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From: mathnews2@watdcsu.UUCP (mathNOOS [editors])
Newsgroups: net.movies
Subject: Re: TESTAMENT
Message-ID: <1090@watdcsu.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 8-Mar-85 14:02:10 EST
Article-I.D.: watdcsu.1090
Posted: Fri Mar  8 14:02:10 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 9-Mar-85 08:05:03 EST
References: <524@ahutb.UUCP>
Reply-To: mathnews2@watdcsu.UUCP (mathNOOS [editors])
Distribution: na
Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 81
Summary: 

In article <524@ahutb.UUCP> leeper@ahutb.UUCP (leeper) writes:
> >Just got your review of 9 Feb.  Re:
> >
> >	"TESTAMENT wasa very well-made film, beautifully
> >	directed with great insights into the
> >	characters.  But while those characters
> >	were believable, the situation was not.  The
> >	producers failed to do their homework."
> >
> >How was the situation not believable?
>
>The fact is that TESTAMENT examined only the radiation effect of the
>war and for a community within commute distance of San Francisco they
>way under-rated even that.  At the time TESTAMENT was made the concept
>of nuclear winter had already been established, yet the film did not
>show the dropping of temperatures.  On the contrary, some survivors were
>headed up to Canada where the cold alone would have been deadly.

  Canada isn't that cold, and would be only three or four degrees
colder than San Francisco (Celsius).  Canada also would, in the more
remote areas, be less ravaged by radiation, and could serve, through
use of hothouses (yes, you can have hothouses in freezing
temperatures; my father has done that for years), as a storehouse for
the remnants of civilisation.

>The breakdown of the social order was shown with one kid stealing a
>bicycle.  With the the big (and many not-so-big) cities gone, there
>would be no distribution of food.  Nothing grown would be safe.

  If you'll note, the survivors accepted the fact that the end was
inevitable, and just chose to live out their days as best as they
could.  While I cannot recall anyone eating fresh food (remember the
storeroom with all the cans and jars), it wouldn't really matter to
them whether the food was contaminated or not, they were going to die,
anyhow.

>Then there would be disease.  Within a large radius around targets
>there would be millions dying with nobody to bury them.  Disease would
>run rampant with no real facilities to stop it.  The town in TESTAMENT
>is hardly isolated enough that the disease would not come there.  The
>people on the fringes of the destruction and even the air currents
>would carry it.
>
>Then there are the injured and maimed.  The dubious assumption of the
>film was that this town was far enough from any of the blasts to avoid
>direct physical injuries.  It wouldn't have avoided the walking
>wounded, it just wasn't that isolated.

  The producers assumed, as there were no prospective medical
facilities available, that the walking wounded would not be coming
that way apparently.

>In any case there is a long list of reasons why things just would not
>have been as shown in TESTAMENT.  A post-nuclear-war is very probably
>worse than we can imagine, and the town in TESTAMENT was not.

  I'll grant you that.  TESTAMENT sought to show the fatalism that
would arise after the big war.  I found it far more believable than
THE DAY AFTER, as that show had everyone assuming that, even though
they were in a major target area, they had little trouble hoping to
survive, and in fact believed after each death that that was the last
one.
				--Scooter! @ mathnews2 @ watdcsu
				(mathNOOS[editors])	UW Dept.
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