Review of Panic in Year Zero! (1962) by Whit W — 20 Jan 2013

Ray Milland stars and directs this captivating look at a nuclear family's decent into Armageddon.

A normal 1960's family of four observes a mushroom cloud over Los Angeles and decides to get out of town to their cabin retreat. Along the way, they run into all sorts of resistance, most of it violent. There are a number of run-ins that show Harry Baldwin (Milland) and family resorting to the same every-man-for-himself behavior as they are subject to. They detest the survival instincts of others, yet they are just as guilty of bad behavior. There are some very shocking moments, not in a gory or gross-out sense but in the extremes that Baldwin and his teenage son will go to for survival's sake.

There are all sort of end-of-the-world recreations in the movies but this one I think, is an accurate tale of what would probably happen to us and what we would do to others in a disaster.