Threads (1984)

Purely Joyful Movie!

Good movie but grossly overrated

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Destroyed buildings, looting, criminals, homeless, polluted water. Pretty much as Sheffield is today but with less immigrants. This film is a great incentive to drop the bomb. I eagerly await the sequals set in bristol and Peterborough.

With our idiot politicians popping their buttons when it comes to a nuclear confrontation, here in 2017, everyone should be required to see this film. It takes place in England and focuses on a small space and involves the aftermath of a nuclear confrontation. It is a companion piece to America's movie "The Day After." As powerful as that film is, this one eclipses it in its horrifying portrayal of the lives of people, trying to deal with all the fallout (both literally and figuratively) of such an event. Here we see what would actually happen to people and communities. There is nothing the least bit optimistic. The kind of devastation is beyond belief. I mentioned fallout. As bad as the original wave of fire is, at least most of those people were incinerated. It's those left alive that are the focus. Pregnant women, little children, young people who had a future, local politicians trying to aid people when they are totally unprepared. We need to recognize that the ones that would have to help us could be themselves destroyed or decimated. This is one of the most troubling films ever produced and can barely be watched. Much scarier than any commercial effort because of its documentary style and ultimate messaged. There is no letup in it and no real reward, other than this is an unacceptable thing to have happen.

Ruth Beckett (Karen Meagher) is pregnant and preparing to set up home in Sheffield with her boyfriend Jimmy (Reece Dinsdale). Then the unimaginable happens: nuclear war breaks out, with several strategic targets close to Ruth's home town hit by atomic blasts. As one of the few survivors, Ruth must come to terms with a bleak future where food and shelter are scarce, and a slow lingering death seems like a certainty.I remember the early-to-mid 1980s being a pretty scary time: the UK government was frightening us all with pamphlets about what to do in the event of a nuclear attack (take a door off its hinges, rest it against a wall, hide underneath, put your head between your legs and kiss your ass goodbye), Raymond Briggs published his harrowing post apocalyptic picture book When The Wind Blows, and Frankie Goes To Hollywood added fuel to the fire with their hit Two Tribes. Meanwhile, across the pond, Ronald Reagan was busy setting up his 'Star Wars' defense initiative. To make matters even worse, the BBC gave us hypothetical docudrama Threads, which depicted the aftermath of a nuclear strike on the UK with an unflinching realism and a brutal matter of factness that was bloody terrifying.Spanning the thirteen years that follow the attack, the film depicts every ghastly detail, from the charred remains of the dead that litter the post apocalyptic landscape, to the awful effects of radiation sickness and the rudimentary medical help that is available to the dying and injured. Survivors must eat vermin, looters are shot on the spot, and Ruth is forced to give birth alone in a barn. Her daughter grows up uneducated, with only a basic command of English. After well over a decade, the country is still in the dark ages with no sign of improvement. The frank honesty of Threads makes it a far more chilling effort than the similarly themed US TV movie The Day After (1983).

Despite the millions of dollars Hollywood wastes on post-apocalyptic films, none have come close to capturing the horror or degrading suffering of post-nuclear-strike "survivors".If such such an event were to occur during my lifetime my preference would be to stop outdoors in the centre of a London park (preferably one with swings and roundabouts) and muck about with some mates until the point where we are instantaneously vaporised beneath the air-burst.Life for we kids born during the 50's and 60's was filled with cold-war paranoia incessantly fanned by irresponsible newspapers and deeply offensive anti-communist propaganda continuously foisted on us by nihilistic American film studios given 100% backing by the US Armed Forces and Republican politicians.Not one US cinematic attempt to portray a realistic nuclear aftermath has disturbed me as profoundly. Threads pulls no punches. No sickeningly toxic sentimentality employed to make a cosy job of such a nightmarish tragedy utilised. It is a raw, unyielding and utterly depressing portrayal of politically unregulated militaristic hegemony.Threads is the only film of this genre worth taking the time to watch. It has unparalleled integrity and sticks strictly to the facts of physical and social science.