Please excuse the short nature of this review, I am attempting to be concise.
I spent my teenage years in the 80s in North Dakota, not far from Minot Air Force Base (a major facility for launching B-52s over the North Pole to attack the USSR.) Nuclear war was a very real threat back then and I had a lot of nightmares about it.
When this movie was aired on ABC in the early-to-mid 80s, it was ALL that my classmates talked about for damn-near a month. It scared the excrement out of all of us, a visceral reaction which I recall to this day.
I purchased this movie on DVD quite a while ago, but have never watched it. However, I saw it again tonight on the SciFi channel and I'll admit that it still gives me chills. 20+ years have not taken the fright of the destruction of (two) civilizations. Yes, it uses a lot of stock footage (there aren't many nuclear silos that will launch their missiles for the benefit of a movie)...and yes, it uses a lot of unknown actors (some of which you *will* recognize...like Arliss Howard ('Cowboy' from 'Full Metal Jacket)) and some well-known actors. Despite the imperfect delivery, it still conveys the outright terror that grips an advanced society at the precipice of destruction. After that, it conveys the utter despair after the collapse of said advanced society.
We're not talking about 'Citizen Kane' here, but it still is an effective piece of cinema from a troubled era (well, all eras seem to be troubled...the 80s had their own troubles, as evidenced in this film.) Please watch it and think for yourself. Thank you for reading this review.
I spent my teenage years in the 80s in North Dakota, not far from Minot Air Force Base (a major facility for launching B-52s over the North Pole to attack the USSR.) Nuclear war was a very real threat back then and I had a lot of nightmares about it.
When this movie was aired on ABC in the early-to-mid 80s, it was ALL that my classmates talked about for damn-near a month. It scared the excrement out of all of us, a visceral reaction which I recall to this day.
I purchased this movie on DVD quite a while ago, but have never watched it. However, I saw it again tonight on the SciFi channel and I'll admit that it still gives me chills. 20+ years have not taken the fright of the destruction of (two) civilizations. Yes, it uses a lot of stock footage (there aren't many nuclear silos that will launch their missiles for the benefit of a movie)...and yes, it uses a lot of unknown actors (some of which you *will* recognize...like Arliss Howard ('Cowboy' from 'Full Metal Jacket)) and some well-known actors. Despite the imperfect delivery, it still conveys the outright terror that grips an advanced society at the precipice of destruction. After that, it conveys the utter despair after the collapse of said advanced society.
We're not talking about 'Citizen Kane' here, but it still is an effective piece of cinema from a troubled era (well, all eras seem to be troubled...the 80s had their own troubles, as evidenced in this film.) Please watch it and think for yourself. Thank you for reading this review.