Apocalypse Now!

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(George Miller, Australia 1981, 95 min.)

According to sources as diverse as Harold Camping, Roland Emmerich, and the ancient Mayans, the world — and not just the widespread use of 35mm film by Hollywood studios — is supposed to end in 2012. Obviously that hasn’t happened yet, and to celebrate, we’re devoting a series of films that postulate on the before, during, and after of the apocalypse. Steve De Jarnatt’s genuine (and unjustly forgotten) classic Miracle Mile stars a pre-E.R. Anthony Edwards as an everyday guy who accidentally overhears a top-secret phone call announcing a nuclear attack. Stanley Kubrick and Peter Sellers bring the darkly chilling laughs in the eternal Cold War satire Dr. Strangelove, and the challenges of the dark days after are met by Charlton Heston and Mel Gibson, respectively, in The Omega Man and The Road Warrior (one of the few sequels that tops the original). It’s an allbang, no-whimper lineup of bombs, blasts, and burnt-out landscapes.

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(Boris Sagal, US 1971, 98 min.) 

  Thursday, July 19, 8 p.m.. Miracle Mile (Steve De Jarnatt, US 1988, 87 min.) Thursday, July 26, 8:30 p.m.. The Omega Man (Boris Sagal, US 1971, 98 min.) Thursday, August 2, 8 p.m.. The Road Warrior (George Miller, Australia 1981, 95 min.)