• Home
  • News
  • Top Picks
    • Movies & Films: Top 25
    • Documentaries: Top 25
    • Films For Students: Top 10
    • Music Videos: Top 10
  • Categories
    • Film
    • Documentary
    • Shorts
    • Blog
    • Calendar
    • Links
    • About

Miss Liberty's Film & Documentary World

Libertarian Movies, Films & Documentaries

Zero Population Growth (1972)

Tagged: Reproductive liberty

In a future world, human reproduction is made a capital offense. [ Zero Population Growth credits: Dir: Michael Campus/ Oliver Reed, Geraldine Chaplin, Don Gordon/ 95 min/ SciFi-Fantasy, Drama/ Reproductive Liberty]

“The couple at the center of this story wants to have a baby, and the plot is highly sympathetic to their struggle against the law.”

“Childbearing is herewith forbidden. The conception of a child shall be the gravest of crimes, punishable by death. Women now pregnant will report to local hospitals for registration. I earnestly request your cooperation in this effort, to assure the last hope for survival of the human race.” With those words is announced the government’s answer to “overpopulation” in the future world projected here.

This world is a bleak, centrally planned place. The air is polluted, food is in short supply, and people are afraid to say what they think. Of course, such could be said of various socialist countries even today. Certainly the former communist bloc has been revealed to be impoverished and polluted, and China in particular has been so aggressive in discouraging reproduction that in some parts of the country babies are reported to be routinely killed. But the connection between state control and social ills is never made explicit in this film, so it’s up to the viewer to decide whether “overpopulation” is really the root cause of what ails this projected future or something else.

In any case, the couple at the center of this story wants to have a baby, and the plot is highly sympathetic to their struggle against the law. As it happens, they work in a museum that houses twentieth century artifacts and hence are intimately familiar with how prosperous and free life once was. Such familiarity makes accepting all the state-mandated restrictions they live under just that much harder. The wife gets pregnant, and rather than turn herself over to an abortion center, as mandated, she hides the pregnancy from all but her husband and gives birth secretly. However, despite the minutest precautions, the couple and baby are soon caught and sentenced to death. Their only hope is escape.

Zero Population Growth is dated in many ways, and it often has a low-budget flavor. But it’s nonetheless interesting thanks to an imaginative story. I especially liked the concept of “Babyland,” a sort of cross between the DMV and a maternity ward; here, young couples stand in long lines waiting to get a mechanical baby to fill the emotional void in their lives resulting from the ban on reproduction. In fact, getting a mechanical baby even entitles them to a larger apartment! The absurdity of that last touch makes the whole story eerily credible. This film is likely to be of special interest to fans of classic sci-fi. Also listed as Z.P.G.

How to See Zero Population Growth

Netflix
Amazon (DVD)
Amazon (Instant Video)
YouTube Video Search
Online Video Search

Links

IMDB
Wikipedia

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)

Related

Featured Post

The Onion: Should the Government Stop Dumping Money Into a Giant Hole?

It's one of the great economic questions of our time. Does dumping money into a giant hole create jobs and stimulate the economy, or is it simply a waste? Paul Krugman has suggested that even faking an alien invasion would be good for the economy, the idea being that any activity, with or without production … Continue Reading

maos great famine

Mao’s Great Famine (2011)

Mao Zedong's "Great Leap Forward," a far-reaching program of forced modernization intended to transform China into a socialist paradise, instead results in the greatest holocaust in human history — with a death toll of 45 million. Also listed as La grande famine de Mao. [ Mao's Great Famine credits: Dir: … Continue Reading

South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut

South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut (1999)

WINNER: TOP 25 LIBERTARIAN FILMS In the name of saving the children from obscene language, the parents of the South Park kids go to all extremes—including censorship, mind-controlling implants, executions, and finally war on Canada. [ South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut credits: Dir: Trey Parker/ (voices … Continue Reading

Themes

Abuse of power American revolution Anti-draft Anti-regulation Anti-slavery Anti-socialism Anti-taxation Anti-war Ayn Rand Corrupt government Creator as hero Democide Econ 101 Eminent domain Equality & law Escape from socialism Freedom of speech Free press as hero Government as bigot Government as torturer Government enforced morality Government healthcare Government schools Incompetent government Individualism John Stossel Law & liberty Legalize Drugs Libertarian heroes Libertarianism 101 Power corrupts Power worship Pro-capitalism Pro-immigration Propaganda Psychiatric coercion Resistance to tyranny Right to secede Search & seizure Second amendment Sexual liberty Social tolerance Unions & monopolies Voluntarism Working for government

Genres/Categories

Action-Adventure Animated Biography Blog Comedy Documentary Drama Family Featured Film Foreign History Horror Music-Dance Netflix News Romance SciFi-Fantasy Shorts Thriller Upcoming Western

About Miss Liberty

This site is a collection of films and documentaries of particular interest to libertarians (and those interested in libertarianism). It began as a book, Miss Liberty’s Guide to Film: Movies for the Libertarian Millennium, where many of the recommended films were first reviewed. The current collection has grown to now more than double the number in that original list, and it’s growing still.

  • RSS

© 2023 Miss Liberty's Film & Documentary World. All Rights Reserved