"Control" is a fictional movie where a group of volunteers agree to live in a bomb shelter for 20 days. It's to show the practicality of such living arrangements for groups of strangers during a nuclear attack. Not surprisingly, over time, all sorts of problems develop...many of which are caused by the various personalities of the participants. For example, one is a bit of a pervert and another insists on doing magic tricks all the time.

While Burt Lancaster is listed among the cast, he's a small portion of the movie, as he's not one of the participants in the shelter. The only star there I easily recognized was Ben Gazzara.

The purpose of the film seems pretty obvious...to show how impractical shelters are and how nuclear war should be avoided at all costs. This is likely why the aging Lancaster appeared in the film, as he was a strong proponent of nuclear disarmament.

So is it any good? Well, the story is very slow...but it also brings up some excellent points and is quite thought-provoking. Not a great film by any standard but an interesting one.

You could say that the anti nuclear theme here came a bit late to the party, The Day After was from '83 and Dr Strangelove from '64, but it was probable brought back by the '86 Tjernobyl disaster. I was twelve and can vividly remember the fear of the nuclear fall out, the radiation cloud that suposedly drifted through Europe. But I can't remember the idea of building fall out shelters like they make out in this Italian film.

Maybe this should be more seen as an psychological or social experiment like the Stanford Prison Experiment (1971) or the much later Big Brother reality TV shows (1999).

A group of diverse people locked in a single location and with a pressure cooking situation that brings out the best and worst in people. I'm thinking Lost, Lord of the Flies, Dark Star, Breakfast Club. There are so many.

This one does a fine job of making you dislike all the characters because of their stereotypical behaviour. The actors are unable to do anything interesting with their parts and the lack of direction makes every scene like something taken from an amateur filmschool. Burt Lancaster's part is probable the only interesting and most convincing character. But he's not used in most of the movie.

Sadly, there are no surprises, the plot is thin but not all bad. It is barely watchable. Only interesting for people like me who enjoy cult and b-films or are interested in vintage scifi and disaster movies or cheap direct to video flicks.

And to Spaghettify it some more, there is some music by Ennio Moricone.