I was 12 when The Day After aired on ABC in November 1983. I was sick and home alone with the stern instructions from Mom to not watch the movie. Naturally, I ignored her warnings, and boy, did I regret it. I was so scared that I couldn't sleep for a week! Kids at school talked about it for ages after. The scenes of the missiles headed for the Soviet Union and the bombs hitting Kansas City and the surrounding areas are still pretty scary today. What doesn't hold up today is the hokey soap-opera storylines. And I get a laugh from watching Jason Robards survive the Kansas City blasts by ducking under his Volvo's station wagon. Come on, those cars are good but not THAT good! The cast was mostly unknown at the time- Steve Guttenburg, JoBeth Williams, John Cullum, Amy Madigan, and John Lithgow. The performances were generally good, and I still get a bit of a chill hearing Lithgow's final line: "Is anybody out there? Anybody at all?"
On a smaller scale, but somehow more devastating, is Testament (1983). Instead of seeing the destruction of large cities, the viewer witnesses what happens to a small town in the months after a surprise attack on the United States. Jane Alexander gives probably her greatest performance here as a mother holding what's left of her family together after a bomb destroys nearby San Fransisco. Her neighbors and children die off one by one, and it is very hard to watch. There are no special effects. There is no explanation given for the attack- all the news they get comes from an old man's CB radio. It doesn't matter- they are going to die no matter who fired first. And that's the point- this little film is about the people who are affected by war.
The last of the "Big Three" is Threads (1984). This one I didn't see until I was grown up and the Soviet Union was no more. I'm glad I waited to see it. It makes The Day After look like a trip to Disneyland. This time, the viewer sees WWIII from a British perspective. It begins with a young couple in Sheffield, England, preparing for a wedding as tensions in the Middle East grow. The man and woman are oblivious about the crisis until "Protect and Survive" films start showing on television. Everything deteriorates quickly, and Britain is hit with 80+ megatons. The film gruesomely depicts the lead actress struggling to survive the post-nuclear wasteland that was once Sheffield. There are no happy endings here- just charred corpses, no food, radiation sickness, rape, murder, looting, and birth defects. The special effects, real footage of nuclear detonations, and make-up are nightmare inducing.
The film begins with this narration: "In an urban society, everything connects. Each person's needs are fed by the skills of many others. Our lives are woven together in a fabric. But the connections that make society strong also make it vulnerable." Througout the film, the threads of society are pulled out one by one, and it is not a pretty sight.
This is currently only available on Region 2 DVD- VHS copies on eBay go for nearly $100. It has been floating around on Google Video and You Tube.
HBO got into the game as well with Countdown to Looking Glass (1984). This is a rather chilling film about a cable news network covering the events leading up to WWIII. Again, there are no special effects, just harried news anchors trying to make sense of the information they are trying to report. It ends with the network being turned over to the Emergency Broadcast System by the President's orders...and it's up for the viewer to imagine what happens next. Sadly, this well-made film is not available on either VHS or DVD. It used to air often on the Fox Classic Movie network, but they stopped showing it after 9-11-01. HBO has no plans to release it on tape, either.
From WWIII to nuclear terrorism now- Special Bulletin. It originally aired on NBC and causes a bit of a panic in some areas, despite repeated disclaimers during the film. The plot- anti nuke protesters get a hold of a small bomb, and threaten to detonate it in the Charleston, SC harbor if their demands (the destruction of nuclear triggers) aren't met. A cable news network covers the event, with one of their own camera crews taken hostage. The military intervenes, and Charleston goes boom. Pretty scary stuff- and quite possible. Also not avaiable on DVD- and VHS copies are hard to come by.
Finally, there's When the Wind Blows
, an animated feature based on a graphic novel by Raymond Briggs. It's about a middle aged English couple who naively rely on the government to tell them "the correct thing to do" in the upcoming nuclear war. They study the "Protect and Survive" books (also seen in Threads ), and prepare. When the bombs hit, they think they will be all right. It's very hard to watch as they succumb to radiation sickness, even as they still think help is coming.I never realized how much film and literature has WWIII "what-if's" as their focus. This is just a bit of stuff from the 80's!
