THE SURVIVALIST

Contemporary USA bas caught up with middle-aged Franklin Horn -- he is doom-ridden, oppressed by signals of an oncoming breakdown of the world-as-one-hacks-it. He hoards wilderness supplies, buys a deserted stretch of Arizona land, but fails to convince his wife and two other couples to bole up in his self-sustaining fortress before the flood breaks. So Franklin alone, bent on survival above all else, withdraws to his eyrie, copes and meditates. Until an Enemy appears who when seen tends a vegetable patch far off, when unseen, steals Franklin's stores, destroys his goods and takes a shot at him. Then the stalking, and plotting, of the kill begin -- and it all ends when Franklin wins a Pyrrhic victory over a shattered foe and over himself as he realizes that humanity supersedes the urge to run and hide -- to survive in isolation. The preachments dog the action like an overweight spaniel and altogether it's a long haul.