Survivor (1987)

User Rating:

3.8/10   

Director:

Michael Shackleton

Writer:

Bima Stagg (writer)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Drama | Fantasy | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

Back from space... A World Destroyed... Writting history...in blood.

Plot:

Returning from Outer Space, A astronaut calling himself "The Survivor" finds a nuclear war has left the Earth as a desert wasteland...

Plot Keywords:

Post Apocalyptic | Independent Film

Cast

Christopher Mayer	...	The Survivor (as Chip Mayer)
Richard Moll	...	Kragg
Sue Kiel	...	The Woman
Richard Haines	...	The Russian Councillor
John Carson	...	Engineer Councillor
Rex Garner	...	Surgeon Councillor
Sandy Duncan	...	Biologist Councillor (as Sandra Duncan)
Ben Dekker	...	Special Guest Appearance
Andre Roothman	...	Head Regulator (as André Roothman)
Sven Forsell	...	First Bedouin (as Sven Forseil)
Bima Stagg	...	Second Bedouin
Drummond Marais	...	Aerial Regulator (as Mo Marais)
Pedro Cabrita Reis	...	Aerial Regulator (as Pedro Reis)
André Roberts	...	Aerial Regulator
Jimmy Nel	...	Aerial Regulator (as Jimmy Nei)

Runtime:

92 min

Country:

South Africa | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

Omega Pictures

Survivor has bad 80's hair and great cinematography

Been reading about this film for almost 20 yrs and here now i have finally seen it and i am not sure what to say; it is certainly much BETTER than i had expected. The films oddest features are its extensive use of voice over narration and its excellent cinematography. This seems like it was a film that had a different running order and the choppy editing does nothing to strengthen the structure.

This is worth watching at least once just for sheer strangeness value. I give it points for avoiding a lot of the post-apocalyptic clichés, and for being, ---well, DIFFERENT, than other films of this type. It has so many good things co-existing alongside some pretty bad things--it makes for a very schizoid viewing experience. Whats Good: The sets, the cinematography, some of the dialog, the casual pace that places emphasis on the loneliness of the character's quest; What's bad: the choppy flash-forward, flash-back structure, Chip Mayer's Hair-do, the concessions to action movie clichés. What's TERRIBLE: the corny 80's power-ballad that erupts from time to time especially during the 5 minute slow motion softcore sex scene that stops the film cold and will have you shaking your head in slack-jawed astonishment.

I found the scenery, especially the stranded shipwreck, to be very well used, and like i said, the cinematography is surprisingly good! This looks as good as a John Carpenter film and really makes the film stand out from all of those worthless CYBORG-style Italian or Albert Pyun-made crap-fests.There is almost the germ of a better, more thoughtful film buried inside the strange mess that is SURVIVOR.