brad@looking.UUCP (Brad Templeton) (03/06/85)
For those who though the "Day After" and "Testament" were bad, you should see the English-produced "THREADS". The reviewers say that THREADS makes the Day After look like a romp through the daisies, and while it's not quite that bad, they are close. This film deals a fair deal with the buildup to the war, at the expense of the soap-opera style buildup they had in The Day After. Nonetheless, you can still gain some sympathy for these people as all but one of them die miserably. They have it all. One EMP-burst over the north sea. The next hour a ground burst at a military target 30 miles away. And the next day a destroy-industry air burst right over Sheffield, England, the site of the film. After, you get firestorms, the wounded, fallout, radiation sickness, and even a bit of nuclear winter, which they note England feels less of because it is surrounded by the sea. The gangs of looters, the martial law and finally the law of the jungle. Finally you see a battered land, with a population reduced to the level of the Middle Ages. Stillbirth and mutation are discussed. One interesting note. Their war starts in Iran with a short two-weapon tactical exchange. One month beforehand, a press blackout covers Iran, which is a reasonable depiction of the situation. And thus the public doesn't actually learn of the use of nukes until several days afterwards, when scientists not shut up by the government announce evidence like increased radioactivity in certain wind patterns. The idea that nukes might be used in battle and I might not know about it scares me... In contrast, Testament was not a film about nuclear war. It was a film about a town's death from radiation poisoning. It could just has easily have been plague or any other toxin. They wanted to focus on the human dram surrounding the deaths, and they did that well, but they did not provide a reasonable depiction of a nuclear war. -- Brad Templeton, Looking Glass Software Ltd. - Waterloo, Ontario 519/884-7473
msc@saber.UUCP (Mark Callow) (03/08/85)
> For those who though the "Day After" and "Testament" were bad, you should > see the English-produced "THREADS". > > The reviewers say that THREADS makes the Day After look like a romp through > the daisies, and while it's not quite that bad, they are close. If you really want to be frightened see Peter Watkin's "The War Game". This was commissioned by the BBC but when they saw the finished product they deemed it too scary to show on TV. It has never been shown on TV, in Britain at least, but was released as a movie. Last August, there was mention that the BBC might finally show it, as part of an examination of nuclear war, along with Threads and some documentaries and discussion programs. 17 years after seeing it I still have vivid memories of the scenes of the fire storms and resulting hurricane force winds. With this memory, the depiction of fire storms in Threads did not seem believable. Threads did not depict the gale force winds that would result from the firestorm. I also have vivid memories of policeman shooting those too maimed to live since there were almost no medical facilities to take care of them. Just typing these few words is bringing back the feeling of horror I experienced with the realisation of how bad things were anticipated to be for the police to have instructions to do that. The War Game was a documentary style film based on the then current scientific understanding and civil defense planning in Britain. It was around this time in my life that I decided I would never work on weapons and have as little as possible to do with any other military work. -- From the TARDIS of Mark Callow msc@saber.UUCP, saber!msc@decwrl.ARPA ...{decvax,ucbvax}!decwrl!saber!msc, ...{amd,ihnp4,ittvax}!saber!msc