A feature film based on a popular BBC drama series that ran between 1970-1972, Doomwatch is a strange mix of tame thrills, overcooked acting, and a central concept that arguably feels even more relevant to day than it felt back at the start of the 1970s.
Ian Bannen is Dr. Del Shaw, a scientist from the Doomwatch organisation (a group monitoring our environment with the hope of keeping it clear of any problems that would affect us) sent to the island of Balfe. An oil tanker sank just off the coast of the island some time ago, and Dr. Shaw needs to find out if things are clearing up. He ends up finding something else in the water, however, and it may have been affecting the island residents for some time.
Clive Exton is credited with the final draft here, but Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis are the writers responsible for the series that provides a lot of the main framework. It's hard to figure out whether the film assumes that viewers will have knowledge of the series or whether it's just written in a way that crams enough information into early scenes before delivering some of the expected drama and tension, but there's certainly a clumsiness to some of the exposition and the interactions between our leading man and the many people who are hostile to his presence.
Director Peter Sasdy isn't the best of the British directors working consistently at this time (having delivered a few Hammer movies, as well as many other works on TV, before this Tigon production), but he tries to do his best with material that could easily veer between silliness and sensationalism. The fact that it often feels removed from either extreme may disappoint some film fans, but it's an admirable approach to the whole thing.
Bannen is perfectly fine in his role, and Judy Geeson stands out as Victoria Brown, a lovely young woman who ends up caught up in the unfolding horror. John Paul, Simon Oates, Jean Trend, and Joby Blanshard reprise their roles from the TV show, which helps with the continuity for anyone who also watched the show (I have not, and I believe it's one of those shows that now has a number of sadly lost episodes), and there's a cameo appearance by the always wonderful George Sanders.
While it may be too restrained, and perhaps just a bit too quaint, for many modern viewers, Doomwatch is very much worth your time. If anything, the problems of environmental pollution being caused by, and worsened, by those in positions of power who keep trying to maintain a cover-up while denying any harmful consequences is absolutely on par with a lot of what we see around us today, from the pollution of many lakes and rivers in the UK to every avoidable move to keep using fossil fuels that are contributing to the growing problem of global warming. There may have been a time when this film seemed to be nothing more than a cute curio from the past. It's now sadly a very prescient look at how a handful of individuals have to struggle to change the ways of corporations, as well as changing the mindset of people who have just become used to living with what they deem an acceptable level of harm, as long as they get to live in relative peace.
7/10
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