Posted on 06/25/2024 11:38:52 AM PDT by ChicagoConservative27
CNN — In November 1983, the US, Soviet Union and the rest of the world were teetering closer than ever on the edge of nuclear war. A NATO military exercise had spooked the Soviets, who thought the exercise was merely a cover for a real nuclear strike on the USSR, prompting them to ready their own nuclear forces.
Who knew, then, that an ABC movie-of-the-week would play a significant role in potentially preventing nuclear war?
“The Day After,” a two-hour epic following a few weeks in the lives of small-town Midwesterners before and after a nuclear strike, was one of the most controversial and most-watched TV movies when it aired on November 20, 1983.
In its first hour, the people of Lawrence, Kansas, go about their lives as the threat of nuclear war looms. But when the nuke finally comes to Kansas, the devastation is immediate: Acres of crops are singed and poisoned, homes are leveled, a fifth-grade class is vaporized at school.
Characters we come to know in the film’s first half are obliterated in an instant or barely clinging to life as they succumb to radiation poisoning. Even those who survive the attack by the film’s end will soon die, viewers know.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
I accidentally watched it. I spontaneously dropped in at a movie theater looking for light entertainment, and just chose whatever matinee was starting. I was shocked and depressed after watching it. That’s the last time I dove in (to a movie) without looking.
They need to do this for One Second After. That’s some scary stuff right there.
It was the most watched made for TV movie of all time. And, yes, it did affect the outcome of the Cold War. Thus, it was perhaps the most important movie ever made.
I never heard of or saw that movie until 2 years ago. Its viewing should be required in schools everywhere.
SPOILER ALERT!:
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EVERYBODY DIES AT THE END!.........................
The same director of the movie, Nicholas Meyer, directed Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country.
Piss on Tip O'Neill's grave. And EFF YOU, Carl Sagan.
No it didn’t. This is pure propaganda and BS.
I remember being in junior high when this came out. At 13 I thought it was all a bunch of Left wing sensationalist bedwetting.
Now that its over 40 years later, I see that I was right all along. That’s exactly what it was. It was easy to suss out the weak kneed soft Lefties even for a 13 year old. If anything they’ve become even more weak since then.
I remember some televised discussions afterward between Americans and Soviets. Perhaps one of the most compelling and moving and influential comments was an emotional one made by some very elderly southern Democrat, who said to the Soviets, something to the effect:
“We don’t want to take over your country. It’s too cold for us there.”
This is a CNN article.
Hardly a coincidence ...
I was just out of college when this thing came out. I knew it was “happening” but I was too busy being 23 to care.
I remember the phrase, “It’s only a movie….its only a movie.”
I believe that applies to this movie.
Roots had a larger audience share, though 46.0 is impressive.
Threads made The Day After look like a comedy.
Ya gotta love the whole “Reagan wouldn’t have looked to limit nukes in any way but for this doom porn movie a bunch of us oh so smart Lefties made to scare everyone” line.
As I said, pure BS.
Nellie
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