Damnation Alley (1977)

Powerful

Great Film overall

Best movie ever!

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

Post-WWIII 'B' road movie set against a post-apocalypse American landscape. It has a slow moving, dreary storyline, complete with indictable visual effects for 1977. Other unexplained natural phenomena jarred from start to finish, but the performances are good, the Landmaster is wonderful, and the lava lamp background effects strangely do enough to sustain our interest. I'm just glad that the seeding of an idea mid-way through that the earth needed to be put back on its axis was just a rumour and not honoured in the ensuing plot. Major-General George Peppard was easily the best thing about this film, keeping it from falling into the groove of 'C' movie folklore.

The movie starts with global thermonuclear war and features a desperate quest, by a handful of survivors, to reach a place of (relative) peace and wellbeing. Now this is a very tone-deaf movie : parts of it are so emotionally poor and arid that they seem to have been made not by human beings but by computers or by octopoids from the planet Zorgbll. Watch out for the scenes, at the very beginning, where enemy missiles come in and rain atomic hellfire on American cities. In a specialised command centre, USA military personnel tries to keep track of the losses : city X is gone, city Y is gone, city Z is threatened, etc. No one falls on his knees, sobbing, or shouts things like : "Washington DC ! That's where my sisters live !" or "My wife and children ! They're burning to death !" Instead, the various characters mainly look somewhat pained and annoyed, as if learning that the Christmas office party has been postponed. So it's clear that the movie has little to offer, when it comes to psychological depth or emotional riches. Sadly, it doesn't have all that much to offer, either, in terms of surprise or tension or excitement. It's pretty much a stew of (post-)apocalyptic stereotypes and tropes : giant mutant animals, hellish landscapes, hard-bitten survivors returning to savagery, etc. Moreover, the quality of the visual and special effects is uneven, meaning that it's difficult to maintain a suitable suspension of disbelief. Even now and then the viewer sees a scene of weird beauty - watch out for those damaged skies - and then suddenly it's giant scorpions that... Giant scorpions that... Don't get me started on the giant scorpions - please.If you're unfamiliar with Roger Zelazny's work : don't let this movie keep you from exploring and enjoying his fine books and novellas. "Damnation Alley" was one of his minor creations and, what's more, the makers of the movie went medieval on their source material, gutting and disemboweling it with slavering savagery. This is pretty much the Adaptation From Hell.An interesting question : why do people acquire the rights to a novel, only in order to gut it like a fish ? I suppose it's a case of conspicious consumption, similar, say, to a French haute couture designer buying the superb furs of rare creatures, and then proceeding to dye the furs bright yellow or tartan-striped scarlet, grey and navy.

This cheap but effective sci-fi yarn acts as a precursor to the wave of post-apocalyptic movies that would sweep the world in the early '80s as a result of the success of MAD MAX 2, and this film is indeed ahead of its time. There are many similarities between this film and the ones that came later, but the most obvious is the custom-designed all-terrain vehicle in which our heroes travel across the deserted nuclear wastes; such vehicles would become a staple of the post-apocalyptic genre in later years.DAMNATION ALLEY is one of those films in which our heroes embark on a perilous journey and encounter many obstacles and dangers in their path. This kind of story harks back to the classic tales of Homer and his hero Odysseus battling the Sirens and the Cyclops, and has been a staple of the genre since cinema began and those silent adventurers took part in A TRIP TO THE MOON. DAMNATION ALLEY is certainly no classic film, and there are definite pacing problems in the second half, but there is enough excitement and danger to make it worthwhile viewing.The initial advent of nuclear war is portrayed in a tense, frightening way, even if all you see is some old stock footage of mushroom clouds. Once our heroes embark on their journey in their armoured truck, the fun begins, and the film is solid entertainment for about forty minutes. At around this time, the pacing does flag a little, but events are wrapped up neatly for an upbeat ending. The special effects used are limited but they still work. For instance, the images of skies glowing blue, green and red are crude yet colourful, and impressive due to their consistency.The acting is fine for a B-movie like this; not brilliant but passable. George Peppard is fun as the older, leading man, to whom everybody else looks up; he has just the right balance of authority, pomposity and charisma. In comparison, Jan-Michael Vincent has the young, handsome square-jawed hero type role and fits the bill well: his acting may be poor but he's a likable screen presence here. Dominique Sanda lends a bit of sophistication and is a pretty face to have on board, while Paul Winfield (THE TERMINATOR) shows up as the token black guy. The only miscasting, in my mind, is that of the young boy who joins our travellers; future star Jackie Earle Haley is one of the most irritating, snotty child performers I've ever seen.The perils our heroes encounter are numerous and varied. Things start off with some cheesy giant scorpions which are actually real scorpions, just enlarged. In the film's best scene, our heroes arrive in a deserted ghost town where they discover rusting cars and skeletons that have been picked clean; this scene offers up a real sense of fear and foreboding, something that runs throughout the film but is strongest here. Eventually it turns out that the town is infested by flesh-eating killer cockroaches which proceed to devour one of our heroes in a spectacularly gruesome scene (turns out that this was only a PG film, but they were definitely pushing the boundaries of the rating with the brief bloody scenes on display here). Later, they must face freak storms, a sudden flood and a gang of diseased rapists while on their way to Albany. These things make DAMNATION ALLEY a lot of fun to watch, and recommended to anyone with an interest in these types of pictures.

