boyajian@akov68.DEC (Jerry Boyajian) (07/12/84)
The other week, I rented a copy of the movie TESTAMENT, an American Play-
house producction for PBS that was released to theaters sometime late last
year. I managed to miss it when it was released, and as it presented a
somewhat different view of nuclear armageddon than THE DAY AFTER, I wanted
to take a look at it. BTW, Jane Alexander, who played the mother in this
film, was one of the nominees for Best Actress this year for this role.
TESTAMENT is very different from THE DAY AFTER, though no less gloomy. THE
DAY AFTER went for the big picture: tensions in Europe leading up to war,
flashy (no pun intended) special effects of the nuclear holocaust, mega-
deaths, and slow, ugly deaths for the survivors. It tried in its first half
to present the normal everyday life of a large set of characters so that
we got to know them well enough to empathize with their situations when
all hell broke loose. And, that film succeeded to some degree in this (for
me, at least).
TESTAMENT, on the other hand, succeeds much more admirably in this
regard. Rather than a host of characters, this film concentrates its point
of view on one family: a mother, a daughter, and two sons (the father is
on his way home from work when the bombs hit and is never heard from again).
This narrowing of focus allows for a much greater opportunity to get to
know these characters, so that their plight is that much more saddening.
TESTAMENT shies away from the reasons behind the war, as well as visual
effects. The locale is a mythical suburb of San Francisco, and everything
seems peaceful when all of a sudden the tv is interrupted by a news broad-
cast about nuclear warheads detonating in some major cities. Then comes a
flash of light through the windows as SF is hit. The rest of the film con-
centrates on the problems along the way as this community struggles to
survive in the aftermath. As in THE DAY AFTER, we are faced with the slow
deaths of the residents of the town, though this time we are spared the
gruesome make-up of the former movie.
If this film makes any point, it's how helpless the average com-
munity can be in the face of such a disaster. And yet, despite the outcome,
there is also a gratifying sense of good people helping each other through
the crisis, and how some people just don't give up.
I liked THE DAY AFTER quite a bit. Unlike many critics, I found it to be
dramatic, believable (with the usual caveats that the truth will most
likely be worse than the fiction), and effective. TESTAMENT is the same,
only more so. As horrifying as TDA was in its scenes of mass destruction,
TESTAMENT was equally horrifying in its relative quiteness. And it was much
more dramatic. It's certainly a depressing picture, but it's a well-made
depressing picture.
If TESTAMENT shows up on PBS (maybe it has already, when I wasn't looking),
I recommend watching it. If any of you own a VCR, I recommend renting a
tape copy. It's unfortunate that with all the ballyhoo that THE DAY AFTER
generated, TESTAMENT kind of slipped by unnoticed (as did an NBC tv movie
from last spring, SPECIAL BULLETIN).
--- jayembee (Jerry Boyajian, DEC, Maynard, MA)
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