THE QUIET EARTH January 4th at Schlafly Bottleworks

“God blinked, and the whole world disappeared.”

THE QUIET EARTH (1985) screens Wednesday, January 4th at 8pm at Schlafly Bottleworks Restaurant and Bar (7260 Southwest Ave.- at Manchester – Maplewood, MO 63143) as part of Webster University’s Award-Winning Strange Brew Film Series.

Scientist Zac Hobson (Bruno Lawrence) wakes up on an apparently normal day, to find that all living things on earth have simply vanished from the face of the planet. It transpires that the secret project that he has been working on, called Operation Flashlight, has backfired, and somehow altered the state of the universe. The first half of the film is all about Zac; the discovery that he is all alone, the documenting of his decline from resigned sole survivor to near-madman as the realization of his total solitude bites hard, and how he eventually turns this around in his efforts to contact another living soul. The second half has two more survivors (Joanne, played by Alison Routledge, and burly Maori Api, played by Peter Smith) come into play.

THE QUIET EARTH is awash in atmosphere, brought about by the unfamiliar New Zealand locations, director Geoff Murphy’s refreshing vision, and the haunting and unusual music score by John Charles.

He ending of THE QUIET EARTH is perfect. We are left yearning to know what has transpired, in the same way we were bewildered by Kubrick’s “astronaut-in-a-hotel-room” ending of 2001. I saw THE QUIET EARTH twice theatrically when it was new and was blown away then. It deserves to be re-discovered and hats off to the guys behind the Strange Brew film series for dusting it off.

A Facebook invite can be found HERE

https://www.facebook.com/events/1780760215507371/

A yummy variety of food from Schlafly’s kitchen is available as are plenty of pints of their famous home-brewed beer.

A Facebook invite for the event can be found HERE

https://www.facebook.com/events/1715452168719953/