One would think that it would be very difficult to sell a film whose premise is that everybody in it and indeed everybody in the whole world dies; some quickly, others slowly and horribly. However, in producing a film about nuclear war, the drama seems to be in finding out how the characters deal with their impending doom, and, when done well, such a film can be a powerful one indeed. But there is usually another raison d’etre for a nuclear war film, which is to convince the audience that fighting a nuclear war would be a bad thing, to be avoided at all cost. Some of this takes on a kind of partisan, political tone, which is why there were so many films of this type during the 1980s, when President Reagan was actually trying to win the Cold War. The irony—and great blessing—is that the scenarios presented in these films never happened. The threat of global annihilation by thermonuclear weapons has lifted, at least for the time being. Even in this era of terrorism, which might at some point involve the use of weapons of mass destruction, this is something to be thankful for.

On the Beach

On the Beach, which takes place shortly after a nuclear war has devastated the Northern Hemisphere, is set mainly in Australia, untouched by the initial holocaust. The death sentence has been only deferred, however, for within a few months the radioactive fallout will drift south and everyone will be dead. Gregory Peck plays an American submarine Captain, Dwight Towers, who has managed to make port in Melbourne. He is a very tightly wound character, still in denial that his wife and children are dead. The Australian characters include Anthony Perkins, as Royal Australia Navy Lieutenant Peter Holmes, Donna Anderson as his wife Mary, Fred Astaire in a non dancing role as nuclear scientist Julian Osborne, and Ava Gardner as Moira Davidson, Towers’ love interest.

Each, in their own way, are dealing with the end of the world. Julian Osborne raves about how everybody is going to die after a few drinks at a party, which depresses Mary Holmes, who still wants to pretend that there’s still hope. Moira seeks solace in drink and promiscuous sex, though she also yearns for one great love affair with Towers before the end. Lieutenant Holmes seems to be taking it as well as anyone could expect, even planning ahead for the end when he and his family will have to take cyanide rather than face the lingering, nasty death that radiation sickness brings.

There is a subplot of an expedition on board Towers’ submarine to investigate, among other things, a mysterious signal coming from San Diego, a place that should be uninhabitable. But, the inexorable end arrives and everyone goes to their deaths a little more decorously than one might expect.

One other nit. None of the actors playing Australians seemed to sound like Australians, though Perkins gives it a try. This film was released in an era before Mel Gibson, Russell Crowe and company; though still one would have thought a greater effort would have been made. Also, could director Stanley Kramer have used some other music besides Waltzing Matilda in his soundtrack? It’s a lovely song, but not after a hundred repetitions.

On the Beach was remade a few years back as a miniseries for Showtime. This version was re-imagined as happening after a future conflict between the US and China and was unconvincing in an era when the threat stems from terrorism and not global thermonuclear holocaust. Still, it had some good performances for Aussie actors Bryon Brown and Rachel Ward. And this time, civilization went down in an orgy of riot and destruction before everyone died.

Dr. Strangelove

Dr. Strangelove was Stanley Kubrick’s satire about the end of the world. The essential plot involves a commander of a nuclear bomber wing, Jack D. Ripper, played by Sterling Hayden, who goes insane and launches a strike against the Soviet Union on his own authority. His beef against the godless commies is that their fluoridation of the water supply is ruining his “purity of essence.” Peter Sellers plays a triple role as RAF Group Captain Lionel Mandrake, the President of the United States (a kind of nebbish Adlai Stevenson clone), and the creepy Dr. Strangelove, a kind of cross between Kissinger, Von Braun, and Herman Kahn. George C. Scott is General Buck Turgidson, who seems to think this catastrophe is a great opportunity to end the Cold War once and for all. Slim Pickens is a gung ho B 52 pilot named Major T.J. “King” Kong.

The comedy of the film, which depicts the desperate and yet doomed efforts to head off the end of the world, stem from the over the top performances of the actors. George C. Scott is a cigar chomping, belly slapping parody of a war crazed General. Hayden plays his General with a kind of creepy madness that seems to have its own logic. Sellers shines, as the fussy RAF officer, the calm, over rational President, and as the crazed Dr. Strangelove, who keeps having Nazi era flashbacks. And, who can forget the scene when Slim Pickens rides that nuclear bomb down to its target, whooping and waving his Confederate cavalry hat?

