Given the recent unseasonably warm spell and the continuing discourse on global Warming, Val Guest’s 1961 sci-fi drama The Day the Earth caught fire takes on an eerily prescient quality. First Guest and Wolf Mankowitz’s London suffers an unseasonably warm spell, then cripplingly thick heat fog which segued its way into the Earth spiralling closer to the sun with each passing day. In the alternate history the film adopts, both Russia and America test atomic bombs at the same time knocking the planet off its rotational axis, while the science may be far-fetched the fears that the film taps into are not.
A big notion to translate from page to the big screen, the film copes with its limited resource with an invention that continues to make independent cinema such a rich world. Communicating Earth’s b-line for the sun is achieved through means that call back to the heyday of silent cinema. There are no seas of flames or visual bombast; instead, a bronze filter and matte paintings are employed for the apocalyptic scenes – an elegant solution to the films grandiose centrepiece. Of less elegant stock is the filmmaking tag team of camera work and cinematography, both are equally free of excess echoing the minimalism of the eras TV production.
All that needs to be mentioned here is that the film leaves it denouement wide open in a way that gracefully complements the preceding build-up.
THE DAY THE EARTH CAUGHT FIRE
Unlike the apocalyptic films that came in The Day the Earth Caught Fire’s wake, Guest’s film stands out due to the hopelessness the viewer is burdened with. We do not follow the movers and shakers or the scientific effort to quell the fallout of America and the USSR’s activity; instead, we follow the journalists trying to get the truth behind a series of strange events. At first, the select journalists of the Daily Express pursue an exclusive whatever the cost until an eclipse happens 10 days early, changing that competitive edge into a simpler survival instinct. On that note, siding with the helpless leads the film towards the elusive perfect ending. All that needs to be mentioned here is that the film leaves it denouement wide open in a way that gracefully complements the preceding build-up.
The centres of this global disaster are 3 players: Janet Munro’s phone operator at the MET office, Leo McKern’s science editor at the daily express and Edward Judd’s renegade reporter. McKern is pivotal to the disaster element as the man who correctly theorizes the planets fate, Munro and Judd have a fast-talking and quick-witted back and forth that provides the film with its emotional foundation. The most fruitful genre works aren’t about their central concept instead they focus on core aspects of the human psyche. In the case of The Day the Earth caught fire the film is about pride and infidelity, all within the comfy timeless sci-fi.
The package that BFI has put together for this release is rife with contradictions. Upon putting the disk into the player you are greeted with a crude presentation and options that are barely visible on certain televisions. On the other side of the fence is a strong restoration job and a surprising array of extras that have been afforded by BFI’s access to the national archives. Even if the film opts for the type of fast witted dialogue that is a thing of the long past, the core mechanics of The Day the Earth Caught fire will ensure it will remain relevant, fascinating and terrifying real for a long time to come. A must buy for sci-fi fans both classic and current.
The Day the Earth Caught Fire is out on BFI Blu-Ray
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