REVIEW: THE DAY THE FISH CAME OUT
REVIEW: MICHAEL CACOYANNIS [ 1967 ] 109'
REVIEW: MICHAEL CACOYANNIS PRODUCTIONS
CAST: TOM COURTENAY, COLIN BLAKELY
CAST: CANDICE BERGEN, SAM WANAMAKER
PERSONAL RATING:
CRITICAL RATING:
WTF-FILMOMETER: Nothing says "nuclear parable" like interpretive dance

"You can't you can't you can't you can't be sure. . .
You can't you can't you can't you can't be sure. . .
Where the bombs fell before. . . before. . . before. . .
And where or when they'll fall again. . . And where or when they'll fall again. . .
But one thing is absolutely plain. . . The next time it's unlikely to be Spain - Olé!"

When one thinks "nuclear parable" a number of things might jump to mind - Henry Fonda from FAIL SAFE [1964], Peter Sellers as the inimitable ex-Nazi DR. STRANGELOVE [1964], or even the mighty lumbering GOJIRA [1954]. One thing that probably does not come to mind, however, is a triptych of Spanish dancers singing about nuclear weaponry dropping into the ocean as their castanets click at their sides. I guess that's part of what makes writer / director Michael Cacoyannis different from the rest of us.

The film in question was made in response to a nuclear accident the previous year - on January 17th, 1966 a B-52 bomber collided with a K-135 during a standard refueling while on its way back home. The K-135 exploded, killing all four of its crew, while four of the seven crewmen managed to escape the B-52. All four unarmed 70 kiloton hydrogen bombs being carried by the bomber were jettisoned - three landed in the area around Palomares, Spain (one safely in a riverbed, the other two's conventional explosives exploded upon impact with dry land) and the fourth went into the ocean. 1400 tons of contaminated material was eventually removed from the area around the town of Palomares and the United States government has since settled a number of claims by villagers who's health had been adversely affected by the contamination.

The Palomares incident was one of the most widely reported of its kind, ever, making it easy to see how Michael Cacoyannis could have used it as inspiration. What's less clear is how he came to the conclusion that the resulting film should be a comedy, and a rather absurdly disjointed one at that.

THE DAY THE FISH CAME OUT begins with a bit of narration in regards to the loss of the hydrogen bombs in Spain - interestingly enough, only the one which fell more or less harmlessly into the ocean is mentioned here. Following that is the aforementioned song and dance number, which segues beautifully into the film's best moment - it's opening credits. A wonderful theme by Mikis Theodorakis plays as surreal globs and outlines of fish float by while the cast and crew get their due credit. This transitions to the opening scene in which tourists somewhere in the world are being told by a computer to make their way to the virtually unknown Greek island of Makos for their vacation. Makos' population, it seems, is in dire need of a financial boost and is looking to increase its tourism.

Sadly, the fates are against them, as Courtenay and Blakely are having serious difficulties with the SAC bomber not far off the coast of the little island. With a water landing imminent, the two jettison their payload of nuclear bombs along with the top-secret Container Q - all complete with parachutes - and prepare for the worst. A fisherman's boy sees the crash and rushes to notify the townspeople, none of whom (from the sadistic dentist on down) believe him in the least. NATO denies, of course, that anything in the least happened in the island's area while subsequently allowing Wanamaker to mount an operation to recover the plane's payload and pilots.

To make matters worse, Container Q has been located by a poor goat-herder who promptly drags it into his living room and attempts with considerable futility to open it. Wanamaker and his flamboyantly dressed all-male team descend upon the island in short order under the guise of being contractors looking to build a resort hotel there. The locals are ecstatic, naturally, and the good news spreads quickly. Before long, the tourist computers from the opening scene are recommending that everyone make their way to the happy little island - a deluge of tourists (including Candice Bergen as the consistently horny archaeologists assistant Electra) ensues. Elsewhere on the island, the pilot and navigator of the downed bomber are running around in little but their soiled undergarments in search for someone official to whom they can tell their story.

Meanwhile, the goat-herder is having no luck at all in opening Container Q - the metal of which it is made seems pretty impenetrable - and makes his way to town in search of ideas. There he discovers that Electra has been using an etching acid in her work that might just do the trick. He steels the bottle and heads back to his home, where he burns a hole right through the metal casing of Container Q. Inside he discovers nothing but a few large pellets that do nothing but make him sick - so down the drain and into the town's water supply they go.

Back in town proper, the pilot and navigator have managed to don actual clothing in time to join in on a mass festivity involving the tourists and NATO team. Glasses of tainted water are passed out wholesale to all of the guests since it's all the island has to offer. Everything seems perfectly fine until the fish living around the island begin to die, en masse. Wanamaker as well as the pilot and navigator realize that their deaths are imminent as the rest of the town lets loose for one last hurrah. The film ends on an oddly disconcerting scene of the tourists and NATO team dancing their last - a dance of death as it were.

THE DAY THE FISH CAME OUT is intriguing in its oddity but not much else - I fear the synopsis above (done completely from memory since my tape of this title has gone quite missing for the moment) doesn't properly convey the disjointed nature of the narrative. There are two or three individual story lines that make up the main body of the film - those of the goat-herder, the pilot and navigator, and the NATO team - none of which merge together terribly well until the suitably uneasy conclusion of the picture. The use of comedy throughout the film is also uneven and, while occasionally funny, never really succeeds in making the film anything but weird.

And just what is the purpose of the movie, anyway? The main event of the story - the downing of the plane - is obviously in reference to the then recent events. After the downing of the plane and the dropping of its payload the story takes a strange turn and begins commenting on everything from homosexuality to tourists to small-town Greek society while the underlying danger of the events that began the film are left at the wayside. Any potential sense of unease is layed quickly to rest by countless scenes of the pilot and navigator bounding about the island in their underpants and endless conversations between the NATO team, the tourists, and the islanders. Indeed, the film doesn't regain its more apocalyptic tone until the ending reel and, when the doom-laden ending does finally arrive, its impact is lessened considerably by the nonsense that comprises roughly 75% of the overly long running time.

While not entirely without redeeming qualities - the beginning, end, and even a few scenes in between coupled with Mikis Theodorakis' wonderful score keep the film from being as bad as it really could have been - THE DAY THE FISH CAME OUT never really succeeds at doing anything other than being a bizarre little blip on the late 60's motion picture scene. It's existence is even less sensical given that writer / director Cacoyannis had, just three years previously, directed ZORBA THE GREEK - a film that was nominated four seven and won three Academy Awards. While the success of that may be sturdily built on the source material provided by writer Nikos Kazantzakis (who also authored the source novel for Scorsese's excellent THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST, [1988]), Cacoyannis seems to have had a relatively good track record in regards to his other feature films as well.

That Cacoyannis is an accomplished and gifted director makes this film all the more disappointing when one thinks of all the potential lost. THE DAY THE FISH CAME OUT used to air frequently on the Fox Movie Channel, which is where I saw and recorded it from. While I can't recommend it on any basis other than its oddity it is a relatively harmless way to spend just under two hours of your life. I do, however, highly recommending the opening titles - designed by Maurice Binder (of James Bond fame) and scored by Theodorakis, they're easily the highlight of the film.