The Last Child (1971)

Good start, but then it gets ruined

Admirable film.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

In the late 60s and early 70s, folks in the US started worrying about overpopulation. This led to a few films set in the near future where society is a dystopian nightmare--where there are just too many people and not enough resources (such as "Soylent Green"). In "The Last Child", this overpopulation has led to a terrible time where folks are limited to only one birth AND folks over 65 are refused medical care...all in an effort to deal with the ever- expanding population.When the film begins, you see that a young couple (Michael Cole and Janet Margolin) are expecting a child. The problem is she already had one...and even though it died shortly after birth, they are forbidden by law to have the second one. So they must hide and hope they aren't discovered. Unfortunately, a cop (Ed Asner) catches on and arrests her...and they're planning on sterilizing the poor lady and destroying the child! What comes next is a cross-country race to try to get to safety in Canada...and help from a couple very unlikely sources.This film is bleak...but also exceptionally well done. It's a tense drama and works very, very well. I was particularly impressed by Van Heflin in his final role--he was exceptional. My only proviso is that some people might just find it too bleak.

There were two required courses my freshman year in high school that I recall for one or two reasons - "Comparative Economic Systems" I remember for the example of the price of hula hoops in regards to supply and demand and fads, et cetera. If the book is still being published a reference to the Coen brothers "The Hudsucker Proxy" would be a good update. As for "Comparative Political Systems" I vaguely remember something about the Kwakiutl Indians, but what remains sharply in focus 40 years later was the result of the assignment to watch this film.If it seemed somewhat fantastic [3. imaginary or groundless in not being based on reality; foolish or irrational: fantastic fears] then, 40 years later it's not so unrealistic. While "death panels" are not mentioned per se in the film, cutting off medical aid to folks over 65 can be problematic if you're diabetic - as was the character of Senator Quincy George played by Emmett Evan Heflin Jr, and, as the trivia section notes "This TV movie was Van Heflin's final performance. He died of a heart attack three months before the original broadcast..." BTW - to avoid a spoiler don't read all of the trivia - I've truncated it so the spoiler doesn't show.I don't want to write much more without seeing it again - memories of films forty years past may not be entirely reliable - but it made quite an impression on a young teenager raised in an extremely conservative environment. I've read most if not all of Philip Kindred Dick's short stories written in the 1950's and wonder at how prescient he was with many of them. "The Last Child" was the first produced script by Peter S. Fischer, to my knowledge. He won an Edgar Allan Poe Award for an episode of "Murder, She Wrote" and several Emmy nominations for other of these episodes. He would go on to work with the director, John Llewellyn Moxey, on a number of the "Murder, She Wrote," episodes.

So this reviewer's pro-life. This one's anti-socialized medicine. This one doesn't trust Bush. This one doesn't trust Democrats.Hey, guys, how was THE MOVIE?! You know, the one that came out in 1971 and had nothing to do with anything you're talking about? My answer: It was okay. Exciting in parts, kinda cheesy in production values as most TV movies are. Nothing that will likely stick with you forever or bear repeat viewings, but kinda thrilling for 70-some minutes. Van Heflin and Edward Asner were good, and the rest of the cast is mostly 70s actors who stuck mostly to supporting roles and occasional TV movies because none of them really had that much star charisma to speak of. Worth a watch if you catch it on cable or in the dollar bin.

The Last Child is an excellent movie which was classified as science Fiction and shows how irrational demand for the control of population can get out of hand and how one couple was willing and able to defy an unjust law so that the law could be changed