu-ray this April 5 and 19.

A British film released in the U.S. in 1955, “The Purple Plain” (1954) is a well-produced and often-moving J. Arthur Rank production starring Gregory Peck as a Canadian pilot serving with the British in Burma during World War II. None of his fellow flyers want to fly with him because with his reclusive, surly attitude and rash, dangerous decisions they think he’s gone “round the bend.” They don’t realize he has become suicidally reckless because of his wife's death in the London Blitz on their wedding night.

Then he suddenly finds new reason for living after meeting a beautiful English-speaking Burmese girl in a refugee village. Shortly after that, however, on a routine mission his plane crashes in the wilderness behind Japanese lines, forcing him to figure out a way back to his base with his injured crewman and complaining passenger. The last half of the movie is a struggle for survival through jungle and desert.

The interracial romance is somewhat surprisingly (and refreshingly) treated in a low-key, very matter-of-fact manner, but then this is a British rather than an American film from 1954, where at that time such a subject would have become a major issue and likely the focus of the plot. Thanks to the Royal Air Force, the production was able to use actual World War II aircraft, which adds greatly to its authenticity.

Some of the scenes of the long trek for survival call to mind “The Bridge on the River Kwai,” which filmed on some of the same Ceylon/Sri Lanka locations a few years later. Besides being a good adventure film, “The Purple Plain” is beautifully shot, well-acted, and a powerful story of hope vs. despair as well as a psychological study on the effects of depression. Apparently a popular hit in Britain earning four major BAFTA nominations (according to the IMDb; two nominations according to Wikipedia), it doesn't seem to have made a significant mark in the U.S. but deserves to be much better known.

Kino’s Blu-ray, transferred at the correct 1.66:1 widescreen aspect ratio, is extremely sharp except the opticals, and has very good color with some minor fluctuations. Occasional dirt on the Technicolor negatives shows up as colored and white specks. Sound is good. The only bonus features are three trailers to other films either starring Gregory Peck or by director Robert Parrish, all of which happen to be on Blu-rays from Kino.

THE PURPLE PLAIN on Blu-ray – Movie: A- / Video: A- / Audio: A- / Extras: D

“Panic in Year Zero” (1962) has been on a pretty good DVD for some time, but it’s nice to see it finally get a good HD transfer and the Blu-ray release it deserves. Originally titled “Survival,” it’s a film that holds up under repeat viewings, with an intelligent and still timely script, shot in moody black-and-white CinemaScope.

It stars Ray Milland, Jean Hagen (a far cry from Lina Lamont here!), and Frankie Avalon getting the rare chance to do a serious role and holding his own very well. Hagen shows far more dramatic range than she was allowed to have in her comic “Singin’ in the Rain” role. Interestingly the film was also directed by Ray Milland, and despite its low budget is a fairly accomplished post-apocalyptic cinematic parable, dealing with the threat and the after-effects of atomic warfare.

Milland and his family set off on a weekend camping/fishing trip and a flash in the distance they think at first is lightning turns out to be an atomic mushroom cloud over Los Angeles. The rest of the film they attempt to survive and maintain some resemblance of civilized behavior while rationalizing their lapses into violence against the panic-stricken populace, looters, and opportunists who suddenly appear.

The complex characterizations and effective performances raise it well above the level of many post-apocalyptic thrillers that focus on action and special effects with more stereotyped characters. It might easily have been handled as the exploitation film promised by the trailer (it’s an American International production, after all), but is actually a very thoughtful and well-structured meditation on how people might react in the event of the massive nuclear attack everyone was fearing at the time. It would make a good co-feature with “On the Beach” or “The Last Man on Earth,” or a followup to “Dr. Strangelove.”

The black-and-white 2.35:1 image on Kino’s Blu-ray looks very good projected on a big screen, with excellent contrast, a generally sharp picture, and very minor wear. Audio is also good. Bonus features include a 10-minute video discussion of the film by Joe Dante (in HD) and a fine audio commentary by Richard Harland Smith that gives plenty of background on the sets, actors, story, and social implications, as well as personal observations that tie its themes in with modern-day trends over a half-century later. There is also a trailer (in SD), plus two HD trailers to other Ray Milland American-International pictures on Blu-ray from Kino.

PANIC IN YEAR ZERO on Blu-ray – Movie: A- / Video: A / Audio: A / Extras: B