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Damnation Alley (film)
Encyclopedia
Damnation Alley is a 1977 film, directed by Jack Smight
, loosely based on the novel of the same name
by Roger Zelazny
. The original music score was composed by Jerry Goldsmith
.
), an unorthodox Air Force officer, shares ICBM silo duty at an Air Force missile base in California with Major Eugene "Sam" Denton (George Peppard
). When the United States
detects incoming nuclear missiles, Tanner and Denton "turn the key" to launch part of the retaliatory strike, initiating Doomsday
. After launching their entire arsenal of nuclear missiles, Tanner and Denton witness nuclear devastation rain down all around them.
Two years later, the Earth
has been tilted off its axis by World War III
, radiation
has mutated insect life, and the planet is constantly wracked by massive storms that cover the entire hemisphere. Military order at the base has broken down. Tanner has resigned his commission and Denton is considering going to Albany, New York
to find the source of a lone radio transmission. Before they abandon the base, a rocket fuel explosion kills all but four men -- Denton, Tanner, former Airman
Keegan (Paul Winfield
) and Airman Tom Perry (Kip Niven).
They set out in two Air Force "Landmaster
s," giant 12-wheeled armored personnel carriers capable of climbing 60-degree inclines and operating in water. They must cross "Damnation Alley," considered "the path of least resistance" between intense radiation areas. On their journey, they pick up two survivors, fight a band of crazed, savage shotgun
-toting mountain men and encounter mutated "flesh stripping cockroaches" before reaching their destination.
Budgeted at $17,000,000 USD (a large budget at the time), "Damnation Alley" was helmed by veteran director Jack Smight
, who had scored two consecutive box office hits in the previous two years (Airport 1975
and Midway
) Filming began in July 1976 in the Imperial Valley
in Southern California (near Glamis
), as well as locations in Meteor Crater, Arizona, Salt Lake City, Utah
, and the Mojave Desert
in California.
Production was rife with problems - the devastated landscapes and giant mutated insects proved to be nearly impossible to create despite the large budget. For example, a sequence involving giant 8 feet (2.4 m) scorpions attacking a motorcycle was first attempted using full-scale scorpion props, but they did not work and the resulting footage was unacceptable. The solution was to use actual scorpions composited
onto live action footage using the blue screen
process in post production - unfortunately with poor results. Another action sequence with giant cockroaches used a combination of live Madagascar Hissing Cockroach
es and large numbers of rubber bugs, which looked unconvincing onscreen as the strings pulling the fake insects were plainly visible.
The centerpiece of the film, the 12-wheeled, seven-ton "Landmaster", performed much better than expected. The Landmaster was so convincing, in fact, that Fox demanded that more shots of the Landmaster appear in the film to make up for shortcomings. The decision was also made to add "radioactive skies" in post-production to add the visual excitement of a "post-Apocalyptic" world to the film.
Because of this last-minute decision, Damnation Alley was in post-production for over 10 months due to the difficult process of superimposing optical effects on the sky in eighty percent of the shots. It was during this period that 20th Century Fox
released their "other" science fiction film for 1977. The studio had planned to release only two science fiction films that year, with Damnation Alley intended to be the blockbuster
.
The other film — in which 20th Century Fox executives had very little confidence — was Star Wars
.
Star Wars became a massive hit, and forced Fox to readdress Damnation Alley. In a panic, the release date was delayed further while Fox went in to re-edit the entire film. Directorial control was wrestled from Smight, and large sections of the film were edited out by the studio, including several key scenes critical to the storyline. The film was finally released on October 21, 1977.
Perhaps the most notable aspect of the film was the Landmaster
vehicle, which features a hinged center section, and a unique rotating 12-wheel assembly. The "Landmaster" was custom-built for the film at a cost of $350,000 in 1976. ($1.4 million in 2010 dollars)
The Landmaster was sold to a private owner in 2005 and was restored to its original condition as featured in the film. The Landmaster was then on the show car circuit for several years. In 2007 it was featured at the San Francisco Rod & Custom Show at the Cow Palace
in San Francisco, California as part of special exhibit with other notable movie and TV cars. Some time in 2009, the Landmaster was vandalized while in storage. The damage is relatively minor, but repair and restoration is required again.
The Landmaster should not be confused with the superficially similar but simpler Ark II
.
, a high-impact surround sound process.
