The War Game, a review by Antares
The War Game (1965)
4/5 - I can understand why the British government did not want this aired on the BBC back in 1965. The documentary style made this seem a little too real and probably would have had the same effect on the general public, that Orson Welles' broadcast of
War of the Worlds, had on American audiences back in 1938. The use of hand held cameras added an authentic
'as its happening' feeling to this story, that neither
Fail-Safe nor
Dr. Strangelove could achieve the previous year. Seeing as this was only three removed from the Cuban Missile Crisis, I'm surprised that it didn't generate as much buzz in Britain as ABC's
The Day After did 18 years later in the United States. I remember that nuclear arms talks were taken off the back burner after it aired and within a few weeks, discussions shifted into 4th gear on getting reductions in the stockpiles of thermonuclear devices of the two super powers. What impressed me most with this film was how Watkins, who was probably on a ridiculously small budget, made every aspect appear true to life. You could say that the instances of radiation sickness weren't as grotesque as it could be, but the black and white imagery made up for this shortcoming. The other thing I liked was how Watkins begins the film by showing how many places in England were being targeted by Russian ICBM's. Had there been a full strike against England, I doubt anyone would have survived after the destruction of the bombs and the subsequent radiation poisoning. One interesting aspect was when he interviewed people on the street and asked them about Strontium 90 and its effect on human beings. No one knew what it was and one woman said she thought it was some kind of gunpowder. It just goes to show how much the government, not only in Britain, but in the US, went to keep fear from spreading in their countries. I couldn't help but laugh when they showed a bobby going around to homes with pamphlets for instructing families on how be prepared for a nuclear blast. The interviewer asks him about why the pamphlets are now only being distributed and his response is that they weren't too popular when they were first put together and no one wanted to purchase them. The interviewed retorts in a shocked manner,
You were charging people for these?, and the bobby responds glibly,
Yes and keeps moving on, continuing his fruitless endeavor.
(From Antares' Short Summations on February 11th, 2012)
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May 19, 2024, 07:49:19 PM
