When one apocalypse just isn't enough

[sigma7]

Hey, is today not gloomy enough to fit into this morbid week of shuffling-off of various media icons? You know what you need? Early 1980s nuclear armageddon films, in their entirety. Have you not seen The Day After (directed by Nicholas Meyer of Star Treks II and VI) or Threads? The most significant omission from the list I can see is When the Wind Blows, but five outta six ain't bad.

Comments

[aardy.livejournal.com]

One movie I'd add to that list, though it's not truly apocalyptic in scale (and is more about the people & the potential politics than either apocalytic horror or in swaying viewers), is By Dawn's Early Light. (And boy, what a cast that is.)

[sigma7.livejournal.com]

I found it on VHS quite a few years ago and bought it, because I didn't think I'd ever get the chance to see it again. (Oh, if only I'd known how glorious the Internets would be....) That's one of the better "apocalyptic" films out there, not only because it's not a mindless slog through unending misery like so many of them are -- the final Looking Glass/AFO pursuit being just brilliant. But tempting as it is to allow that distinction to put it in a sorta sub-apocalyptic genre, I think it the toll it takes on its cast is acceptably bleak.

And dude, Powers Boothe, Martin Landau and James Earl Jones? Hell, it could be a radio play and it'd be no less awesome.

[aardy.livejournal.com]

I believe I lost the copy I had taped off of cable in my dad's mold-remediation fiasco (along with just about everything I ever taped), and I haven't yet made an effort to replace it. Perhaps I should.

However, (and keeping in mind that I haven't seen it in probably 15+ years), I think I'd generally categorize it as a military thriller or a disaster movie rather than an apocalyptic film; it seems to have more in common with The Poseidon Adventure or the intro & climax of WarGames than The Day After. (Which I haven't seen since it originally aired--and didn't even see all of it then, as my parents thought I was too young to watch that sort of thing--and that's fine by me.)

[sigma7.livejournal.com]

I saw the beginning of WarGames for the first time in years the other night -- John Spencer is the man who refuses to turn his key! That's awesome. (And that opening sequence never gets old.)

And By Dawn's Early Light doesn't quite fit into the same mold, you're right...just a touch heavier than Sum of All Fears, really, because there's a sense of something to be saved, of a victory, however Pyrrhic, which none of the other films (Special Bulletin aside) has.

I did finally find Without Warning, with John de Lancie and Jane (Googles the name) Kaczmarek -- not specifically a nuclear apocalypse, but definitely ragnarokic.