24 votes

The Day After - Forty years ago my father scared 100 million viewers in America

5 comments

  1. [3]
    PelagiusSeptim
    Link
    Similar to this is the british film Threads, released the year after this one. Often called one of the scariest movies ever made

    Similar to this is the british film Threads, released the year after this one. Often called one of the scariest movies ever made

    13 votes
    1. [2]
      0d_billie
      Link Parent
      Threads is a totally harrowing watch. It's very dated, but still awfully impactful.

      Threads is a totally harrowing watch. It's very dated, but still awfully impactful.

      4 votes
      1. SpruceWillis
        Link Parent
        Yeah, Threads is a tough watch. I bought the DVD release a few years back and even though the effects are dated now it's still brutal. The bit where the air raid sirens are going off, the first...

        Yeah, Threads is a tough watch. I bought the DVD release a few years back and even though the effects are dated now it's still brutal.

        The bit where the air raid sirens are going off, the first airburst detonates and Jimmy's friend is just paralysed and peeing himself with fear mumbling that he can't believe they've "bloody done it". It's harrowing, that'd be the reality for a great number of us in that situation, just utter despair.

        Then the complete silence after the bombs have gone off interrupted only by the loud clacking of the text on screen telling you how many megatons were dropped on the UK and how many deaths there have been by the end of the short nuclear exchange, already numbering in the millions. It's just frightening on a very base level, a terror you can't escape.

        I remember watching it again with my fiancée not long after we started dating, who was seeing it for the first time. Shortly after the film started she asked me how we'd survive a nuclear war and my response was "Watch the rest of this and tell me you want to survive." She understood pretty soon after that any survivors are the unlucky ones.

        That film stayed with me for a long time.

        5 votes
  2. vord
    Link
    Well, this sounds most intriguing. We could really use some more of these for the modern era. A recreation of Jan 6th would probably be a good start. A Lifetime movie about a doctor being thrown...

    Well, this sounds most intriguing.

    We could really use some more of these for the modern era. A recreation of Jan 6th would probably be a good start.

    A Lifetime movie about a doctor being thrown in jail for giving a rape victim an abortion.

    A dramatization about prisoners fighting fires in California.

    10 votes
  3. mild_takes
    Link
    Today where a lot of stuff that shouldn't be, is considered a political stance; I have a hard time seeing how "nuclear war bad" couldn't be seen as a political stance.

    “I’ll say again, and again, and again that it’s not” a political movie. “It was never intended to be and it isn’t. It is a movie that says nuclear war is horrible. That’s what it says.”

    Today where a lot of stuff that shouldn't be, is considered a political stance; I have a hard time seeing how "nuclear war bad" couldn't be seen as a political stance.

    4 votes