Shadow on the Land (1968)

Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

When it aired, "Shadow on the Land"'s premise was barely credible: an unexplained national emergency so terrifies the country that Congress grants the President virtually unlimited emergency powers, which he promptly uses to establish a national security agency charged with hunting down the nation's external and internal "enemies." Soon the country is awash in curfews, traveling papers, checkpoints and managed news. Dissent is unpatriotic and quashed in the name of security and national harmony. In response, a small underground emerges dedicated to revealing the corruption and our loss of freedoms. Run as a TV movie, "Shadow on the Land" should have done better than it did, and might have made an interesting series had it received better viewer response. Unfortunately, its cautionary message of a fearful America willing to surrender basic freedoms seemed preposterous. Not helping was a fairly plodding script, generally heavy-handed characterizations and an absence of any sense of impending menace or danger. Still, "Shadow" featured such dependable lead actors as Jackie Cooper, John Forsythe, Gene Hackman, Carol Lynley, Marc Strange and Janice Rule, supported by a strong cast of future character actors including Scott Thomas, Bill Walker and Ken Swofford. All the actors -- Cooper and Hackman especially -- gave solid performances despite the script, which must have seemed something of a fantasy to everyone involved. While many of the casting decisions were predicable, there was one truly inspired piece of casting that set the show apart: John Forsythe as General Wendell Bruce, head of West Coast security and the resident villain. Setting his likable "Bachelor Father" (1957-1962) persona on its head, Forsythe created a disturbingly complex and believable nemesis: intelligent, dedicated to his duty, sophisticated, articulate and likable, with a ready smile and well-tailored suits. It was truly chilling to watch him, and helped build a case for the type of people who might someday convince us they were only there to "protect" us. Given the current political and social climate, "Shadow on the Land" was clearly a show forty years ahead of its time – an unusually cautionary tale raised in a television era still dominated by fare such as "Beverley Hillbillies," "Batman," "Death Valley Days: and "Hawaii Five-O." Someone ought to find it in the archives, dust it off, and either run it or redo it; I think we'd be far more willing to believe its vision of America than we were in 1968. Still, given that same climate, one has to wonder if the show could be done today. The premise strikes far too close to home, and patriotism isn't what it used to be. We've clearly demonstrated that as a people we are now perfectly willing to sacrifice a little freedom for security and safety, just as were the citizens of "Shadow." On a final minor note, one has to wonder if our Homeland Security folks realize that their eagle logo bears a haunting similarity to "Shadow"'s homeland security agency emblem. If we don't learn from history – even fictional ones – we are somehow doomed to repeat it.

I saw the movie the two times it ran way back when. At the time, I thought it was a neat parallel world tale and an interesting alternate take on espionage flicks. The notion of a conservative, openly fascistic takeover of the US, shredding the Constitution, and preserving its rule by an internal security force capable of creating hoaxes to turn the public against outsiders.... well, at the time, it sure looked like scifi!Sadly, we now know better. The film is a chilling, Nostradamus-like tale about Bush/Cheney, Homeland Security, the Patriot Act, and all the rest of the evil that has been foisted upon America these past three years. The climax of the film, in which Internal Security agents plan to commit an atrocity and blame it on the underground, is disturbingly close to something Rumsfeld, Cheney, and Ridge might plan. After all, an "al Quaeda" terrorist attack, "successfully foiled" by Homeland Security forces, would be a powerful propaganda stunt to ensure Bush's election.

I saw this movie on the ABC network movie on Friday night. I was just out of high school. I had always been interested in becoming futurist. Read many books and articles on how our futures will be if we are not mindful. This movie was so in time with the times. Even now if it were should it would makes us so aware of our freedoms and how much we take them as a matter of fact. It had a documentary feel to it. Marc Strange had a troubled feel of a man doing a job that it hated and saw it as being wrong. The powers that be had cut the links that make it answerable to it's citizens. I statement from the "Killers Elite:There is no government any where in the world that gives a damn about the people that it is suppose to service" This movie written before big government got married to high tech is a look into where we are on our way. It was a warning that I have never fail to me mindful of. I highly recommend, hippies where not just trouble makes they saw something that others didn't. If you get a chance rent it, study it, compare it to now, and remember always be mindful.

A rarely shown TV movie and series pilot that I have not seen in decades. All I remember is the film revolves around the takeover of the U.S. by a totalitarian authority and the efforts of an underground movement trying to ferment resistance. The film opens with a violent attack on a military base by the underground, leading to one of the most startling results I have seen on television. It was meant to shock the audience, and it did.