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25 out of 26 people found the following review useful: Essential viewing, 3 September 2004 Author: Glenn Walsh from Belfast
I saw The War Game thanks to my local branch of CND in 1979 when they showed it in a hall in our town. My mum was vehemently anti-communist so I had to sneak out to see it. The local paper kicked up at 14-year olds being encouraged to see an 'X' film. Was it worth the fuss? Yes, without a doubt. I had already seen Watkin's definitive 'Culloden' earlier that year and was bowled over by the documentary style applied to a drama, but The War Game surpassed even that. I will never forget the scenes of the helmeted English bobbies shooting people in the head to put them out of their misery, or the bucket full of wedding rings or most of all, the line of kids being asked what they wanted to be when they grew up and the replies of 'nuffink.'For me, that summed up the futility of war, nuclear or otherwise.'Threads' is good, but 'The War Game' is still the best portrayal of a nuclear attack on Britain ever made. It should be shown more often.
24 out of 25 people found the following review useful: Now THIS is a horror film!, 11 May 2003 Author: reptilicus from Vancouver, Canada
I just saw this for the first time and more than once while watching it I felt my body go ice cold. This was surely THE DAY AFTER of its time. Presented in a matter-of-fact documentary style it shows people blissfully ignorant of what could happen in the event of a nuclear attack. Sure enough, quicker than you can say "On The Beach" an attack comes and the lives of the people who couldn't care less a moment before are changed forever.Some scenes are still truly jolting. Looters trying to get away with the only thing of value left in the world, tinned food, are gunned down by expressionless British police. A man displays a shotgun and declares there is only room in his shelter for his family and he will not hesitate to shoot his neighbours if they try to get in. A doctor laments that severely injured people are taken to a "dying room" and left to perish without care or pain killers. Bodies are stacked like logs for mass cremation. Shell shocked survivors are so traumatised they just sit and stare. This movie runs only 48 minutes but you will be aware of every second!This movie was made in 1965, the year I was born, so I cannot say I understand what the people of that era must have felt but after seeing this I have a rough idea of the mindset of the public in those Cold War days.After seeing those US Government produced movies telling people to just hide in their basements for 2 week; after which the U S of A will not only have won a nuclear war but will have put the world back into apple pie order THE WAR GAME is the cinematic equivalent of a sucker punch to the jaw. Watch this film, and then TRY to sleep!
21 out of 23 people found the following review useful: Please see this film!!!, 5 April 1999 Author: Aaron Woodin (purchagent@aol.com)
The War Game is one of the most amazing films I have ever seen. It's a pseudo-documentary made in 1965, about the possible effects of a nuclear attack on Great Britain. The director's premise is that Britain (and indeed the world) is hopelessly unprepared for such a thing. Some classic scenes: befuddled Brits receiving civil defence booklets. Blank stares greeting the interviewer when he asks Brits on the street about radioactive fallout. The footage is all made to look horribly real. Some of it looks a little hokey - the use of a shaky camera to simulate a desperate ground battle stands out - but there are also very convincing scenes of firestorms raging out of control, sucking the oxygen out of the air for blocks around. Also, incredible scenes of radiation burn victims, food riots, police polishing off the near dead, etc... The killer part is at the end - an interview with some young blast victims will haunt you for a long time."Do you know what Strontium-90 is, and what it does to the human body???"
20 out of 22 people found the following review useful: Too important to ignore, too powerful to dismiss., 7 September 1999 Author: Baroque
Although this film clocks in at a mere 48 minutes, not a scene, second or frame is put to waste. A level-headed and all too analytical examination of civil preparedness versus the yield of nuclear weapons. What this film presents is the absolute horror of nuclear war in simulated newsreel footage so realistic, you may feel the pain of those on screen. Fire-storms, asphyxiation, flash-burns, over-burdened hospitals leaving victims to die in pain, street executions under martial law, total social collapse, all filmed in a typical English suburb. Originally planned to be a simple documentary on nuclear warfare made for BBC-TV, the film was banned from television (officially because of it's graphic depictions of suffering, but most likely for it's anti-authoritarian stance and defiance of the official line). Later released to theaters, it went on to win major film awards. Two scenes in particular, one of men being executed for violating water rationing and an interview with children at a medical camp, haunted me for days. This is the great-grandfather of such films as "Threads" and "The Day After", but the matter-of-fact narration in BBC English to the devastation on screen adds an element of sheer horror that no other film comes close to. If anyone you know talks about the survivability of nuclear attack, show them this film, and watch their reaction. This film is too important to ignore, and too powerful to dismiss.
