Apocalypse 2024 — Apocalypse 2024(Blu Ray & DVD)

Apocalypse 2024 aka A Boy And His Dog is a mid-1970’s example of the post-apocalyptic genre, and it’s a fairly wacky/bizarre example too. It features a wise-cracking telepathic dog, an underground society that mimics American dress and traditions in a decidedly skewed manner, with hints of a lop-sided love story and sexual satire. Here from France’s Artus Films is dual Blu Ray and DVD, which takes in a new 2K scan of the film, and a few extras.

The release comes presented in a rather classy dull-white digipak and slip sleeve, this takes in the various different poster artwork from around the world. And inside under the discs, we get the very 70’s sci-fi ladder motive which appears on some of the film's artwork. Artus Films always try and do something a little different with their release presentation, and they certainly have succeeded do that again here.
 
Originally released to US markets in November of 1975 A Boy And His Dog( aka Apocalypse 2024, Mad Don) was largely filmed in and around Coyote Dry Lake, California. It was directed by L.Q. Jones, who also adapted it for the screen from a Harlan Ellison novella of the same name. Jones had just three directorial credits to his name- this, his debut film The Devils Bedroom( under the alias of Justus McQueen), and one episode of The Incredible Hulk TV show- he is more known as an actor, calking up an impressive one hundred and sixty-five credits to his name, taking in a lot of US TV work, though a fair few small film roles in the likes of Casino and The Mask Of Zorro. So it’s surprising how well made, put together and evenly paced A Boy And His Dog is.

 
The so-called boy is Vic (Don Johnson) who’s a tough 'n' cheeky mid-twenties desert land roamer. He’s joined by Blood- an old English sheepdog, who is voiced in a wonderfully rye and mischievous tone by Tim McIntire. The pair have a telepathic link and roam the post-nuke land looking for food and the rare woman for Vic to have sex with, as it seems the world has returned to the caveman age when it comes to this side of things. On their travels, the pair come across food tin diggers, bandits, glowing green folk- who we hear about, but don’t see, and general worn-down/ barely alive people. It seems both Vic and Blood are been watched by someone who has their eyes on taking Vic below. One night, while at a junkyard and very crude outdoor cinema, the pair are watching very grainy porn loops- and Blood senses a ‘woman’- the pair make their way below the junkyard, where they find the wonderfully named Quilla June Holmes(Susanne Benton) who is seemingly more than happy with Vic not so subtle advances- making it several times that night. Come to the next mourning she is gone, and Vic knows where- to the deep underground society that can be got to only via a huge metal door, and miles of stairs in the middle of the desert. He leaves Blood, who feels sure he won’t be back, and descends.
 
When he gets to the bottom he finds a recreated town park, with a marching band, and a totalitarian society based around a twisted version of America from the past, which is ruled over by Lou Craddock(Jason Robards) a pompous and deranged leader who is knock off members of the society for even small breaking of the rules. It becomes clear fairly soon Vic has been lured down here, for his seed to be harvest. 
 
The film nicely shifts from post-nuke action ‘n’ thrills, onto odd romance, though to skewed satire- all shot through with touches of witty and snipping humour. Surprisingly there is little or no flesh/sexual content here, there is a little violence here and there, but largely it’s fairly tame for a post-apocalyptic film. Johnson and McIntire( as the voice of Blood) work great as a constantly quipping/ bickering lead duo, Benton is effective as the tricky Quilla, and as you’d hope Robards is a good fit as the unbalanced dictator. The costume look/ set dressing for the underground society is neat- the citizen have whited make-up faces and dress in a mix of cliched American dress. We have the already mention constantly midnight town park setting, a grand church set, and a few twisted lab type rooms- including the equipment used to milk men’s seeds. On the whole, A Boy And His Dog is a distinctively quirky and largely enjoyable sci-fi film that could only have been made in the ’70s.
 
 
Moving onto dual disc set and we get a region B Blu Ray and region 2 DVD. The 2k print looks good, really bringing out nicely the contrast between the dusty desert setting and the lopsided Americana of the underground society. We get two different versions of the film- one with its original English language track(with turn off French subtitles), and a French dubbed version. Moving onto the extras, and new wise we get a twenty-five-minute featurette regarding the film- this looks rather good and has a selection of experts talking about the film, but it’s all in French with no subtitles. Next, we get a fifty-one minute in conversion between director L.Q. Jones and  Harlan Ellison who wrote the original novella the films based on. This is in English with French subtitles and is most informative/ interesting- as the pair move from talking about how the project came about and the making of the film, really worth a play. We get two trailers and an image gallery.
 

In finishing this is a worthy new release of this rather original take on the post-apocalyptic genre- featuring nice packaging, a great new scan, and good extras. To purchase this direct head to here