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Product Description
Studio: New Yorker Films Video Release Date: 07/25/2006 Run time: 120 minutes… More >>
The War Game/Culloden
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on Wednesday, January 6th, 2010 at 5:21 pm and is filed under Games.
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January 6th, 2010 at 6:40 pm
I collect nuclear war movies and I was really looking forward to see “The War Game”, based on what I had read of it and of the reviews here on amazon.com. But honestly, I was quite disappointed. As a documentary it is quite bad in my opinion: it lacks depth, it presents some things as scandalous when they are not. At some point, if my memory does not fail me, a woman in the street is questioned on how well the British government informed her about the danger of strontium in case of a nuclear attack – I for one would find ridiculous that a government would waste time in such a minute detail, which is totally irrelevant to your chances of survival after an attack.
Also, the movie seem to want to address the moral problem in the arm race, without addressing the interesting question on how to deal, morally or not, with the problem of not wanting an arm race, but having to convince also the counterpart in not engaging in one.
In short, I did not enjoy the movie. As a nuclear war movie, I think Threads is vastly superior and more entertaining.
Rating: 2 / 5
January 6th, 2010 at 7:11 pm
The Wargame, made in the mid-1960s, dealt with the prospect of a major nuclear strike on the UK. In its depiction of the effects and consequences of using these weapons it quite rightly pulls no punches. However, I would take issue with premise that it was all OUR fault. The Russians were lobbing their nukes at us because we had the temerity to arm ourselvs with our own deterrent, ie the V-Force of Vulcan, Victor and Valiant bombers, thus, so the argument went, making us a target.Just why the Russians would resort to such apocalyptic measures knowing the response would be their own inevitable destruction was never explored. I think the film was very well made, believable in its depiction of the transition to war and then the effects of that war, but at the same time I felt it was rather biased in the usual left-wing “blame the west” manner, ala CND. I think the other nuclear horror story “Threads” was more balanced in its presentation, and all the MORE terrifying for it.
Rating: 4 / 5
January 6th, 2010 at 7:40 pm
The War Game is one of the best films about Nuclear War.I first saw a snippet of this on the documentary Cold War and own the VHS copy. In general, these types of stories typically have 3 basic parts: pre-attack, the attack and post attack. Of the movies made in this genre, The War Game is the strongest in dramatizing all 3 parts. What helps the War Game along is that we do not get attached to any one character (my version is only 50 minutes long) like you do in the rest of the movies in this genre. When you attempt to follow the fate of one character or a group of people, you can lose the larger societal implications of nuclear war effects.
Some contrasts: First, there are 2 other major movies that are part of this genre called Threads and The Day After. Threads was a British movie. The Day After was its American counterpart. Both are decent stories but I would give Threads some advantage here.
1) Threads does the best job with showing pre-attack and attack conditions starting from the basic bliss of most people to the terrifying attack.
2) The movie the Day After shows a good deal of the pre-attack and post attack conditions but it gets carried away with the attack situation. Its characters are very shallow and detract from an otherwise well-told story.
One of The War Game’s flaws is its obvious scoffs at religion. Many of the quotes seem to suggest that American ministers are backward and stupid for making suggestions like not giving shelter space to the passing stranger. What a modern viewer may not understand is how close the US and the USSR came to nuclear annihilation during this time frame and how practical this advice really was.
The War Game’s other obvious flaw is its creating moral relativism with the Soviets. The movie portrays the fact that the US and its NATO allies may have been the first to use nuclear weapons in a battle over the Fulda Gap in Germany (a likely hotspot). What the story does not explain is how the Soviets had such a large and menacing conventional presence in Eastern Europe (and the Western Europe’s inability or lack of desire to take on its own defense) caused this to become part of our policy. The War Game also fails to explain how the Soviet sub fleet went from being a coastal defence force to an offensive force in rapid order with reactors and weapon systems extremely prone to accident (as evidenced by the greater number of subs lost in the Soviet fleet than in the American fleet). These factors did a great deal to de-stabilize Western Europe for some time.
Rating: 5 / 5
January 6th, 2010 at 8:00 pm
Culloden: 3.5 stars out of 4
The Bottom Line:
An innovative, engaging, and informative documentary on a battle that most viewers will not be familiar with, Culloden zips through its brief running length but leaves the viewer with a very good idea about the Battle of Culloden and makes valid points about the death of the clan system; it’s a film any history buff will enjoy.
The War Game: 3.5 stars out of 4
The Bottom Line:
The only non-documentary to win the Oscar for Best Documentary feature, The War Game is a 48 minute long speculative piece on what would happen to Britain in the event of a minor nuclear attack, and it’s absolutely fascinating; even more so than in Culloden, Watkins showcases that he can make indelible images on shoestring budget, and he makes The War Game into quite a film.
Rating: 5 / 5
January 6th, 2010 at 10:11 pm
Remember that in 1965 we were in an intense cold war with the Soviet Union. It seems quaint now but is shot as a news story with immediancy to it. The documentary feel gives it life. We lived with the possibility of nuclear annilation always in the back of our collective minds. This film gives short shrift to Her Majesty’s government’s lack of preparation or the ignorance of the people affected by a nuclear attack on Britain. England is a small country & one wonders how indeed we would react in the U.S. to a nuclear attack with all our wide open spaces & places to escape. This movie gives the Soviets the benefit of moral relativism. Maybe U.S. foreign policy is responsible for this attack. It was totally devoid of references to God by the victims which is unrealistic but still refreshing. It’s documentary feel made it seem like it could happen this way. The interviews with victims & government representative was effective & I suspect much more so 42 years ago.
Rating: 4 / 5