13 out of 14 people found the following review useful: Graphically real newsreel feel makes this movie work., 14 October 2003 Author: Captain_Couth (sirjosephu@aol.com) from Sacramento, CA
The War Game (1965) was a TV movie funded by the BBC. Peter Watkins gave them a movie that probably caused the hair on the necks of the BBC's standards and practices department to stand on end. Mr. Watkins paints a grim and bleak outlook for humanity if there ever was a nuclear conflict. Based on data from the hellish bombings of Dresden, Berlin, Tokyo, the atomic bombings of Hiroshima & Nagasaki and nuclear testing information from the U.S .Government (among his painstaking research and sources) shows the utter devastation that even a small exchange of missiles would bring upon his homeland. The acting is top notch (using a cast of unknowns) and the F/X were quite up to par (making the best out of the small budget). Even though the subject matter is dark and bitter, The War Game is a compelling watch and I highly recommended it for everyone.
11 out of 12 people found the following review useful: for it's time it was intense, 22 January 2006 Author: inquist4 from Canada
The War Game........ I saw this movie in a limited engagement in Toronto at an underground theater when it was first shown here. For the time the film was very " in your face " and I recall people coming from the small theater with shocked looks on their faces, one couple I recall the man was being sick at the curb, others seemed to have just blank stares on their faces.It was a very impacting movie, very much ahead of its time and no where could have Hollywood or any other film makers here or in the US could have come close to making. It was an very intense for the subject and it was the ending that did it to everyone there who saw it. For 46 minutes of black & white film it had impact that I have not seen since in any of the much vaunted films over the last 40 odd years or so. If you do get a chance to see it do so, and try to see it in the temper of the times that it was produced in..........Enjoyinquist4
11 out of 12 people found the following review useful: Close to forty years after it was made, it's still one of the most powerful and disturbing documentaries you'll ever see., 3 August 2003 Author: Infofreak from Perth, Australia
'The War Game' is a fascinating and deeply disturbing documentary which dramatizes what might happen in the event of a nuclear strike. Of course in many ways it is dated but I still think its central message is as powerful and as frightening as ever. It was banned (either officially or non-officially, there is some debate) by the BBC for many years, and it's no wonder. The film is political dynamite. This is not a film you would choose to watch for entertainment, but I highly recommend it to anyone who is willing to look at something confrontational and REAL. The Cold War is long over but the threat of nuclear annihilation remains, and therefore 'The War Game' still deserves to be seen by a mass audience before it's too late.
11 out of 12 people found the following review useful: Now on DVD, 2 May 2003 Author: Mr Frog from London
Just watched this for the first time, having heard and read much about it. It's still powerful stuff, and for 1966 this must have been particularly strong. The British Film Institute have just released this on DVD including an interesting documentary about the BBC's banning of the film, and a copy of Watkins' earlier film 'Diary of an unknown soldier'. Good stuff.
12 out of 16 people found the following review useful: Chilling, 21 September 2004 Author: lamps from Oldham, UK
Perhaps I'm a complete air head but I had never heard of this film until I came across it at the Hack Green bunker in Cheshire a couple of years ago. Hack Green Secret Nuclear Bunker is a visitor attraction now, having ceased it's original function in 1966. It's a good day out. The whole place wreaks of nostalgia and has a dankness about it that draws you in to the mentality of the era. A little room is set aside for the repeated showing of The War Game.I stepped into this little room and watched it. The seats were no less uncomfortable than the film. I dare say I was overly affected by the atmosphere of the bunker but I have to say I was genuinely chilled to the bone on seeing this creaky old film for the first time.I recently got my own copy from BFI and viewed it in the comfort of my home. It still provided the same chill.I was entertained by "The Day After", interested by "Threads" but "The War Game" wins the message game for me.
9 out of 11 people found the following review useful: Still hard hitting, 25 June 2003 Author: CocaCola18 (Aka1983CocaCola@aol.com) from England
...saw THE WAR GAME last year and I really enjoyed it... Just caught it on DVD and I can't help but wonder if scenes were cut out of the DVD as I remembered it to be much much longer!?!?Anyway I digressI brilliant film made by the BBC which was banned for many years because of the fact it was too real... In most cases it's re-released because films from the 60's tend to date somewhat compared to modern cinema standards. But the War Game is still as hard hitting as it was the day the BBC decided they couldn't put it on television.Some truely horrible scenes involving the collapse of the nation when bombed by the enemyFor what it set out to do.10/10
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