Movie Review: Threads, A Real Nice History Lesson

Today, I come with you with review s of two classic movies& at least in the eyes of the Cold War enthusiasts. One has nukes reigning down on England, and the other has the same in a small American town. I thought of these a few weeks ago after watching the
show Jericho. It made me wonder if the cold war has really ended or not. I think it it, but many people think that it has just only transferred over to having North Korea and Iran as opponents instead of Russia and Cuba.

My first film comes from across the pond. The film is called Threads, and it is based on a book written by the author Barry Hines, and it came out in 1983 in England. The movie is about nuclear war in Great Britain and was broadcast on BBC Television, and it is now a freshly made DVD in America. The movie begins with a spider web and a capturing tagline:

"In an urban society, everything connects. Each persons needs are fed by the skills of many others. Our lives are woven together in a fabric, but the connections that make society great also make it vulnerable."

The story begins in Sheffield, England. A couple is sitting in a car during a nice Saturday drive. Jimmy Kemp, a woodworker, and his girlfriend, Ruth Beckett, have decided to take their relationship to the next level. Two months later, Ruth tells Jimmy that she is having his kid, and they prepare for their plans to begin taking shape quicker than expected. Meanwhile, the Russians are ready to once again start trouble again, this time in Iran. The Warsaw Pact troops that imprisoned Eastern Europe have now launched an invasion of Northern Iran, and the United States has began to take notice, but not before the Russians destroy a United States submarine. At the same time, the Beckett's and Kemp's begin the process of seeing Ruth and Jimmy off on their marriage and parenthood. As the crisis in Iran increases, the USA and UK are going in, and they make sure the Russians know about it by sending an ultimatum to them: Either they accompany the US and UK out of Iran, or they risk nuclear war. The note brings about drastic changes to the peace of Britain, as the protests begin. The UK is now in preparedness mode. When the ultimatum expires, war begins, and now the UK is in panic mode as the government gives power to Sheffield's mayor, while putting the country under a masked state of martial law. The mayor hunkers in a bunker with a makeshift city government, and the televisions and radios begin to prepare the country for nuclear attack.
Now that is the boring part, if there is a boring part to the movie. From the morning of judgment day on, it becomes a thrilling, yet shocking, look at what happens when the big one falls. It also helped bring about the invasion of the British Public Information Films that are the equivalent of the American Public Service Announcements. A series of them, known as "Protect and Survive", were never aired on English public television, and probably never will, but they are available for viewing by looking up "Protect and Survive" at www.youtube.com.

Meanwhile, around the same time, ABC brought us "The Day After". The setting for this one is Lawrence, Kansas, and the Kansas City area. It dozent have their same perks as the artistically more liberal brother across the pond, but it has the same impact. It begins as the Russians are trying to take the parts of Germany they did not get after World War II, namely the West. As more and more territory is controlled, the United States begins to make threats to the Russians. They don't care and eventually invade West Germany.
Oh yeah, there is the dramatic side of it. There is a farmer keeping his family together even as his oldest daughter is leaving to marry an up and coming resident doctor. There also is another doctor trying to juggle his daughter leaving for Boston to be with her medical student boyfriend, and his son becoming a football hero in the state of Missouri. Another one, a college freshman, is ready to follow HIS medical dreams at the University of Kansas.
All this takes place with the world in chaos and the buttons just itching to be pushed. Finally, they do. Nuclear bombs begin going off in Europe, and then the buttons are pushed on each others countries. The dead on hit on Kansas City doesn't provide much to the imagination int terms of aftermath, but as the stories begin to blend into eachother it all makes sense.

These two movies provide two different ideas on how our world shows their meaning of atomic bomb aftermath, and both present a lot of great truths to the discussion. We do live in a nuclear world, and unless peace is one day reached and order is restored, the Cold War may erupt into full scale nuclear war. The cold war was nothing but words and taunts, but did the but did the Soviets and Americans destroy eachother? No. But, once politics become an international manhood measuring contest, it will spill over, with incalculable consequences for all mankind.

But, if you want to enthuse yourself with a very good history lesson, with thrills and excitement along the way, then get these two movies.