Fall Out -- Jerry Pallegrandi
Among the hundreds – thousands – of war movies churned out by Hollywood in the last 150 years, beginning with Fatty Arbuckle’s only directorial effort, Chow Chow Time (dealing with the Boxer Rebellion), through Quentin Tarantino’s soon-to-be-released Shooting Little Kids, Jerry Pallegrandi’s Fall Out is regarded by many critics as the apex of the genre. Fall Out is the story of a small platoon of soldiers and how each man eventually comes to terms emotionally with the trauma of being caught in a nuclear holocaust. As such, it is often cited as a forerunner of the dystopian genre championed by 21st century auteurs.
Pallegrandi was fortunate in his casting: Jim Tod as “Sarge”, determined to maintain the life force in the face of its inevitable demise, by officiously pacing, bow-leggedly, through the suburban Connecticut woodlot where he and his men are destined to meet their ends; Isaac Whittemore as Carter, the platoon’s geek (a racial breakthrough, incidentally), who distracts himself with his gadgetry from the anticipation of the horrors to come; Arvel Jephson as Mason, the radioman, who bravely goes along with Sarge’s pretense that it is a real person and not a robot speaking to them through the walkie-talkie; Lon Sudworth as Prone, who deals with his terror by playing dead; Elias Rye and Warwick Mynatt as “Mutt” and Geoffreys, whose frantic struggle, with “Mutt” representing the Nietzschean human spirit and Geoffreys the fearful and tremulous Kierkegaardian soul, bring the film to a satisfying and cathartic climax.
Much has been written about Pallegrandi’s extensive use of voice-over in Fall Out. Rex Reed, in his review when the film was first released, assumed that the disembodied voice, which describes details not presented visually, was simply a practical expedient for overcoming the limitations set by the film’s low budget. Andrew Sarris suggested that the voice-over was a not-so-subtle hint that the entire action was taking place in the mind of a patient undergoing psychotherapy. Pauline Kael opined that it was the Voice of G-d.
Among the hundreds – thousands – of war movies churned out by Hollywood in the last 150 years, beginning with Fatty Arbuckle’s only directorial effort, Chow Chow Time (dealing with the Boxer Rebellion), through Quentin Tarantino’s soon-to-be-released Shooting Little Kids, Jerry Pallegrandi’s Fall Out is regarded by many critics as the apex of the genre. Fall Out is the story of a small platoon of soldiers and how each man eventually comes to terms emotionally with the trauma of being caught in a nuclear holocaust. As such, it is often cited as a forerunner of the dystopian genre championed by 21st century auteurs.
Pallegrandi was fortunate in his casting: Jim Tod as “Sarge”, determined to maintain the life force in the face of its inevitable demise, by officiously pacing, bow-leggedly, through the suburban Connecticut woodlot where he and his men are destined to meet their ends; Isaac Whittemore as Carter, the platoon’s geek (a racial breakthrough, incidentally), who distracts himself with his gadgetry from the anticipation of the horrors to come; Arvel Jephson as Mason, the radioman, who bravely goes along with Sarge’s pretense that it is a real person and not a robot speaking to them through the walkie-talkie; Lon Sudworth as Prone, who deals with his terror by playing dead; Elias Rye and Warwick Mynatt as “Mutt” and Geoffreys, whose frantic struggle, with “Mutt” representing the Nietzschean human spirit and Geoffreys the fearful and tremulous Kierkegaardian soul, bring the film to a satisfying and cathartic climax.
Much has been written about Pallegrandi’s extensive use of voice-over in Fall Out. Rex Reed, in his review when the film was first released, assumed that the disembodied voice, which describes details not presented visually, was simply a practical expedient for overcoming the limitations set by the film’s low budget. Andrew Sarris suggested that the voice-over was a not-so-subtle hint that the entire action was taking place in the mind of a patient undergoing psychotherapy. Pauline Kael opined that it was the Voice of G-d.