Gas! -Or- It Became Necessary to Destroy the World in Order to Save It.

source: Gas-s-s-s

Gas! -Or- It Became Necessary to Destroy the World in Order to Save It.

There are only a handful of movies that I would call weirder than Roger Corman's "Gas! -Or- It Became Necessary to Destroy the World in Order to Save It." (alternately called "Gas-s-s-s"). People in the '60s recommended not trusting anyone over 30, but here we get the premise that a gas leak kills everyone over the age of 25, so the young people take over the world. That was probably what a lot of young people in the '60s envisioned, although their hopes wouldn't have involved chemical warfare. Much of the movie just seems like something written while someone was on acid. And precisely because of that, it's one of the most enjoyable movies ever. Just as long as you understand that you'll get left saying "What the hell did I just watch?" Co-starring Bud Cort, Talia Shire, Ben Vereen, Cindy Williams and Country Joe McDonald. To put that another way, it co-stars Harold, Connie/Adrien, Chicken George, Shirley, and Mr. Gimme an F.

First off, I'm a fan of Roger Corman and cheesy movies, but this was just plain horrible. If you want to see why the Hippie lifestyle went away then maybe this movie is for you. Otherwise it was a total waste of time. Seemed that everyone associated with this cinematic dreck must have been doing way too much LSD. Just about every line in this movie made no sense. The acting was sub-par even from those that have done fine work in other films. There was no plot in the acceptable use of the word and those involved should hang their heads any time this movie is mentioned. The only thing good I can say is that I managed to not see this junk as long as I have.

This is the kind of movies that make me feel good. The kind of movies that makes you say: Man! Me and my friends could have made this one! Anyway.. it's the greatest hippie-road-trip-movie I have ever laid my eyes on peace

Yet another film that you wish you could rate with an exclamation mark rather than a numerical score, it makes an interesting companion piece to Robert Altman's 'Brewster McCloud', since both were comic extravaganzas starring Bud Cort that crashed and burned. The last film Corman ever made for AIP, it was one of the few that he ever made that lost money and took four years to reach Britain, where Films and Filming's critic aptly described it as "an inspired piece of lunacy"; it's also a salutary reminder that of the two directors, Corman was actually the younger. Complete with a scene shot on Dealey Plaza, and featuring a guest appearance by Edgar Allan Poe, it sure looks as though (as Corman later admitted) it was being made up as it went along.

A deadly gas is accidentally released by the military that kills everyone over the age of 25 (I know I know. Just go with it). A gang of peace-loving hippies go cross-country seeking a perfect utopia but keep running into football fascists and other strange gangs. Stupid, incomprehensible movie. It's not funny or interesting just boring. Full of bad acting, lousy music and TWICE rape is introduced as something to laugh at. It is kind of fun to see future stars Bud Cort, Talia Shire, Ben Vereen and Cindy Williams before they hit it big but that's it. Director Roger Corman said the film was taken from him and reedited against his wishes. He said his version was much better but I have my doubts. Skip it.

The scene at Acoma Pueblo where the explosion takes place (next to the 350 year old San Esteban del Rey Mission) was deliberately shot without informing any of the Pueblo residents, much less their secular and religious leaders. In anticipation of the Acoma's predictable response to their trust being violated, Corman planned for this to be the final shot at this location and was thus prepared to leave immediately after the explosion took place. Acoma has been continuously occupied since at least 1150 A.D. and in 1929 was used as a location for "Redman", which was filmed using two strip Technicolor and an early 70mm wide screen process known as Magnascope - the production company also constructed the first (and only) road up the 367 foot high mesa to where the village and mission are located.

This was a weird sort of science fiction comedy from "Professor Corman". This film pretty much reminds me of a spaced out version of the short lived show "The New People", which came out a year earlier. The whole idea of everyone over 35 being killed by a gas that didn't work on the younger population was a wild idea to begin with, but the surrealism of this movie even made it wilder to look at. Too bad that Corman's last film for A.I.P. couldn't have been a schlock classic like many of his earlier. At least on the bright side we get to look at a very young Cindy Williams, Talia Shire and Ben Vereen in what was one of, if not their first roles in a motion picture.

A gas is let loose upon the world that kills anyone over twenty-five years old. Coming from Roger Corman, I wanted to like this, but it never seemed coherent and I think not enough thought was put into a plot or story arc. There are things I enjoyed, such as the permit guy with the whip and how this was an alternate version of "Logan's Run" (this film came out after the novel but before the film, so whether or not there was an influence, I have no idea). There was a problem in that almost no one was under 18. This seemed to be teenagers and young adults cutting loose, but who was watching all the infants?