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

[rewil.livejournal.com]

I watched "Threads" this past fall. Or, at least tried: I think I got through about 85% before the bleakness got to me. "The Day After" I've seen in its entirety, but only after I moved here so I could happily recognize what was done blown up.

Back to the shuffling-off: I've become fascinated with this video.

[sigma7.livejournal.com]

Oh, it gets even bleaker, but I don't suppose that's spoileriffic -- I think even when the narrative becomes slogged down it's interesting in a purely cerebral exercise of just how bad it becomes.... I also remember "Testament," which manages to be a happy medium between the two, I think.

And Hugh is the salve that heals all wounds. Stephen is the...gauze? Uhm. Hrm. Need better metaphor....

[seraangel.livejournal.com]

The interesting thing about 'Threads' is I believe it was made in direct retaliation for all those American films where people just got under their desks and could walk outside the very next day.

Someone sort of wanted to give people a reality check, thus the bleakness since it was as close to reality as they could guess at.

[sigma7.livejournal.com]

It's funny, because Threads, The Day After and Testament are cut from the same cloth -- I think they're all similar reactions to (a) the notion that such an event would be survivable and (b) that survival would not necessarily be preferable. I don't think any of them is necessarily bleaker than the other -- hell, they could all be vignettes from the same universe, just different locales, different scopes -- and none of them conducive to a good night's sleep.

And there are those who've weighed in saying that, at least specifically in The Day After, that the scenario presented was unreasonably optimistic.

If we survive long-term as a species past this "teetering on the brink of self-annihilation" bridge we've dangled our feet over, they'll look back on us like we were psychotic cavemen.

[seraangel.livejournal.com]

I'm very much hoping our better natures win out. We're already seeing that the next generation, kids and those who are just becomming teenagers are much more switched on then we ever were. I'm hoping each successive generation grows up kinder and more aware of the fact we live in a fragile ecosystem that it's up to us to protect. We are the only species on the planet that has the ability to protect the whole thing. If that's our evolutionary purpose then we need to stop dicking around and do it.