I saw this film on the late show when I was a kid, and remember being disappointed that there were no monster mutants running around. I also remember Belafonte singing his "I don't like it here" song that I would start to sing whenever I was someplace or doing something I wasn't enjoying.
Fifty years later, I can truly appreciate the masterful performance by Mr. Belafonte and the stark and frightening cinematography that made this film so believable. Most of all I remember the soundtrack and the way it builds as Mr. Belafonte is faced with a succession of evidence that he is, in fact, the last man in NYC and maybe the world. He very convincingly emotes a man who must be thinking "I know this is all a dream but why can't I wake UP!!!" It is therefore, the emotional momentum of the first half of the movie that carries the audience along through the picture's inferior second half. Not an awful second half, just not what the first half had me prepared for.
Fifty years later, I can truly appreciate the masterful performance by Mr. Belafonte and the stark and frightening cinematography that made this film so believable. Most of all I remember the soundtrack and the way it builds as Mr. Belafonte is faced with a succession of evidence that he is, in fact, the last man in NYC and maybe the world. He very convincingly emotes a man who must be thinking "I know this is all a dream but why can't I wake UP!!!" It is therefore, the emotional momentum of the first half of the movie that carries the audience along through the picture's inferior second half. Not an awful second half, just not what the first half had me prepared for.