The Day After v. Threads and When the Wind Blows

Started by Queequeg, November 18, 2012, 09:32:23 PM

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Queequeg

I wasn't alive to experience either before YouTube, but I'm kind of surprised by how much better the British 1984 series Threads and 86 series When the Wind Blows are than their American counterpart, The Day After.  Almost everything about "After" is cheese.  Threads has some very interest scenes of protest going into the conflict, and the neo-Medieval afterward is genuinely freighting.  When the Wind Blows is just about one of the saddest things I've ever seen-a wonderful look at a lower-middle class elderly British couple who don't really understand any of the realities of nuclear conflict. 

Was The Day After really as effective back in the day as I'd read it was?  Apparently Reagan was moved by it.  How about Threads and When the Wind Blows? 
Quote from: PDH on April 25, 2009, 05:58:55 PM
"Dysthymia?  Did they get some student from the University of Chicago with a hard-on for ancient Bactrian cities to name this?  I feel cheated."

CountDeMoney

Quote from: Queequeg on November 18, 2012, 09:32:23 PMWas The Day After really as effective back in the day as I'd read it was?  Apparently Reagan was moved by it.

Back in the day, before your fucked up no-attention-span generation arrived, television networks had this thing called "a major television event", and The Day After was one of them.  Hyped to the max.  When there were only three networks making them, people had no choice but to pay attention, and it was on a topical issue.

QuoteHow about Threads and When the Wind Blows?

Never heard of them.

Admiral Yi


CountDeMoney


Josephus

I only watched When The Wind Blows because of the most excellent Roger Waters soundtrack.
Civis Romanus Sum<br /><br />"My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we'll change the world." Jack Layton 1950-2011

Queequeg

Quote from: PDH on April 25, 2009, 05:58:55 PM
"Dysthymia?  Did they get some student from the University of Chicago with a hard-on for ancient Bactrian cities to name this?  I feel cheated."

Razgovory

#6
Quote from: CountDeMoney on November 18, 2012, 10:03:41 PM


Never heard of them.

Threads was about a hideous mutant who  is impregnated by her human boyfriend, and then is caught up in the events of a nuclear war.   It is interesting compared to the The Day after though.  The people in the post nuclear America look like they are better off then their grimy counterparts in Pre-nuclear Britain.
I've given it serious thought. I must scorn the ways of my family, and seek a Japanese woman to yield me my progeny. He shall live in the lands of the east, and be well tutored in his sacred trust to weave the best traditions of Japan and the Sacred South together, until such time as he (or, indeed his house, which will periodically require infusion of both Southern and Japanese bloodlines of note) can deliver to the South it's independence, either in this world or in space.  -Lettow April of 2011

Raz is right. -MadImmortalMan March of 2017

mongers

You don't want to watch threads along or if you're down, it's the singular most depressing piece of TV I've seen. 

At the time it had a big impact, I think the point was, the government propaganda about surviving a nuclear war was BS, once the Soviets nuked the Urban Corridor, that's 30-40 million of the UKs 55 million population gone straight away, the remainder have to scrap an existence/lingering death in a irradiated waste land.
"We have it in our power to begin the world over again"

CountDeMoney

Quote from: Razgovory on November 18, 2012, 10:27:06 PM
Threads was about a hideous mutant who  is impregnated by her human boyfriend, and then is caught up in the events of a nuclear war.

A mutant knocked up by a human, and then there's a nuclear war?  Sounds pretty stupid.  Or are you just fucking it up?

Queequeg

She's heavily pregnant when the birds start flying, and her daughter is both totally uneducated and a bit touched. The mutant daughter gets raped, and gives birth to a stillborn that is even more mutated.
Quote from: PDH on April 25, 2009, 05:58:55 PM
"Dysthymia?  Did they get some student from the University of Chicago with a hard-on for ancient Bactrian cities to name this?  I feel cheated."

Razgovory

Quote from: CountDeMoney on November 18, 2012, 10:43:41 PM
Quote from: Razgovory on November 18, 2012, 10:27:06 PM
Threads was about a hideous mutant who  is impregnated by her human boyfriend, and then is caught up in the events of a nuclear war.

A mutant knocked up by a human, and then there's a nuclear war?  Sounds pretty stupid.  Or are you just fucking it up?



Well mutation would explain her appearance.  I can't remember if that picture is  suppose to before or after the nuclear attack.  The 1980's were rough on Britons.
I've given it serious thought. I must scorn the ways of my family, and seek a Japanese woman to yield me my progeny. He shall live in the lands of the east, and be well tutored in his sacred trust to weave the best traditions of Japan and the Sacred South together, until such time as he (or, indeed his house, which will periodically require infusion of both Southern and Japanese bloodlines of note) can deliver to the South it's independence, either in this world or in space.  -Lettow April of 2011

Raz is right. -MadImmortalMan March of 2017

Queequeg

That's pretty clearly just a normal British woman.
Quote from: PDH on April 25, 2009, 05:58:55 PM
"Dysthymia?  Did they get some student from the University of Chicago with a hard-on for ancient Bactrian cities to name this?  I feel cheated."

Razgovory

Quote from: Queequeg on November 18, 2012, 11:06:53 PM
That's pretty clearly just a normal British woman.

:x I mean, I have low standards, but c'mon!
I've given it serious thought. I must scorn the ways of my family, and seek a Japanese woman to yield me my progeny. He shall live in the lands of the east, and be well tutored in his sacred trust to weave the best traditions of Japan and the Sacred South together, until such time as he (or, indeed his house, which will periodically require infusion of both Southern and Japanese bloodlines of note) can deliver to the South it's independence, either in this world or in space.  -Lettow April of 2011

Raz is right. -MadImmortalMan March of 2017

Queequeg

Quote from: Razgovory on November 18, 2012, 10:27:06 PM
Quote from: CountDeMoney on November 18, 2012, 10:03:41 PM


Never heard of them.

Threads was about a hideous mutant who  is impregnated by her human boyfriend, and then is caught up in the events of a nuclear war.   It is interesting compared to the The Day after though.  The people in the post nuclear America look like they are better off then their grimy counterparts in Pre-nuclear Britain.
Threads ends with a new dark ages. Kansas seems totally depopulated by the end of The Day After.
Quote from: PDH on April 25, 2009, 05:58:55 PM
"Dysthymia?  Did they get some student from the University of Chicago with a hard-on for ancient Bactrian cities to name this?  I feel cheated."

Razgovory

Kansas is depopulated now.  Besides at the end of the movie there are plenty of people alive. For instance, John Lithgow in Lawrence.  Part of the movie also takes place in Sedalia, Missouri.

You ever read "Warday"?  Same topic.
I've given it serious thought. I must scorn the ways of my family, and seek a Japanese woman to yield me my progeny. He shall live in the lands of the east, and be well tutored in his sacred trust to weave the best traditions of Japan and the Sacred South together, until such time as he (or, indeed his house, which will periodically require infusion of both Southern and Japanese bloodlines of note) can deliver to the South it's independence, either in this world or in space.  -Lettow April of 2011

Raz is right. -MadImmortalMan March of 2017