Posted on 07/13/2020 7:44:29 AM PDT by AggregateThreat
I remember watching this as a kid, everyone was freaking out. Had an almost War of The Worlds radio broadcast feel to it.
Before Nicholas Meyer's made-for-television film The Day After had its official airing on November 20, 1983, then-President Ronald Reagan and his Joint Chiefs of Staff were given screening copies. In his diary, Reagan recorded his reaction to seeing Meyer's graphic depiction of a nuclear holocaust that devastates a small Kansas town, writing:
"It's very effective and left me greatly depressed. So far they [ABC] haven't sold any of the 25 spot ads scheduled and I can see why. Whether it will be of help to the 'anti-nukes' or not, I can't say. My own reaction was one of our having to do all we can to have a deterrent and to see there is never a nuclear war."
(Excerpt) Read more at getpocket.com ...
Agreed - “Threads” was bleak, strong and depressing.
I thought Threads jumped ahead 10 years, not a hundred.
And yes, the thing that stuck with me, was how quickly language became dumbed-down, because the kids didn’t really go to school. The scene where they are watching on old video, where they talk about skeletons.
The other thing in Threads were those creepy “Protect And Survive” videos, they have the full versions of them on YT.
“Nicholas Meyer’s made-for-television film The Day After”
Shocking that Mr. Meyer would make such a subversive piece of propaganda. That really made him unique among the Hollywood people.
Henry Fonda played the POTUS IN Fail Safe.
Good thing (Oh say can you see) Vindman wasn’t on the POTUS’s call with the Soviets, Fonda could have been Impeached.
When the Wind Blows was pretty damn depressing, too b
See, that girl that is pregnant and birthing near the end I thought there was some info that the people trying to farm near the very end are like the 2nd generation after the birth. I need to watch it again.
Threads is one of the most scarring spectacles ever put on film.
We almost missed having Slim Pickens as Major Kong.
Story also goes that Sellers was so against the idea of himself also playing that part that he showed with his leg in a cast, but wasn’t even injured.
I also once read the Slim Pickens took allot of flack in Hollywood for being too much a cowboy even though he was one in real life.
Add Failsafe to that list. And oldie but goodie.
No, it was Ruth’s daughter so, I think that last scene must have been after 20 years.
It made me think that I would want to drive to the local airbase and be gone in the first strike. There have been many of these post Apocalyptic movies/books. Some very well done. Some laughable. My personal favorites: The Stand The Book of Eli Mad Max The Road Warrior The Road Then there are the bad ones: The Postman Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome feel free to add your own FRiends
Yes, I have Fail Safe, the old version with Henry Fonda and the newer version with George Cloony as the pilot.
William Devane ... Tom Wetherly (Testament)
Kevin Costner is in it
And the thing about Fail Safe is it allllmosst happened... in the early 80’s, there was an incident where the Russians thought they saw a launch and came within like 17 minutes of doing a counter-launch... turned out that a Russian lieutenant or something said No! and he basically stopped world war 3 from happening.
True story.
There are a fair number of lunatics who promote the idea of winnable nuclear war. Reagan was surrounded with them. It’s fantasy coming from armchair warriors. A major nuclear exchange is likely to simply wipe out everything more advanced than a bacteria. And most of them.
Yep. I remember reading about that.
The key thing that I learned from “The Day After” was that in the event of a nuclear attack, bad acting will break out everywhere.
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