We have gotten plenty of post-apocalyptic, end of the world movies over the years but how many stay with you? There's few movies that stick with us and stand the test of time but Xavier Gens' THE DIVIDE is one of those movies. It's a post-apocalyptic movie with a dark and gritty approach for survival. Watching these survivors deteriorate as the movie goes along is heart breaking and a little disturbing. The Divide is a dark, unique tale of survival of the fittest.
The movie follows a small group of tenants who take shelter in the basement of an apartment building in New York during a nuclear attack. Each character is completely different from the next, some strong willed and some weak. The amazing cast includes Michael Biehn, Lauren German, Milo Ventimiglia, Rosanna Arquette, Courtney B. Vance and a few others. Biehn is the building super and comes across as cold and uncaring in the beginning but is the only one who is aware of what is actually going down and has some mysterious, questionable and sometimes selfish survival techniques. This is Michael Biehn at his very best! Other standouts are Ventimiglia who we watch go into this downward spiral and literally disintegrate as we watch and Arquette is amazing to watch as a loving mother who does a complete 360 in front of us, her character goes through a loss and just stops caring and simply gives up. Laura German is the quiet focus that The Divide follows along the way until the very end and she performs without a flaw and is the heart of the film. With little food or water the group slowly "divides",sides are drawn and relationships are tested. Some lives are lost in this basement bunker through desperation, stupidity and the growing insanity in certain characters.
As the movie moves along and there are clearly sides taken. We continue to watch the good become bad, bad become good, strong become weak and weak become strong. The movie simply asks the viewer a question, what would you do to survive in this kind of tragedy? The movie shows you "the viewer", that you would in fact do anything to survive, no matter what the cost.
Gens shot the movie beautifully and gritty. His direction is perfect with each character and scene we follow. Let's not forget Karl Mueller and Eron Sheean who are the writing team behind this great movie. They delivered a perfect, yet heart breaking story with some amazing characters. When you combine that with the director this is why this movie will go down as such a special classic. The Divide is Xavior Gens' post-apocalyptic masterpiece!
Bottom line is The Divide is hands down the best post-apocalyptic, disaster movie I've ever seen! The story and characters are simply amazing and this is an instant classic! 5/5
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