Jerry Goldsmith's score made good use of the wide stereo separation afforded by Sound 360, particularly in the opening theme, with fanfares emanating from each side of the theater in turn.
and On the Beach
. In some theaters during 1977, the film was paired with another movie, Ralph Bakshi's fantasy Wizards
, which was financially successful. Damnation Alley still did not do well at the box office, but later on would get cult status.
and George Peppard, as well as additional scenes with Dominique Sanda and Peppard).
tape, copies of which were sold for years in the gray market on DVD
. Shout! Factory released the film (on DVD and Blu-ray) on July 12, 2011. This release features a new anamorphic widescreen transfer (cropped to fit 16:9 sets on DVD, and full version letterbox 2.35:1 ratio on Blu-ray), and audio commentary with producer Paul Maslansky, and well as extras including featurettes detailing the challenges in making the film, and a detailed examination of the now-famous Landmaster vehicle with designer and builder Dean Jeffries
. The original "Sound 360" audio mix will not be featured on the DVD and Blu-ray, as the original elements were too damaged to salvage.
This title is available on Amazon VOD and iTunes store
, which is not the new transfer (but an older version). It lists the online version to be "widescreen" 1.78:1 ratio (the original theatrical release was 2.35:1), while the PC & TiVo, and all others to be fullscreen (1.33:1) versions.
Jack Smight
Jack Smight was an American theatre and film director.Smight was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota and went to school with future actor Peter Graves...
, loosely based on the novel of the same name
Damnation Alley
Damnation Alley is the title of a 1967 science fiction short story by Roger Zelazny, which he expanded into a novel in 1969. A film adaptation of the novel was released in 1977.-Plot introduction:...
by Roger Zelazny
Roger Zelazny
Roger Joseph Zelazny was an American writer of fantasy and science fiction short stories and novels, best known for his The Chronicles of Amber series...
. The original music score was composed by Jerry Goldsmith
Jerry Goldsmith
Jerrald King Goldsmith was an American composer and conductor most known for his work in film and television scoring....
.
Plot
1st Lieutenant Jake Tanner (Jan-Michael VincentJan-Michael Vincent
Jan-Michael Vincent is an American actor best known for his role as helicopter pilot Stringfellow Hawke on the 1980s U.S. television series Airwolf .-Early life:...
), an unorthodox Air Force officer, shares ICBM silo duty at an Air Force missile base in California with Major Eugene "Sam" Denton (George Peppard
George Peppard
George Peppard, Jr. was an American film and television actor.Peppard secured a major role when he starred alongside Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's , portrayed a character based on Howard Hughes in The Carpetbaggers , and played the title role of the millionaire sleuth Thomas Banacek in...
). When the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
detects incoming nuclear missiles, Tanner and Denton "turn the key" to launch part of the retaliatory strike, initiating Doomsday
Doomsday event
A doomsday event is a specific, plausibly verifiable or hypothetical occurrence which has an exceptionally destructive effect on the human race...
. After launching their entire arsenal of nuclear missiles, Tanner and Denton witness nuclear devastation rain down all around them.
Two years later, the Earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
has been tilted off its axis by World War III
World War III
World War III denotes a successor to World War II that would be on a global scale, with common speculation that it would be likely nuclear and devastating in nature....
, radiation
Radiation
In physics, radiation is a process in which energetic particles or energetic waves travel through a medium or space. There are two distinct types of radiation; ionizing and non-ionizing...
has mutated insect life, and the planet is constantly wracked by massive storms that cover the entire hemisphere. Military order at the base has broken down. Tanner has resigned his commission and Denton is considering going to Albany, New York
Albany, New York
Albany is the capital city of the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Albany County, and the central city of New York's Capital District. Roughly north of New York City, Albany sits on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River...
to find the source of a lone radio transmission. Before they abandon the base, a rocket fuel explosion kills all but four men -- Denton, Tanner, former Airman
Airman
An airman is a member of the air component of a nation's armed service. In the United States Air Force and the Royal Air Force , it can also refer to a specific enlisted rank...
Keegan (Paul Winfield
Paul Winfield
Paul Edward Winfield was an American television, film, and stage actor. He was known for his portrayal of a Louisiana sharecropper who struggles to support his family during the Great Depression in the landmark film Sounder which earned him an Academy Award nomination. Winfield also portrayed Dr....
) and Airman Tom Perry (Kip Niven).
They set out in two Air Force "Landmaster
Landmaster
The Landmaster is a unique 12-wheeled amphibious articulated vehicle constructed by Dean Jeffries at Jeffries Automotive in Universal City, California for the 1977 science fiction film Damnation Alley. Despite the appearance of two Landmasters in the film , only one was built at a cost of $350,000...
s," giant 12-wheeled armored personnel carriers capable of climbing 60-degree inclines and operating in water. They must cross "Damnation Alley," considered "the path of least resistance" between intense radiation areas. On their journey, they pick up two survivors, fight a band of crazed, savage shotgun
Shotgun
A shotgun is a firearm that is usually designed to be fired from the shoulder, which uses the energy of a fixed shell to fire a number of small spherical pellets called shot, or a solid projectile called a slug...
-toting mountain men and encounter mutated "flesh stripping cockroaches" before reaching their destination.