Throughout the beginning of the last half of the 20th century, multiple films have been made that were based off of novels that took place in dystopic wastelands after nuclear fallout. This was all due to the U.S. and Russia being two of the biggest super powers at the time and were currently having a cold war over it. Well this science fiction genre film is no different in that aspect. But everything else about it isn't entertaining at all.Damnation Alley (1977) is a film adaptation of novelist Roger Zelazny's short story of the same name. And honestly, I think Zelazny's work was more enjoyable than this. This whole movie is just one giant traveling expedition. There is no plot. Did the writers bother to even jot down the plot or did they just create dialog for the characters? I mean Lukas Heller, the screenwriter from The Dirty Dozen (1967) was on the crew list! Did he become lazy and decide to let Alan Sharp do all the work? And that's just the plot, let's dive into the characters.The storyline follows Major Eugene Denton played by George Peppard and a small band of misfit characters. That's right, John Hannibal Smith from the original A-Team (1983) stars in this film. Unfortunately, he did not make a wise choice to join this slog of a mess. Along with Peppard is a young Jan-Michael Vincent, who earlier starred in the classic The Mechanic (1972), Paul Winfield who later would play a role in Schwarzenegger's The Terminator (1984) and even Jackie Earle Haley has a part as a homeless kid. Yes! Even the actor who plays Freddy Krueger from the Nightmare on Elm Street (2010) remake and Rorschach from Zack Snyder's Watchmen (2009) plays in this movie.Oh and I have no idea how this girl named Janice (Dominique Sanda) even held her own at Las Vegas inside a gambling building with a bunch of sand. Not to mention but she's just there to be an annoying damsel in distress. Not needed. But enough about her. Here there's barely anything for these characters to expand on. What's made up for lost time, is filler with either traveling through wasteland or trying to survive radioactive storms. Isn't it amazing how well the cast was put together even before half these actors were famous and still this movie couldn't get much of anything right? Truly sad.The writers are really to blame for this film. Every ten minutes it would be a reoccurring plot point. Travel a little, stop a little, and every time they stopped, they'd either run into someone or something. Sometimes it's human, other times they're over-sized killer animals. It's just lame. Oh and let's not forget that every time they stop, Jan- Michael Vincent has to pull out his trusty motorcycle to solve all his problems. He uses it for everything! Not even composer Jerry Goldsmith could save this movie. Never have I heard a score so weird that it I couldn't tell what it was trying to represent. The music sounds like a cross between a video game and real orchestra music. Also it didn't help that for majority of the time, the music was absent. The score is so minimal it is barely even used in any of the important scenes. Even the introduction had me sitting awkward. Nuclear warheads are blowing up the country and there's no music going on at all?! I mean, that's what it would be like in real life but this is a movie! It's supposed to enhance that experience.The only points I do give it, is for having the really cool looking landmaster vehicle and a couple good special effects. The effects were standard but SOME of the way the sky's were constructed. They were rather neat. I was more interested in that than the story or characters. The landmaster was also cool. Twelve wheels, rockets, could even be used in the ocean and an extended cabin? What a fortress. That is definitely a vehicle that could withstand nuclear fallout. Besides this, the film is a wreck unfortunately.This science fiction film adaptation is a boring trek about a story that's not even being told. The whole film is just random events put together.