Overall points:
Felt like a long twilight zone episode; using science fiction to hold other variables constant (or remove them entirely) to see how other variables react. The central theme seemed to be wondering how some socially ingrained ideas would react to a world without society. Most clearly racial hierarchies, but I also enjoyed the take on the love triangle.
I enjoy this sort of classic sci-fi take, a thought experiment trying to discern what’s caused by society’s presence, and what’s caused by its imprint.
This lead to my favorite scene, a line of dialogue by Ralph:
“Why should the world fall down to prove what I am, and to prove that there’s nothing wrong with what I am?”
This line presses against the 4th wall a bit, it seems like this line way spoken more by Bellafonte than Ralph, asking the audience why do we need to bend over backwards and create these hypothetical situations to allow for his human dignity? Why is this the argument that takes all the effort, and the other is so easy to come by?
The film’s setting lends itself to other interesting thoughts. Ralph muses about the start of a new World War as the tension between he and Benson comes to a head. Which brings to mind the murder of Abel; where if you grant total accuracy to the source, possibly the most destructive conflict in history (in terms of % population wiped out).
While trying to find a screenplay to look over (I was unsuccessful in that effort) I learned more about the source of the film, namely a story published right at the turn of the 20th century called The Purple Cloud. It’s novel length, but I did want to get a flavor of the text so I searched around for excerpts. I won’t summarize it here (there are probably many summaries that would do a better job), but the character of this book did influence my thoughts on the movie.
Part of the Purple Cloud follows a “last man alive” sort who burns down major cities, and it’s a bit more clearly theological. It’s much more of a “the great flood” type scenario (or a recursion back to the garden of Eden). The World is a bit more of a mix, seemingly a bit more aimed at reforming society, though with its roots in a pacifist Christian doctrine. Put crudely, The Purple Cloud is a bit more Old Testament, The World is a bit more New Testament.
The turning point for Ralph comes at viewing the biblical excerpt where the idiom “swords to plowshares” comes from (turning weapons into peaceful tools). The film seems to imply that Ralph then goes on to convince Benson to live peacefully with Sarah and him. I believe this is drawing a line to many of our own dilemmas when trying to act in a way that more accurately reflects our own guiding principles.
When one thinks about the ways in which they want to change the world, such as to make it more peaceful and harmonious, the immediate difficulty is trying to gain cooperation. If it benefits the other parties to defect from peaceful accords, there will be a cascading effect that will cause parties to defect all the way down to the ones who are even slightly apprehensive about the process; leaving the only ones left working in the vein of that harmonious agreement the ones who have a powerful and specific internal drive.
Ralph seems to have only one person he has to convince, but it still seems like an incredible obstacle. But in doing so, he may be able to form the bonds of a new society where this harmony is the norm and the institution.
There’s also the title, which I’ve only barely learned about before (so take all this analysis with quite a bit of salt). But essentially they are descriptions of three paths to sin; following society to sin (the world), following hedonism (the flesh), and the devil (…the devil). It’s naturally tempting to say each character is a representation of these paths as there are three of each; but I think the movie either didn’t intend for that or didn’t execute. Obviously “the world” stands out as the most significant, but there wasn’t that much sin of “the flesh” (other than the allusions to rape as an alternative to Benson’s failures of courtship), and no obvious interferences by “the devil” though you could pretty much read “the devil” into any film.
I’m starting to ramble a bit (this is one of the advantages of the podcast, it keeps me succinct). I think the best way to sum up my feelings about the film are the way I started this review; it’s like a long Twilight Zone episode (though the sets were MUCH more impressive than TZ sets; which show off their Potemkin quality too often). That could mean a lot of different things to different people, but I’ll say that it means the moral was a little on the nose.
(high for a film as old as this, which are more difficult for me to like)
Misc points:
Assuming a bomb was what caused the cave-in, and that it seemed like there were others trying to get to him: Why did his coworkers bother to try to dig him out? If an atomic bomb went off in a city, it seems like an awful lot of effort to try to save one person when there are likely thousands who would be much easier to help.
It’s interesting seeing an older take on the lone-survivor in a post-apocalyptic world theme (clearly a trope by now, unsure if it was a trope at the time; possibly it was in literature).
It gets to the cause rather quickly. A lot of characters that roam around in the rubble have to take some time figuring out what happened, but he just finds a newspaper that pretty much instantly brings him up to speed.
No bodies in the streets (or anywhere) is a consistently distracting plot-hole, as mentioned elsewhere.
I was reminded of I Am Legend in the way he set up the mannequins.
Ralph and Sarah take turns being childish about their hurt feelings, but it’s clear they care about each other. It’s odd to be in a situation where you’ve lost everything you’ve ever known, but you don’t deserve pity more than the other person left.
I groaned a bit when the final words “The Beginning” came up at the end of the movie, but it was probably less cheesy of a maneuver at the time.