The Day After

The Day After depicts the effects of nuclear war on the residences in and around the town of Lawrence, Kansas. They include Dr. Russell Oakes, played be Jason Robards, Nurse Nancy Baker, played by JoBeth Williams, a grad student named Stephen Klein played by Steve Guttenburg, an academic named Joe Huxley played by John Lithgow, and a farm girl/bride to be named Denise Dahlberg played by Lori Lethin.

The first part of the miniseries depicts the run up to the war, shown by increasingly more and more alarming news reports. It appears that some sort of tension in Central Europe, caused by the Reagan era deployment of Pershing and cruise missiles, is getting out of control. Then the war starts, with bombs going off everywhere, including over Kansas City where a group of people in an underground shelter are vaporized instantly.

The last part is about the aftermath, the day after if you will. Dr. Oakes vainly tries to set up a casualty center for those people injured by the attack. But as radiation levels rise and more and more people come in, only to die, he and his fellow doctors and nurses are completely overwhelmed.

There are some horrific scenes. One is when the people of Lawrence watch as the missiles launch from the nearby silos, realizing that the Soviet missiles are on their way to vaporize them. Another when the farmer Dahlberg has to drag his wife kicking and screaming down to the cellar from the bed she is trying to make in denial of what is about to happen. And then, in a steal from a scene from Gone with the Wind, a wide shot of the thousands of casualties lying near the hospital, waiting in vain for help.

The Day After was, of course, a protest vehicle. President Reagan was going to destroy the world, according to some. It was no accident that the film was broadcast just before the 1984 election year. Still, it remains a powerful alternate history of what might have happened.

Threads

Threads can be seen as the far more graphic, British counterpart to The Day After which came out around the same time. It follows the formula, with the run up to the war, the horrific war itself, and then the aftermath. The film centers on the people of Sheffield, which is not only the site of an important military base, but the name of a Royal navy ship that was sunk during the then recent Falklands War. The story centers around the soon to be married Jimmy Kemp, played by Reece Dinsdale, and Ruth Beckett, played by Karen Meagher. Of course, their plans looks to be interrupted by increasing tensions brought on by a Soviet invasion of Iran, which is being countered by the United States, Great Britain, and NATO. As the world careens inexorably toward war, with panic runs on stores, anti nuclear protests, and people in denial, the young couple decides to get married sooner rather than later. There may not be time later.

The sequence in which the war takes place is one of the most graphic ever shown on television. An emergency working group cowers in an underground bunker as the missiles strike one by one. People are burned alive by the thermal blast. People vomit their guts out as the radioactive fallout hits.

And then, civilization quickly breaks down, as the threads (hence the title) of society break asunder. The last scene happens years after the war, in a nightmare landscape in which barbarism reigns, when the daughter of Kemp and Beckett now has to give birth to a child of rape, alone and unaided.

Testament

Testament takes place in a small California town near San Francisco. It’s an ordinary day like any other, as Tom Wetherly, played by William Devane, bids farewell to his wife, Carol Wetherly, played by Jane Alexander and their kids, as he heads off to work in the city. He will never return, as before that day ends, nuclear war breaks out and San Francisco is incinerated

At first, despite being cut off from the outside world and with no electricity, everything seems eerily normal. But then, as the fallout comes, one by one everybody starts to die. Here Jane Alexander does an Oscar winning turn of stoicism, broken only once by the flame bit where she has to give up the body of one of her children when she calls down the curse of God to all those who did this. Mako does a good performance as a man who survived Hiroshima but will not survive this. Kevin Costner, then an up and comer, has a cameo performance.

Slowly, inexorably, the town and its people die. The sequence is broken up by home movie style footage of what normal life was like before the war, to show what was lost. Finally, unable to take it anymore, Carol decides to end it all with her one surviving child and an orphan they had taken in. But, at the last minute, she decides not to take the easy way out. It is a moment of quiet courage in the midst of utter desolation and despair.