Jonatan
Newbie!
"Naval guns speak loudly, indeed"
Posts: 32
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Post by Jonatan on Feb 11, 2007 1:57:45 GMT 1
I watched Threads, wow... that's some stuff.
One thing that put a smile on my face was at one of the last parts with the still images, an old traction engine. Returning to the use of steam...
But the film was indeed worth watching, I don't know if I'll be able to sleep tonight. And I felt a sudden urge to dig a trench and bring out grandads old gasmask.
/Jonatan
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Post by Anim8tr on Feb 11, 2007 4:12:04 GMT 1
Even after better than 20 years I remember this movie. I first saw it on a public access channel. Though maybe not a horror movie "per se", 'Threads' is at best deeply unsettling. And at it's worst nightmare inducing.
An excellent film that pulls no punches. Thanks for bringing it front and center, Bobble.
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Post by Scifishocks on Feb 11, 2007 5:50:11 GMT 1
Oh my god!!!, just had a look on Amazon for that book and the cheapest is £65.00!!!!  Must be a bit of a collectors item!!  War Plan UK? Yes, there seems to be a resurgence of interest in this sort of thing (I saw an original 'Protect and Survive' booklet go for around £100 a few months back). I got my copy of 'War Plan UK' for £20 about a year ago and it was nearly falling apart when I got it. That was after quite a bit of hanging around for a copy to come up. 'The Unsinkable Aircraft Carrier' was a little cheaper and in better condition. Both are well worth a read, if you find these things interesting and if you can get them for a reasonable price, though. |
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Post by McTodd on Feb 11, 2007 11:28:20 GMT 1
Brilliant film, 'Threads'. It was well timed in may senses, but especially in that it was made after the Nuclear Winter theory had been publicised, so it was able to depict the full horrors of a full-scale thermonucear war.
On the subject of civil defence, this thread made me browse an old book of mine from the '80s, 'Doomsday: Britain After Nuclear Attack', a very dry and academic (yet fascinating) discussion of, well, Britain after nuclear attack... In the chapter on civil defence is this lovely passage, part of a discussion of why Britain can/will never invest heavily in civil defence, especially shelters:
R N Ormerod, author of 'Nuclear Shelters: A guide to design', has written:
The reason that civil defence and shelters will never be supported by a government facing the scale of threat we currently do is that for the 'good' of the nation it is best to maximise the initial casualties from a nuclear attack... The more people that perish immediately, the less acute the strain on the survivors fighting for the (very) limited resources.
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bobble
Newbie!
Spaced Invader
Posts: 22
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Post by bobble on Feb 11, 2007 17:14:06 GMT 1
Oh my god!!!, just had a look on Amazon for that book and the cheapest is £65.00!!!! Must be a bit of a collectors item!! War Plan UK? Yes, there seems to be a resurgence of interest in this sort of thing (I saw an original 'Protect and Survive' booklet go for around £100 a few months back). I got my copy of 'War Plan UK' for £20 about a year ago and it was nearly falling apart when I got it. That was after quite a bit of hanging around for a copy to come up. 'The Unsinkable Aircraft Carrier' was a little cheaper and in better condition. Both are well worth a read, if you find these things interesting and if you can get them for a reasonable price, though. Yeah, war plan UK is £65.00 but I've tracked a copy down at my local libary.... I've just ordered the unsinkable carrier from Amazon at the bargin price of £3.50.... these should be a good read, thanks for the heads up!! |
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Post by Lensman on Feb 12, 2007 7:50:42 GMT 1
"Threads" was certainly sobering enough, and indeed it did seem a realistic treatment of the aftermath of an all-out nuclear war. The science of a "nuclear winter" is controversial, tho; one of the Laser Rangers (my movie group) said Carl Sagan was a science consultant on the film, and it's a documented fact that Sagan predicted worldwide cooling from the Kuwaiti oil field fires. That didn't happen, and Sagan later admitted his mistake**. There *would* be some global cooling, but it wouldn't be as severe as the "nuclear winter" scenario; it's been suggested "nuclear autumn" would be a better description of the actual result. However, that's a minor point. Too many film treatments of an aftermath ("On the Beach", for instance) make it seem our species