Production
Roger Zelazny's original story of Damnation Alley was seriously compromised in the final script. Zelazny was quite pleased with the first script by Lukas Heller and expected it to be the shooting script. However, the studio had Alan Sharp write a completely different version that left out most of the elements of Zelazny's book. Zelazny didn't realize this until he saw the movie in the theater. He hated the movie, but assertions that he requested to have his name removed from the credits are completely unfounded, since he did not know there was a problem until after the movie had been released.Budgeted at $17,000,000 USD (a large budget at the time), "Damnation Alley" was helmed by veteran director Jack Smight
Jack Smight
Jack Smight was an American theatre and film director.Smight was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota and went to school with future actor Peter Graves...
, who had scored two consecutive box office hits in the previous two years (Airport 1975
Airport 1975
Airport 1975 is a 1974 disaster film and the first sequel to the successful 1970 film Airport. It stars Charlton Heston and Karen Black and is directed by Jack Smight....
and Midway
Midway (film)
Midway is a 1976 war film directed by Jack Smight and produced byWalter Mirisch from a screenplay by Donald S. Sanford. The music score was by John Williams and the cinematography by Harry Stradling, Jr...
) Filming began in July 1976 in the Imperial Valley
Imperial Valley
The Imperial Valley is an agricultural area of Southern California's Imperial County. It is located in southeastern Southern California, centered around the city of El Centro. Locally, the terms "Imperial Valley" and "Imperial County" are used synonymously. The Valley is bordered between the...
in Southern California (near Glamis
Glamis
Glamis is a small village in Angus, Scotland, located four miles south of Kirriemuir and five miles southwest of Forfar. It is the location of Glamis Castle, the childhood home of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother.-History:...
), as well as locations in Meteor Crater, Arizona, Salt Lake City, Utah
Salt Lake City, Utah
Salt Lake City is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. The name of the city is often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC. With a population of 186,440 as of the 2010 Census, the city lies in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area, which has a total population of 1,124,197...
, and the Mojave Desert
Mojave Desert
The Mojave Desert occupies a significant portion of southeastern California and smaller parts of central California, southern Nevada, southwestern Utah and northwestern Arizona, in the United States...
in California.
Production was rife with problems - the devastated landscapes and giant mutated insects proved to be nearly impossible to create despite the large budget. For example, a sequence involving giant 8 feet (2.4 m) scorpions attacking a motorcycle was first attempted using full-scale scorpion props, but they did not work and the resulting footage was unacceptable. The solution was to use actual scorpions composited
Compositing
Compositing is the combining of visual elements from separate sources into single images, often to create the illusion that all those elements are parts of the same scene. Live-action shooting for compositing is variously called "chroma key", "blue screen", "green screen" and other names. Today,...
onto live action footage using the blue screen
Chroma key
Chroma key compositing is a technique for compositing two images together. A color range in the top layer is made transparent, revealing another image behind. The chroma keying technique is commonly used in video production and post-production...
process in post production - unfortunately with poor results. Another action sequence with giant cockroaches used a combination of live Madagascar Hissing Cockroach
Madagascar hissing cockroach
The Madagascar hissing Cockroach , also known as the Hissing Cockroach or simply Hisser, is one of the largest species of cockroach, reaching 2–4 inches at maturity. They are from the island of Madagascar off the African coast, where they can be found in rotting logs.Unlike most cockroaches, they...
es and large numbers of rubber bugs, which looked unconvincing onscreen as the strings pulling the fake insects were plainly visible.
The centerpiece of the film, the 12-wheeled, seven-ton "Landmaster", performed much better than expected. The Landmaster was so convincing, in fact, that Fox demanded that more shots of the Landmaster appear in the film to make up for shortcomings. The decision was also made to add "radioactive skies" in post-production to add the visual excitement of a "post-Apocalyptic" world to the film.
Because of this last-minute decision, Damnation Alley was in post-production for over 10 months due to the difficult process of superimposing optical effects on the sky in eighty percent of the shots. It was during this period that 20th Century Fox
20th Century Fox
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...
released their "other" science fiction film for 1977. The studio had planned to release only two science fiction films that year, with Damnation Alley intended to be the blockbuster
Blockbuster (entertainment)
Blockbuster, as applied to film or theatre, denotes a very popular or successful production. The entertainment industry use was originally theatrical slang referring to a particularly successful play but is now used primarily by the film industry...
.
The other film — in which 20th Century Fox executives had very little confidence — was Star Wars
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, originally released as Star Wars, is a 1977 American epic space opera film, written and directed by George Lucas. It is the first of six films released in the Star Wars saga: two subsequent films complete the original trilogy, while a prequel trilogy completes the...
.
