Williams ended up having quite a portfolio of films. But this is one of his earlier endeavors before he became more known for film than as a delightful alien. It's interesting and a little heartbreaking to see him here in his young days. While there were some cute lines in The Survivors, not all of them are delivered by Williams. I am probably not the best critic though, since I was never a big fan of his style. He was a great actor, just not my cup of tea. Nevertheless, I thought this might be a nice throw-back film to simpler times with 2 great actors. The write-up tells us this film is about 2 ordinary men who accidentally become targeted by a hit man. But it's really more of a feature-length finger wag at people who felt the need to learn survival skills, most of whom worried the government might collapse. Back when this film was created, learning how to fend for yourself was considered a big slap in the face to the American narrative of government protection and national prosperity. It's definitely a reminder that we've been through some seemingly insurmountable times before 2020 (although until now we've always had our constitutional freedoms). The film starts off pretty well. It leads us through the struggles of 2 men who've lost their livelihood in one of the hardest economic times. One of them loses all sense of hope. So far, pretty realistic with some ironic humor. But then the writers focus on imagining the worst case is to join a prepper group and train in firearms. This well-touted taboo placed on survivalist through film and media over decades focuses on only the very rouge groups so they can paint them all as uncivilized with vigilante defiance or, such as this film, idiots who are too stupid to think for themselves. That's simply not the case. It never was. I was very disappointed in the last 3/4s of the film - not because of the propaganda but because it just wasn't very good.
Review of The Survivors
