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Nuclear War films - THREADS [message #118719] Tue, 24 September 2013 14:33 Go to next message
brad is currently offline  brad
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Message-ID: <244@looking.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 6-Mar-85 00:00:00 EST
Article-I.D.: looking.244
Posted: Wed Mar  6 00:00:00 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 6-Mar-85 05:49:58 EST
References: <524@ahutb.UUCP>
Organization: Looking Glass Software, Waterloo, Ont
Lines: 36
Xref: watmath net.movies:5844 net.sf-lovers:6589

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
Re: Nuclear War films - THREADS [message #118796 is a reply to message #118719] Tue, 24 September 2013 14:36 Go to previous message
msc is currently offline  msc
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Message-ID: <1620@saber.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 8-Mar-85 15:22:19 EST
Article-I.D.: saber.1620
Posted: Fri Mar  8 15:22:19 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 10-Mar-85 07:57:20 EST
References: <524@ahutb.UUCP> <244@looking.UUCP>
Organization: Saber Technology, San Jose, CA
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Xref: watmath net.movies:5876 net.sf-lovers:6664

> 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
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