Patience Watson One of those movie experiences that is so good it makes you realize you've been grading everything else on a curve.

Edison Witt The first must-see film of the year.

Roxie The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Jenni Devyn Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

ackstasis Recently I've really come to respect Roger Corman, perhaps the most successful cheapskate in cinema history. Despite an overwhelming passion for economies, Corman was nonetheless able to produce a series of exquisitely-made, atmospheric Poe adaptations, among them 'The Masque of the Red Death (1964)' and 'The Tomb of Ligeia (1964).' His last film for American International Pictures was creatively titled 'Gas! -Or- It Became Necessary to Destroy the World in Order to Save It. (1970)' {or simply "Gas-s-s-s"}. This post-apocalyptic black comedy is a bit of an oddity, more reminiscent of a Coen brothers film than the graceful Gothic horrors with which I've come to associate Corman. Certainly, many viewers are left bewildered by the film's zany comedic scenarios, sprinkled with bizarre humour and social satire, and I think it's a cleverer film than first appearances might suggest.Corman's ponderous title works in two ways. Firstly, it shamelessly rips off Kubrick's 'Dr. Strangelove (1964),' the post-apocalyptic comedy to which all post-apocalyptic comedies aspire. Secondly, it presents an anti-militaristic agenda – and, more specifically, an anti-Vietnam War message. The second title paraphrases an American general's infamous war-time declaration, following the destruction of Ben Tre, that "it became necessary to destroy the village in order to save it." The film's animated prologue, fronted by a caricatured John Wayne-like general, depicts the military accidentally releasing a poison gas that kills everybody in the world over 25 years of age. Thus, society is left in the hands of the college students, whose free-wheeling, pot-smoking, sex-obsessed ways promise an end to civilisation itself. This new "young people only" world is ruled by cartoonish and irresponsible egos, their behaviour dictated purely by cultural stereotypes: a deranged football captain reduces raping and pillaging to a competitive sport; a posse of black golfers fight non-existent racial inequality and celebrate the "common American." The film treats its dark themes with an astonishing breeziness, typical of the carefree "you only live once" mentality of the 1960s hippie counter-culture. Rape is idly characterised as a sort of recreation, a far cry from the disturbing rape scenes in another low-budget post-apocalyptic film, Ray Milland's 'Panic in Year Zero! (1962).' There's a car-chase on golf-buggies. Even Edgar Allen Poe turns up on a motor-cycle, for no apparent reason other than to reference the director's earlier works. This film is insane. Corman knows this, and he runs with it.

theskulI42 With heedless energy, low-budget freedom and a youthful exuberance befitting its characters, Gas-s-s might be the greatest apocalyptic thriller ever made, specifically because it's neither apocalyptic nor a thriller.The film functions in much the same way Mike Judge's Idiocracy did 35 years later, very funny films that depict silly futures that, if considered rationally, are terrifying and on-point.The film details (well, sort of) the country after a mysterious gas kills everyone over the age of 25, and we follow a select group (including Ben Vereen and Cindy Williams) as they attempt to live, survive and make hilarious non-sequiturs among the southwest desert.The film is a laundry list of psychedelia, societal breakdown, cultural criticism and a lot of silly, clever wordplay. In addition to being spot-on about some of its criticisms about the immaturities and problems a youth-led culture would have (and would be a very relevant critique about all the hippies and their ilk of the time, functioning almost as the voice of reason), it moves quickly and throws joke after joke after joke at the screen, and a lot of it, though delivered and moved on from so quickly that you're barely given the time to comprehend it, and it's just hugely entertaining through its short running time.I've now seen three Corman films, and loved two of them, with this one neck and neck with A Bucket of Blood for my favorite.Don't make me choose.{Grade: B+ (8.5/10) / #8 (of 25) of 1971}

Skragg It's hard to describe this film without just making a list of all the things that (I think) work. The cop in the confessional, the Elaine Giftos character taking over her own rape, Ben Vereen and Bud Cort as would-be spaghetti western-type cowboys, Cindy Williams falling in love with the jukebox, the doctor who gets mad at her for refusing to have the baby, the Hell's Angels guarding a golf course, and turning it into a Vietnam allegory, the Indians taking back America, and sarcastically offering souvenirs for free, the leader of the commune, who was funny but without being YET ANOTHER stereotyped hippie, God and Jesus having a comical father-son talk.I don't know Robert Corff from anything else (that I can name), but he was very good in his role. Tally Coppola (Talia Shire) had less to do than the others, but she was fine too. Like at least one poster here, I just don't see how it's "dated" (of course, I almost never listen to "dates well" and "dates badly" when it comes to entertainment).

Woodyanders This gloriously gaga dippy hippie early 70's end-of-the-world counterculture cinematic artifact deals with a man-made airborne germ warfare virus which accelerates the aging process, thus killing off everybody who's twenty-five and older. Only young kids are left to inherit the world and maintain some semblance of civilization. Naturally, in the hands of these crazy, carefree, amoral, unsupervised, and totally uninhibited youths all-out anything-goes anarchy, hedonism, and pandemonium soon become widespread: California degenerates into a fascist Nixonian police state, football-inspired brutality reigns supreme in Texas, greasy bikers enforce conservative moral rectitude on the golf links (!), and horse-riding, pistol-packing psycho cowboy bandit car thieves terrorize the dusty back-roads of America.Directed with customary gusto by legendary exploitation movie maestro Roger Corman, adopted from a bold, biting script written by the great, ever-underrated George Armitage (who later wrote and directed the terrific "Miami Blues"), further enhanced by Ron Dexter's garishly excessive, heavy on the bright lurid colors and flashy psychedelic visuals cinematography and a groovy, fuzz-tone and saxophone blastin' lowdown blue-eyed soul rock'n'roll score by Country Joe and the Fish, this breezy, irreverent, playfully mordant black comedy riot satirizes both the establishment and the counterculture alike, biker pictures, brooding Gothic horror films (Edgar Allen Poe appears as a grimly philosophical Greek chorus astride a black chopper with Eleanor as his motorcycle mama!), and apocalyptic sci-fi cinema in general. Robert Corff and Elaine Giftos are quite affable as the increasingly confused leads, while Ben Vereen as an angry black militant, Cindy Williams as a chirpy, pregnant ditz, Talia Shire as a daffy, rock music-loving flower child, Bud Cort as a smarmy longhair, and Armitage as the deranged Billy the Kid contribute deliciously grotesque supporting performances. A wonderfully kooky and cockeyed one-of-a-kind delight.