will be killed off. That's an exaggeration. "Threads" did a good job of showing what would really happen. As another of the Rangers noted, however, there were no reports of what happened in other countries, nor did any aid come to the survivors from outside. In The War of the Worlds novel, France and other countries sent food to aid the survivors. Why didn't that happen in "Threads"? Ir could be that other countries foresaw the coming famine and refused to send any of their own food, but it would have been nice if there had at least been a few references to other countries in the movie after Doomsday. I can't say I had any problem sleeping last night. The scenario of an all-out nuclear exchange is not, at present, a credible threat. Perhaps as China ascends as a super-power and equips itself with more and longer-range missiles, it will again be a worry. But currently, I think there's much more danger of terrorist use of a nuclear weapon or "dirty bomb" against a major Western city. NervousPete said I should read some "Calvin & Hobbes" as an antidote.  Actually I had a hilarious trailer (for "Ice Age 4") picked out to show our group immediately afterward, to somewhat break the spell of this movie. **Documented at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_winter |
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Post by richardburton on Feb 12, 2007 13:53:40 GMT 1
Threads in a classic IMO. A very gritty docu-drama that really captured the paranoia of the time. Despite being in the 80s, it doesn't feel dated to me at all.
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Post by stewymartian on Feb 12, 2007 19:07:04 GMT 1
The scene of the attack itself is deeply scary, simply due to its plausibility. Even after all these years and repeated watchings that bit still leaves the hair on my neck standing on end.
I remember reading a book some years ago (I can't remember what it was called) which stated that the most likely time for a surprise nuclear assault was 07:00 on christmas morning, when the largest number of military personnel were on leave. The August bank holiday was another likely date, again when large numbers of personnel were on leave and the roads of Europe were choked with holiday makers.
I noticed that Sundays Wikipedia's article of the day was about exercise 'Able Archer '83', the last major nuclear war threat of the cold war, worth reading.
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Post by McTodd on Feb 17, 2007 20:21:17 GMT 1
As another of the Rangers noted, however, there were no reports of what happened in other countries, nor did any aid come to the survivors from outside. In The War of the Worlds novel, France and other countries sent food to aid the survivors. Why didn't that happen in "Threads"? It didn't happen because the captions state that the attack on Sheffield is merely part of a massive East-West nuclear exchange. First, there's the warhead detonated over the North Sea which knocks out communications across Western Europe with EMP; then there's an attack on all NATO targets; then afterwards, another attack on all economic/industrial targets. One caption actually states that it is a 3000-megaton exchange between East and West, of which 210-megatons have landed on the UK. There simply wasn't anyone outside to send aid... |
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Post by Scifishocks on Feb 18, 2007 4:02:10 GMT 1
The problem is that a nuclear war is not the same as The War of The Worlds... particulary during the time 'Threads' is set.
As far as the story goes, Europe has been invaded by Soviet forces... and so aid from there is unlikely.
The French kicked the American nuclear weapons out of their country relatively early on in the second Cold War... which is why the UK basically became a staging post for them (or the 'Unsinkable Aircraft Carrier' as Duncan Campbell called the UK in his excellent book).
Aid from anywhere was unlikely. Anyone who has read 'War Plan UK' (also by Duncan Campbell) will tell you that we were pretty much on our own. As individuals... not just as a nation.
Our Government had measures in place... but they were geared to it's own preservation. In a way, it was particularly satisfying to see that all that, in the film, could not save the people in the Sheffield command bunker.
Threads really showed what madness nuclear war was.
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Post by rusti on Feb 18, 2007 22:26:52 GMT 1
Yes bloody cool series, brick shlittingly realistic. Makes me want to dig out my Two Tribes CD again.
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Actually I had a hilarious trailer (for "Ice Age 4") picked out to show our group immediately afterward, to somewhat break the spell of this movie.
