MovieChat Forums > Death Line (1973) Discussion > An Illuminating Problem?

An Illuminating Problem?

posted 10 years ago by anubis-45
5 replies | jump to latest

Hi all,

I recall seeing this at a drive-in cinema in Sydney in 1973, where it was released under the weird title of "Raw Meat". I must admit that I had the wrong idea of what I was going to see, based purely on the title.....

However, there are one or two things that I don't quite understand, after re-watching it again last evening.

Firstly, if The Man was the only remaining survivor (if one could call that 'surviving'), how did he manage to keep all those kerosene (hurricane-style) lamps filled and alight, when some of them were suspended from the tunnel arches, almost twenty feet above the floor?

Secondly - by extrapolation - how could the two tanks of kerosene (labelled 'oil' in the film) last from 18?? until 1972 or 1973? They each looked to be of about 100-150 gallon capacity, and while hurricane lamps will burn quite economically on a low flame, there seems to me to be no way that 300-odd gallons of kero could last for 80-odd years...

Anyone have any thoughts?

(I just KNOW that some joker is going to answer that The Man had home- (or should that be 'cavern-' delivery of his fuel....but that doesn't quite cut it.)

^_^

"The Opener of the Way is Waiting"

[–] TakeARisk 9 years ago

The answers:

1)Because

2) Because

Have a nice day.

[–] anubis-45 9 years ago

Hey..........I never thought of that!!!

O_O

Anyone else care to add nothing?

The Opener of the Way is waiting....

[–] Steamboy 8 years ago

I thought his oil may be made of people's grease? Like they use whales oil in old times. But with people. Is that possible?

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[–] anubis-45 8 years ago

Hello Steamboy,

Yes, I suppose it IS possible to render down corpses for their oil and fat content, but it would require a lot of time (which he had) and a lot of space (which he also had) and a lot of fuel to run the fires to do the rendering....

Which brings us back to the original dilemma...

^_^

The Opener of the Way is waiting....

[–] Steamboy 8 years ago

Hello Anubis,

Are you sure it would be so complicated? Traditional Inuit, who lived simply, used animal oils to get their lighting. I think if Inuit could do it, potentially, so could our strange underground survivor. :)

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