Star Wars became a massive hit, and forced Fox to readdress Damnation Alley. In a panic, the release date was delayed further while Fox went in to re-edit the entire film. Directorial control was wrestled from Smight, and large sections of the film were edited out by the studio, including several key scenes critical to the storyline. The film was finally released on October 21, 1977.
Landmaster
Landmaster
The Landmaster is a unique 12-wheeled amphibious articulated vehicle constructed by Dean Jeffries at Jeffries Automotive in Universal City, California for the 1977 science fiction film Damnation Alley. Despite the appearance of two Landmasters in the film , only one was built at a cost of $350,000...
vehicle, which features a hinged center section, and a unique rotating 12-wheel assembly. The "Landmaster" was custom-built for the film at a cost of $350,000 in 1976. ($1.4 million in 2010 dollars)
The Landmaster was sold to a private owner in 2005 and was restored to its original condition as featured in the film. The Landmaster was then on the show car circuit for several years. In 2007 it was featured at the San Francisco Rod & Custom Show at the Cow Palace
Cow Palace
Cow Palace is an indoor arena, in Daly City, California, situated on the city's border with neighboring San Francisco, notable as a sporting arena.-History:...
in San Francisco, California as part of special exhibit with other notable movie and TV cars. Some time in 2009, the Landmaster was vandalized while in storage. The damage is relatively minor, but repair and restoration is required again.
The Landmaster should not be confused with the superficially similar but simpler Ark II
Ark II
Ark II is an American live-action science fiction series aimed at children that aired on CBS beginning in 1976 as part of its Saturday morning line-up...
.
Sound 360
A few big-city premiere engagements of Damnation Alley were presented in Sound 360Sound 360
Sound 360 was the name of a motion picture sound system used by 20th Century-Fox to enhance the premiere engagements of their 1977 feature Damnation Alley....
, a high-impact surround sound process.
Jerry Goldsmith's score made good use of the wide stereo separation afforded by Sound 360, particularly in the opening theme, with fanfares emanating from each side of the theater in turn.
Reaction
Damnation Alley opened in 1977, one year after it was filmed. After the release, it quickly left the theaters because it did not make enough to stay in the chain theaters or duplexes or triplexes. The critics dismissed the movie as a bad repeat of other great apocalyptic films like Day the World EndedDay the World Ended
Day the World Ended was the fourth film directed by Roger Corman. Rick is a heroic scientist who, among others, must face off against a mutant monster after an atomic war destroys human civilization...
and On the Beach
On the Beach (1959 film)
On the Beach is a post-apocalyptic drama film based on Nevil Shute's 1957 novel of the same name. The film features Gregory Peck , Ava Gardner , Fred Astaire and Anthony Perkins...
. In some theaters during 1977, the film was paired with another movie, Ralph Bakshi's fantasy Wizards
Wizards (film)
Wizards is a 1977 American animated post-apocalyptic science fantasy film about the battle between two wizards, one representing the forces of magic and one representing the forces of industrial technology. It was written, produced, and directed by Ralph Bakshi...
, which was financially successful. Damnation Alley still did not do well at the box office, but later on would get cult status.
Television version
The network TV premiere on NBC television on Sunday, June 12, 1983 featured alternate and additional scenes (notably, footage of Murray HamiltonMurray Hamilton
Murray Hamilton was an American stage, screen, and television actor who appeared in such memorable films as The Hustler, The Graduate and Jaws.-Early life:...
and George Peppard, as well as additional scenes with Dominique Sanda and Peppard).
Video & DVD release
For 26 years, the only official home video release of Damnation Alley was in 1985, on VHSVHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
tape, copies of which were sold for years in the gray market on DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
. Shout! Factory released the film (on DVD and Blu-ray) on July 12, 2011. This release features a new anamorphic widescreen transfer (cropped to fit 16:9 sets on DVD, and full version letterbox 2.35:1 ratio on Blu-ray), and audio commentary with producer Paul Maslansky, and well as extras including featurettes detailing the challenges in making the film, and a detailed examination of the now-famous Landmaster vehicle with designer and builder Dean Jeffries
Dean Jeffries
Dean Jeffries is an American custom vehicle designer, fabricator, stuntman and stunt coordinator for motion pictures and television programs based in Los Angeles, California....
. The original "Sound 360" audio mix will not be featured on the DVD and Blu-ray, as the original elements were too damaged to salvage.
This title is available on Amazon VOD and iTunes store
ITunes Store
The iTunes Store is a software-based online digital media store operated by Apple. Opening as the iTunes Music Store on April 28, 2003, with over 200,000 items to purchase, it is, as of April 2008, the number-one music vendor in the United States...
, which is not the new transfer (but an older version). It lists the online version to be "widescreen" 1.78:1 ratio (the original theatrical release was 2.35:1), while the PC & TiVo, and all others to be fullscreen (1.33:1) versions.