4 ms·

I'm young enough to be on the tail end of it, but I remember seeing When The Wind Blows as a kid in the late 80s and being aware of what could happen. Curiously

I'm young enough to be on the tail end of it, but I remember seeing When The Wind Blows as a kid in the late 80s and being aware of what could happen. Curiously, the whole movie is now on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9aHT-IlkHo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9aHT-IlkHo (it's animated) For anyone with a morbid curiosity over nuclear war, THREADS is worth a watch too. I didn't learn about it until very recently but supposedly it was on prime time British TV in 1984 and scared the bejeezus out of everyone in its rendition of what might happen to the UK in the case of nuclear war. It's also on YouTube! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MCbTvoNrAg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MCbTvoNrAg

kingofspain 13y ago
They showed us Threads in primary school. I don't remember much of it to be honest, other than finding the accents hilarious (as Lancastrians we were brought up to fear & hate the Yorkist dogs). I think it shook up the teachers more than us, but I guess that's to be expected. We were too young to really have felt the paranoia of the times.
- tonyblundell 13y ago
  They showed it to us at Primary school too. I'm from south Sheffield though so the accents sounded quite posh to us :-)I do remember being freaked out by any loud noises in town for a few months afterwards. I watched it again a couple of years ago. It's amazing to think about how close we actually came to nuclear war not so long ago and now we're in a position where people can campaign for self disarmament of nuclear weapons.
  - gadders 13y ago
    We had people campaigning for unilateral disarmament then as well. TBH I still don't think it's a valid position when you have rogue states such as Pakistan and North Korea with nuclear weapons.
arethuza 13y ago
There is also Peter Watkin's excellent "The War Game": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_Game http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_Game
- petercooper 13y ago
  I'd not heard of that, thanks! It's also on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrGg8PfkbZw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrGg8PfkbZw
JonnieCache 13y ago
Beware, watching threads may lead to spending the afternoon staring at the wall with a blank expression for up to four hours after it finishes.
- arethuza 13y ago
  It is worth noting that Threads was partially based on a UK goverment exercise that assumed a 205 megaton attack on the UK (Square Leg) - a real attack probably would have been far far worse (higher numbers of smaller bombs, much higher total yield). A real attack in the UK might have been far worse than the one shown in Threads!
  - JonnieCache 13y ago
    A scenario in which more people were killed more quickly could only be better. The thing I took away from Threads is that as soon as you see the mushroom cloud, it's in your interest to ensure that you die as soon as possible. I've just remembered the final scene. :(
rmc 13y ago
Threads is great. It's not just "the nuclear attack" but goes on for months and years after the attack.

kingofspain 13y ago

They showed us Threads in primary school. I don't remember much of it to be honest, other than finding the accents hilarious (as Lancastrians we were brought up to fear & hate the Yorkist dogs). I think it shook up the teachers more than us, but I guess that's to be expected. We were too young to really have felt the paranoia of the times.

tonyblundell 13y ago
They showed it to us at Primary school too. I'm from south Sheffield though so the accents sounded quite posh to us :-)I do remember being freaked out by any loud noises in town for a few months afterwards. I watched it again a couple of years ago. It's amazing to think about how close we actually came to nuclear war not so long ago and now we're in a position where people can campaign for self disarmament of nuclear weapons.
- gadders 13y ago
  We had people campaigning for unilateral disarmament then as well. TBH I still don't think it's a valid position when you have rogue states such as Pakistan and North Korea with nuclear weapons.

arethuza 13y ago

There is also Peter Watkin's excellent "The War Game": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_Game http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_Game

petercooper 13y ago
I'd not heard of that, thanks! It's also on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrGg8PfkbZw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrGg8PfkbZw

JonnieCache 13y ago

Beware, watching threads may lead to spending the afternoon staring at the wall with a blank expression for up to four hours after it finishes.

arethuza 13y ago
It is worth noting that Threads was partially based on a UK goverment exercise that assumed a 205 megaton attack on the UK (Square Leg) - a real attack probably would have been far far worse (higher numbers of smaller bombs, much higher total yield). A real attack in the UK might have been far worse than the one shown in Threads!
- JonnieCache 13y ago
  A scenario in which more people were killed more quickly could only be better. The thing I took away from Threads is that as soon as you see the mushroom cloud, it's in your interest to ensure that you die as soon as possible. I've just remembered the final scene. :(

rmc 13y ago

Threads is great. It's not just "the nuclear attack" but goes on for months and years after the attack.