Great, but disturbing


We watched this in my film class and it tottally blew me away (excuse the pun). The way it was shot to the make-up made it seem so real. My teacher told me they made this at first as a public service announcement but it didn't air on the BBC because the director would not edit it.

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It wasn't a PS announcement. It was made for the BBC's flagship current affairs programme Panorama. Think along the lines of "60 minutes" in the US. The government got wind and banned the programme in the same way as "Zircon" was banned under Thatcher in the early 80s.

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Funny how it was a Labour Government that banned the screening on Television of The War Game. But when the equally disturbing The Day After and Threads appeared in the 1980s, the then Thatcher Government allowed them to be screened. Unless, as someone may point out, there would have been too much of a legal wrangle the second time around?

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basically another concocted charade about an event that didn't happen (the Nuclear War of 1980 eh?) that only complete and unilateral disarmament could save us from.

Today its manmade global warming. In the 60s it was Impending Nuclear Doom. Only the liberals can save us.

I'm guessing you didn't get that slant in your film class.

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[deleted]

Hiroshima & Nagasaki collectively were the most successful disarmament campaign in history, bar none. Ever consider how many lives on both sides were saved?

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[deleted]

Your ignorance is frightening. Japan was willing to surrender, just not to every term the USA demanded. The nukes were more of a show to the Russians.

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Right! My bumper sticker says: "We had to destroy the world in order to save it."

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Good Lord... You are a special kind of retard for sure. Try to educate yourself.

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Has it occured to you, rlange, that maybe the nuclear war of 1980 didn't happen because of "silly left wing propaganda" like The War Game?

Thought not..........

"The hour is come but not the man"

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"basically another concocted charade about an event that didn't happen"
I wouldn't speak too soon.
it could still start as soon as tomorrow [Israel nukes Iran,Iran bombs Israel, Russia bombs Israel, Israel nukes Russia, America nukes everyone]

Kiwiboy62
"Now what does this button do?"

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Funny how every scenario ends 'America nukes everyone"...........

"The hour is come but not the man"

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Maybe because they have...

a) the capability
B) The will/craziness to do so- will=when feeling threated,crazy=The Bush
administration

and Iran is NOT nuclear capable now or in the forseeable future. [latest US intel report contradictingBush admin] Few nuclear powers have the stockpile or the delivery systems capable of doing this outside the "good bomb" club.

Kiwiboy62
Trinitite= green glasslike substance produced by atomic explosion at Los Alamos

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we watched this in a screening at my uni and at the end there was just a shocked silence from everybody. this was such a powerful piece of film, and still makes a very strong and valid point today, over 40 years after being initially made.

terrifyingly brilliant

shoe, shoe, electric shoe

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Agreed. 43 years old and still chilling. I cannot think of any other film or documentary of that age I can still say this for.

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Doesn't say much for the critical thinking abilities of your class

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Just as likely, it could start over a misunderstanding, computer or human error, as it nearly did in 1995 when Yeltsin was within three minutes of launching an ICBM strike at the United States after Russian early warning systems mistook the launch of a Norwegian rocket for a missile launch. It also nearly happened in 1983 (Google "Stanislav Petrov", an unsung hero of the Cold War who is probably responsible for saving the lives of billions). Sooner or later, our luck will run out unless we demand that our leaders maintain vigilance over the controls and protocols for using these dreadful weapons. I don't believe any rational leader would use them preemptively (notice that I said "rational", which automatically excludes all the neoconservative loons who seem to get a hard-on over their war fantasies).

As for rlange-3, his comments are a typical conservative response to this kind of discussion. Don't think about horrid things like nuclear war. Don't think about global warming. Don't think about children living in poverty. Just go back to your nice, warm, comfortable little world and buy another flat screen TV on your credit card, and trust the adults to worry about the important stuff. Oh, and if things go pear-shaped anyway, then just blame those horrible "liberals" for daring to talk about serious topics and threatening our nice little Leave-It-To-Beaver fantasy world.

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I think rlange-3 does make a good point in that not many people will pick up on the deeper ideological issues of films like 'The War Game' just as they don't question the deeper political issues surrounding 'climate change'. There was the fairly clear subtext in the introduction of 'The War Game' that Britain is a greater target for the Russians because of US airbases, for example. There were also quotes from America and the Vatican (both tiresomely predictable liberal targets) which looked like they were taken completely out of context.

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The filmmakers studied the aftereffects of massive firebombings of civilian targets in Germany and Japan, as well as the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and applied that knowledge to the onscreen depictions of the devastation.
I don't think there's anything unreasonable about making a film that vividly depicts what could happen to *both* sides, and say, "hey, this is so horrific, let's do whatever we can to make it not happen."
(At least two times in the film, the voiceover mentions that what is shown happening to British civilians is likely happening to "enemy" civilians, as well)


"...and Mrs. Taylor sure seems to use a lotta ice, whenever he's away."

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Yes. I'm not sure why this particular part affected me so strongly, but hearing the old woman talking about the tub full of water ("the only water we have left") freaked me out more than anything I've ever seen in any horror movie.

And please, everyone, don't bother trying to smack sense into rlange3; you're only going to stress yourselves out for nothing.


__________________
'It's a mess, ain't it, sheriff?'
'If it ain't, it'll do till the mess gets here.'

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Saw it again recently and is nowhere as graphic and depressing as I remembered . Okay the cold war is over but even so THREADS till has an impact that will give you many sleepless nights

There's one scene involving a bunch of protesters demanding food and they all seem very well dressed and fed for a bunch of people who have just survived a nuclear war . I'm guessing that the local supermarkets and dry cleaners didn't get bombed then ? Either that or film extras weren't in to method acting ?

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@Theo Robertson

Indeed, those were not professionnal actors at all. They took some actors, but the majority of extras and silent roles were given to the people living in this village.

The fact of not taking professionnal actors was in fact to give a sense of reality to the movie, like to be more natural, but sometimes when the actors are not so well prepared they can make mistakes, but hey.. its human afterall

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