‘Wild’

Lynne Frederick

Movie: ‘No Blade of Grass’ (1970)

On October 6, 1971, No Blade of Grass debuted in Sweden.

Movie Review | No Blade of Grass (Wilde, 1970)

This is playing on the Criterion Channel as part of their series on post-apocalyptic movies, but one of the things that makes it novel is that it presents a more immediate view of the apocalypse in progress. The apocalypse here is induced by a disease that’s killing off certain forms of plant life, leading to famine and societal collapse. We start with a montage of pollution, overhear news reports of the direness of the situation in other parts of the world and drastic measures taken by other governments, and follow along with a family and a few stragglers as they try to navigate this rapidly deteriorating situation. The way this plays out brought me back to March 2020, where within the span of a few weeks, we went from a sense of ambient dread from bad news in other parts of the world, to being told to stay home, shortages of toilet paper and other household items. Kinda glad I didn’t watch this at the time, as it would have felt a little too close to home.

This is interested in the interpersonal dynamics that would transpire in such a situation. Much of the tension in the movie comes from a gun-loving psycho who’s taken up with the family and looking to assert himself in ways that take take advantage of the increasing lack of consequences for his behaviour. The wariness with which the movie treats this character and his love of guns probably distinguishes this from American post-apocalyptic movies. And then there’s the eventual showdown between loved ones forced by the scarcity of the situation, although I should note that the different arcs are not wrapped up with much elegance.

The environment in this movie hasn’t fully eroded to wasteland, so we do get plenty of green grass, although it obviously carries an ironic charge. There are other elements common in these movies: brutal violence, rape, a motorcycle gang with sick looking helmets, a hero with a sick looking eyepatch. As a director, Cornel Wilde favours ironic editing and juxtapositions: cutting between starving African children and a steak dinner, a Rolls Royce radio ad playing as we see a decrepit looking one in front of us, a character asking another to make her a woman while we flash forward to her eventual rape. The flash forwards are not unlike what you get in Nicolas Roeg’s movies from around the same time, although Wilde’s usage feels a bit more blunt. Between this, The Naked Prey and Beach Red, Wilde has had an interesting directorial career that I would very much like to explore further.

I'm out here on a blanket so malice can Touch Grass or whatever and I gotta say

She sucks at this.

Various ways in which I have underestimated my chickens (callout post to myself):

cognitive abilities (memory): I dropped some pasta while making a salad earlier and Louise was nearby so I opened the door and invited her into the kitchen to come clean up. At first she just meandered round the room glaring suspiciously at furniture because she's unfamiliar with the inside of my house, then I helped her locate the pasta and she pounced, but before she could eat all of them Morille came zooming across the room with Pandolf zooming behind her, which freaked out the hen who noisily flew-ran out of the room. She stayed away long enough that when I called her inside again I expected her to have forgotten all about the pasta, and that I would have to show it to her again, but instead she went straight for it, resolutely, having clearly kept this important goal in a corner of her teeny tiny mind this whole time.

hunting abilities: before getting chickens I didn't realise they actually hunted? (sometimes.) I pictured their search for food as quiet foraging, busily scratching the dirt for worms, but a) hens are never quiet they're always chattering to each other so already that part was wrong; b) when they find a worthy prey they hunt it with the fierce determination of a mountain lion. I once saw Dru chasing a grasshopper across half the pasture, running at full chicken speed and sometimes boosting herself with her wings Mario kart-style while the grasshopper desperately hopped for its life, until eventually she pounced with her beak wide open and managed to catch it mid-jump. With an action movie soundtrack this scene would have been every bit as intense and gripping as a cheetah hunting a gazelle in a wildlife documentary.

social abilities (empathy): one time Cordélia had a little bit of grass stuck in her eye and she kept rubbing her head with her claw to try and dislodge it unsuccessfully, and then she seemingly asked Dru for help, placing her face very close to the other hen's face like "see that stupid twig?" and Dru removed it with her beak. Again that's not something I would have expected from a hen... they're very disloyal creatures, so it was fascinating to see. They would stab their grandma for a dusty rigatoni but leaving a friend with something stuck in her eye is apparently a level of antisocial even chickens won't cross.

social abilities pt.2 (romantic sensibility): sometimes when the night sky is clear and you can see the Milky Way, instead of tucking themselves in at sundown like they usually do, they'll fly to the roof of their coop and sit there for a little while to watch the stars together. Okay this one may be a tiny bit less scientific an observation than the others but I don't have an explanation for this behaviour; I've never noticed anything wrong with their coop on these particular nights, the door is open, they can go in—and the girls don't seem stressed at all, if anything they look like they're having a nice peaceful moment and I feel bad for bothering them.

“Reports of widespread cannibalism” – NO BLADE OF GRASS (Cornell Wilde, 1970)

“Reports of widespread cannibalism” – NO BLADE OF GRASS (Cornell Wilde, 1970)

Cities are locked down, citizens are trying to escape from a deadly virus, food is rationed, rumours abound of dark government plots to kill off sections of the population. No, it’s not a COVID-19 movie but a speculative fiction film from over fifty years ago. From the trailer (above): “Mankind destroyed what made most of the world liveable. Nature – wounded, diseased, and enraged – took revenge…

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This chapter kinda messed me up.

Mostly because we got to see Mon-Chan again.

And then we lost Mon-Chan again….

their biblically accurate first interaction

©Philomena Famulok

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“You are Orym.” 🌱💚🗡️

The way this scene had me CRYING yall :") Orym deserves the entire world.

four years of candle runs and i’m still broke every time a new spirit arrives

Remembering scream queen and Phase IV star Lynne Frederick on the anniversary of her death.

R.I.P. (1954 - 1994)

I dislike the recent changes in fandom culture so much. Like, why do the newer fans need everything to be either black or white? If i want to ship these two characters who tried to kill each other multiple times, then why can't i? Yes i am aware they are toxic as fuck and that is exactly why i need to ship them. similarly, If i wanna be a fan of this insane, batshit crazy character who is an obvious criminal , then i am a fan of this batshit crazy criminal bro, i dont need to defend their actions? i don't need them to be either black or white? I signed up for moral ambiguity here, not to justify them committing atrocities smh

wow what a peaceful day! sure hope the scary teeth man doesnt come and jumpscare them or anything haha that would be crazy

alternate version without caines shadow