The Day After (1983)

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Blistering performances.

The film is interesting to watch as a film for that age and might be a good companion film for "Red Dawn" for those who want to relive those nail biting times of the red scare.The film follows a number of subplots so we can all find a character that middle America could identify with. My favorite was Jason Robards as the plain ole country heart surgeon making sure his patients get their ice cream. After those big bad commie missiles strike...we get a few seconds of flames and skeletons...everyone goes to their own hole in the ground to survive, or not. The film at the end claimed the intent was to promote world peace by scaring the bejesus out of us.What we must remember is that during this time there was a major Pentagon budget fight as Reagan insisted on getting Star Wars at all costs. The film caused great debate and was critically acclaimed, winning 2 Emmys. John Lithgow, JoBeth Williams and Amy Madigan were relatively newcomers to the film industry.Since the downfall of the Soviet Union and the discovery of the fact the Soviets were never a real threat, the entertainment value of the film has become one of camp value, of a scared "duck and take cover" population whose fears were totally unwarranted and kept pumped up to pump dollars into the military industrial complex...or so it seemed.

1993 the 10th anniversary of the film's (I believe at the time its only) prime time tv showing. I was working as a bartender at a night club in Washington DC. I told the other bartender I was working with that night that I saw in the news that it was the 10th anniv. of the movie's premier. Both of us had the same thing to say, was in jr. high, so tough to reconcile your feelings about it at such a young age, it scared the living hell out of me, so glad the cold war was ovet ect. ect. ( pretty much just the same reactions and feelings as the bulk of the reviews here) Then our barback busts in, "I was in high school when it came out and watched it with my parents while I was on acid." What? I was dumbstruck! Then as quickly as he chimed in he went back to his business of setting up our bar for us. Just like that, like it was no biggee. Now I'm not trying to set you up for some big allegory or give some moral speech about how drugs are bad with that story ( though on a side note drugs did eventually cost that young man his life) I've just decided to include it in this review because both the other bartender and I had been so deeply disturbed by seeing the movie that we thought any other reactions to this film other than the ones we (and obviously many others) had were just impossible to believe. Seriously how could someone watch this on acid and not lose their mind?Sorry, I realize that wasn't a very good review of The Day After, in fact I wouldn't call it a review at all. I meant to write a sincere and to the point review after just having re-watched the film for the first time in 34 years. So if you'll bare with me for 2 or 3 more sentences here I'll try to give it my best and shortest shot. I'll skip my opinions on the story, acting, direction ect (all tip top btw, especially working within the constraints of 1983 network television) And just say this: Every time I hear, "This is a test of the emergency broadcast system. If this had been an actual emergency...." I remember The Day After

30-odd years on this is still an immensely powerful and thought-provoking film. As one reviewer put it: "one of the most horrific non-horror films ever made". I couldn't agree more. Yes, it's crudely made (by today's standards), it's "only" a television film and it's heavily flawed in various aspects (which have already been covered), but it has never really lost its relevance. In fact, in light of the current political situation in eastern Europe it has gained renewed relevance, since we currently find ourselves in essence in exactly the same sort of conflict portrayed in the film. Has it actually ever really gone away?The Day After is one of those films that has largely been forgotten. Perhaps because people nowadays don't consider nuclear warfare a threat anymore or because it wasn't a typical Hollywood blockbuster. I don't know anybody who's watched it in the last 20-25 years and I've never heard anybody mention it in that same period of time. It's an enormously underrated film that portrays the horror of nuclear warfare and its consequences in a very realistic way, despite having been made in the early 80's; its bleak atmosphere only emphasising this.I have my doubts as to whether the outcome of the current eastern European crisis will be the same as in the film, since the people in charge are much more aware now of the consequences of nuclear warfare, but everybody would benefit from watching this film (again), especially since the nuclear weapons haven't altogether disappeared since then - they are still very real. America and Russia (and their allies) still have enough nuclear weapons to destroy the entire world ten times over, and some would argue that there is no point in having nuclear weapons if you didn't intend to use them ... at some point.Perhaps we should all reacquaint ourselves with the horrors of nuclear warfare (and watching this film would be a small step in the right direction) in the hope that it will make it less likely that anybody will ever even think about using nuclear weapons ever again.

I've seen this movie last year on YouTube and looking at it, it was really terrifying. A nuclear holocaust, death by radiation sickness and a really depressing storyline. The film was fantastic and the director really didn't want to make it all Hollywood glamor with big name stars and a bad over the top dramatic storyline and looking at it in 2013, the 30th anniversary of this movie, it still scares you but makes you feel sorry for the characters as well for what they have to face through. The loss of family and friends during this holocaust film, which at the time was a big threat as America and Soviet Union Russia were disputing with each other during the cold war. Well I'm glad the earth didn't face nuclear war in reality with very much power leaders of the time. This is a great movie and worth the watch.