The 27th Day

The basic plot is definitely interesting (after all, it’s adapted from a fine story by writer John Mantley), and supplies what seems like an ample basis to critically reflect on human nature, individual responsibility, and the destructive potential of modern weaponry. Unfortunately, everything quickly goes awry, ruined by such extreme propagandistic content that it’s truly baffling, if not downright irritating.

Consequently, the film is completely dominated by the most extreme Manichaeism all the way to its mind-blowing (and not in a good way) conclusion where the Communist menace has been eliminated and the aliens can finally settle in Soviet territory and live in peace with the rest of mankind.

“The 27th Day” can therefore be considered one of the most explicit manifestations of McCarthyism-era Cold War paranoia which ran rampant in movies during the 1950s and ’60s. On the narrative front, the movie starts off more tense and well-paced, but then it quickly bogs down, becoming long-winded, drowning in its stew of partisan rhetoric.

Seen at the dawn of a new millennium, Asher’s film takes on an exclusively historic value.