Has anyone seen this 1968 TV movie about a fascist takeover of America?

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

Shadow On The Land was an alternate reality science fiction film made for TV about an American election where, out of fear, the people elected a right wing fascist dictator who cracked down on constitutional rights. The story centers on a group of freedom fighters who try to oppose the fascists. Whereas the later film Red Dawn was about a communist invasion and an American resistance rising up in response, this earlier film was about an internal threat from the extreme right wing. I was a TV addict when I was young and probably would have seen it had I not spent 1968 out of the country. I've never seen this and would like that opportunity but I can't even find a place to buy a DVD. From what I've read, this hasn't even been released on DVD and has hardly been shown on American television since its original airing in 1968. It seems to have been a quality film, directed by the prolific Richard Serafian, with major stars including Jackie Cooper, Gene Hackman, and John Forsythe and its disappearance from the airwaves cannot be explained by a claim that it wasn't very good. The reviews on IMDB are very positive, but almost all from people who only saw the original airing and have never seen it again (several of the reviewers asking if anyone has a copy).

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063589/reviews

I've searched for this film on YouTube and anywhere else on the Internet but all I've found is this short clip. The internal fascist government as described in this '68 flic seems to have a similar name to the Department Of Homeland Security.

[First Speaker]

1. I saw it then...it's not bad...

...OK--there's some sappy dialogue, and they pull their punches here and there. For instance--the opposition group is called "The Society for Man"...pretty secular-sounding, eh? They're on the side of the angels, naturally...but nowhere is their ideology discussed. But at one point, the hero says to a fellow underground member that "everyone with a little property panicked, and we ended up with the dictatorship"...that sounds almost--gasp!--Marxist. I suspect that not everyone in the SOM was a bourgouis democrat, which--had it become a regular series (it was a TV pilot), might have made for some interesting drama.
However--it *was* an intriguing film, the atmosphere was well-done, and it was an interesting late-60s take on the political paranoia of the era. I've always regretted it never became a series, and it's worth trying to track down...

[hunter]

2. Interesting.

Not the sort of thing my parents would have let us watch in 1968.

We could watch the news with my dad (which was plenty bloody enough at the time) but movie violence, mostly not, nothing that exceeded the Star Trek or The Wild Wild West level.

IMDB says Sony owns it now, but so far as I know these big media companies hold onto these things as long as they can, even when they are not making money.

[olddots]

3. All i could find out is Sidney Shelden was the writer

Ole Sid was a master of shlock but who knows the show might be good .

[NewJeffCT]

4. I turned 2 at the end of 1968

so, I never would have watched it. However, I'd be interested if you ever found it online anywhere

There is a DVD of the show:

http://www.raredvds.biz/Shadow_On_The_Land_DVD_1968_Hackman_Forsythe_p/shadow_on_the_land.htm

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

5. Thank you, I will inquire

[Wounded Bear]

6. Sounds a bit like the back story for "V For Vendetta"

V is set in England, of course, but the whole thing seems to apply when portraying RW fascist takeovers of democratic countries.

V has a heavy religious undertone to the fascism, as well.

[jakeXT]

7. Not seen it, but I like Hackman movies like "The Package", or Lancaster ones like "7 Days in May"/

"Executive Action"

"The Package"

http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-package-1989