Finished The Quiet Earth

I finished The Quiet Earth yesterday and wanted to add a few thoughts:

1. I liked that there weren't a lot of cheesy action sequences. Normally, I'm all for them-the more ridiculous the better-but they wouldn't have fit in this movie, and I liked the more restrained approach to the end of the world.

2. WHY WEREN'T THEY TALKING ABOUT REPRODUCTION AT ALL??? At some point during this movie, it becomes clear that there are very few people left in the world. Given that three people survived in New Zealand, it stands to reckon that there are other people in isolated spots around the world. Since 2 of the survivors are men, and 1 is a woman you would think they would at least discuss the implications for humanity. Nope! Other than some sex, based mostly on the need for human contact, they seem to ignore this aspect of their survival entirely. I found that strange.

3. The ending was really ambiguous. Usually I find that irritating, but I kind of liked it in this particular movie. I did want to know, however, if the plumes of smoke/vapor shown all over the horizon where the result of nuclear bombs, or some type of tornado made out of rain.

4. The movie brought up some really interesting points about human interactions. Although the single surviving woman sleeps with both men in the film, the writers or director (or someone) couldn't quite make the jump to a polygamous sexual relationship. Instead it seemed likely that the main character was going to abdicate his 'right' to the woman in favor of her connection to the other man. I didn't think this was a very realistic decision, but maybe that's because of my reading The Last Ship. I did like that the movie brought up issues of class/race among the survivors; at one point a disagreement about leadership directly addresses the idea of post-apocalypse the reign of the white man is over. I'm glad they addressed these concepts, although I obviously have a problem with the way in which they resolved these issues (the native man seems smarmy, the woman is still property etc).