plunkett@rlgvax.UUCP (Scott Plunkett) (11/15/83)
Conservatives are upset about the ABC-TV movie "The Day After" due to its already obvious leanings toward the liberal/left delirium. It has been reported that the producers sought the opinion of nuclear-freeze advocates to better tailor the movie and its publicity to the politics of the left. The method the producers have chosen for depicting the use of nuclear weapons will merely aggravate the fear we all have regarding nuclear war, without contributing anything at all positive to its actual avoidance and eventual removal of the threat. It is gasoline on the flames of hysteria and is therefore an irresponsible movie. I recommend watching Masterpiece Theatre instead.
bch@unc.UUCP (Byron Howes ) (11/17/83)
What, pray tell, is the "liberal/left" delirium that "The Day After" leans toward? What would a "conservative" portrayal of a post-nuclear world be like? What method would a more conservatively oriented film use to depict the use of nuclear weapons? When I listen to military strategists talk about nuclear confrontation and limiting civilian casualties to the (pick your number) millions, I get a sense of players at a board game putting tokens into the "deceased" bin. It is high time, if this is in fact the case, that people stopped dealing with nuclear weapons as chits in a game and began dealing with them as real and dangerous implements. Both the U.S. and the U.S.S.R have sufficient nuclear hardware to destroy the earth several times over. If the TTAPS simulations are correct, neither side has to even come near their targets to accomplish this. At what point does this buildup of nuclear weapons avoid nuclear war? At what point do we "avoid the problem and eventually eliminate it?" I see no signs of anyone in power, Soviets or U.S., making any moves toward this end. When I do, I may become a little less emotional abbout this issue. Until that time, it is unlikely that any teleplay could aggravate my fear of nuclear weapons beyond the point it has already been aggravated by the recent foreign policy directions in the U.S. Byron Howes UNC - Chapel Hill decvax!duke!mcnc!unc!bch