Testament (1983)

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Fresh and Exciting

Best movie ever!

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Let's say right now that a nuclear war started. What would you do first? Who would you want to be with? What could you afford to lose? What if you weren't prepared? These are questions we all wonder about once in a while, but of course, there is no nuclear war... right? Well, in The Testament, a depressing yet beautiful film featuring the last remaining town in America, this situation becomes real for the main character, Carol. A mother of three and married to a great guy, living in community of friendly people, she never considers that anything bad could ever happen to her little utopia suburb bubble.Then suddenly the power fails, radio becomes the only means of communication. It is discovered that a nuclear holocaust has wiped out much of the surrounding nation, and that the suburb has been affected only by the fallout... which leads to a fate worse than death.Brad, Carol's son, "adopts" a new friend into the family, Larry, who says his parents went to work in the city and never came back. Life, for the most part, continues as normal... but then the community succumbs to the radiation sickness, and even poor Larry and the kind radio broadcaster Henry have suffered terrible deaths. Brad and Carol are left sewing a shroud out of bedsheets for her daughter, Mary Liz, and Brad also "adopts" a disabled little boy, Hiroshi, bringing him to the house...But it's up to Carol to decide whether or not to control the fate of the two kids.This film, unlike Threads (1984), is not gory at all, in fact it shows very little, if any, death. You may think that to be boring but it leaves you to picture in your head just how awful the deaths of these people would be. The soundtrack... well, there isn't much in terms of soundtrack, which somehow makes it more realistic when you are left with empty silence. The acting is excellent and it's one of the best films I've seen. I think Hiroshi was the best played role, and it was wonderful to see a movie not referring to him as a "retard" just for having disabilities. But the most depressing parts of this movie are the brief visions Carol has of her old 8mm home videos. The videos themselves are memories of happy times, but the people in them are all dead, either vaporized by the bomb outside town, dead from radiation sickness or slowly waiting for the end. It makes us all realize how quickly we take the smallest moments for granted.DO NOT PASS UP THIS MOVIE, it's one of the saddest yet most hopeful ones you'll ever see.

"Testament" is a lovely little film that stands out among other productions of the time that dealt with the after effects of nuclear war. What it stresses more than anything is the *human* element: the toll taken on peoples' lives, the loved ones that they're forced to watch pass away before their eyes, and the desperation, anger, frustration, and inhumanity that are experienced. The story (authored by Carol Amen, and written for the screen by John Sacret Young) personalizes things by concentrating on a particular family, the Wetherlys, and how the matriarch, Carol (Jane Alexander) struggles to be strong for the sake of her children, how she so often manages to say just the right thing to them, and the ways that she shows compassion. Instead of showing us lots of spectacle, devastation, and going into the politics of the situation, Young and the director, Lynne Littman, sensitively handle the whole thing and give us characters that are relatable and sympathetic.The Wetherlys are among those in a tight knit small community that must face the reality of nuclear explosions on the continental U.S. and the fallout that slowly kills many of them. And they're very much an ordinary, loving family leading regular lives. We see Carol directing a school play, the patriarch,Tom (William Devane) interacting with his son Brad (Rossie Harris), the daughter Mary Liz (Roxana Zal) practicing her piano, etc. Together with youngest child Scottie (Lukas Haas, in his film debut), they find their lives forever changed when the unthinkable happens.The cast is wonderful all the way down the line. Alexander offers a rock solid presence as a warm, caring mother doing her best to carry on; she gives the film a solid foundation. Familiar faces in smaller roles include Lilia Skala as Fania, Leon Ames and Lurene Tuttle as the Abharts, Rebecca De Mornay and Kevin Costner as the Pitkins, and Mako as service station proprietor Mike.Now, "Testament" isn't always subtle about the way that it tugs at the heartstrings, but it's still powerfully affecting and impossible to forget. It doesn't offer any false hope and is right up front about the harsh realities that its characters must face...right to the end.Well worth a viewing overall, and an interesting contrast to telefilms like 'The Day After' and 'Threads'.Eight out of 10.

I would have to disagree with those who find this movie far more realistic than The Day After in its depiction of the consequences of nuclear war. Testament looks at such a situation at a more deeply personal level than TDA - the emotional horrors it explores are noteworthy. In Testament, nuclear war suddenly breaks out with no warning. I get the impression that this is a family used to watching TV, so there should have been some indication, some lead-up a la Cuban Missle Crisis. While they watch the warning, apparently for the first time, the house is enveloped in a nuclear flash (unlikely timing). Surely there would have been some fires or at least wilted vegetation from this? Everything outside looked quite normal.Clearly Testament was designed with a very different slant to TDA - who wants to watch a remake - but in doing so it over-softens and underemphasises the horror of such. Fortunately the world has not experienced such an event, so we are left with the results of computer simulations. Something like http://tinyurl.com/43mkwyy probably gives a realistic idea though.Darkened skies and a precipitous drop in temperature almost immediately are probable. The way Hamlin is portrayed might be possible in the first few weeks in the southern hemisphere, say Australia, but not in the US. The radiation which kills off the people comes through the vector of dust, and lots of it - "fallout" - but there is no sign of it in Hamlin. Everything looks quite normal. A crisis situation of this nature brings out the best and worst in people - the Hamlin "riots" are mild and transitory. You'd be unlucky to get a window broken. TDA has the missiles and high-tech, a gradual and realistic build-up to the event as well as the aftermath, the almost complete breakdown of civil society in horrific relief, compared to Testament's orderly, if very sad, demise.

This film is one of three made in fairly close succession about the possible consequences of worldwide nuclear war, and certainly the most well-realized of them. The other two range from cheesy America TV movie hype in "The Day After" to extremely dark British horror with "Threads". The latter of the two has something to offer where the first has little, but of the three it is "Testament" that tells the balanced, down-to-earth experience that the majority of us would be only too likely to experience.There's no mushroom cloud here, no special effects. Just a flash of light in the distance, and an ever-building sense of dread. The characters are written like true, believable people in other similar 1980s dramas. I cannot stress enough how real this movie feels. If you go in looking for action or thrills, this is not for you. This is a tragedy, a drama, a film of real humanity. It would survive unhindered without the horrific elements that provide the backbone of the script, because it is not interdependent on them. The characters don't exist simply to fill out the plot points. They have depth. And that's where "Testament" draws its power. This is not a disaster film, populated by varying degrees of cannon fodder. This is a true "what-if". What if my small town, the one where I've grown up and spent the bulk of my life, became the victim of nuclear fallout? I saw my childhood in this film. The young character of Scottie (played by Lukas Haas) reminds me of myself, his mother (Jane Alexander) of my own. I saw all too many hints of those I grew up with, my neighbors, my siblings in the scenes of "Testament".This film broke my heart, and if you let it, it just might do the same to you. It's the face behind killing, the human factor, the cost of collateral damage. But, most of all, it's a warm yet intensely painful story of a mother faced with the unavoidable and imminent death of her loved ones. "Testament" is a dirge, a march to the end through all the purity and life of our fading memories. It holds you close like a dying friend, hoping that an embrace will keep the soul from escaping. This is life at its most precarious.