Amazon.co.uk Review
Hideously plausible when first broadcast in 1984, this BBC TV docu-drama now seems like a terrifying might-have-been, although a great deal of what it says about the probable aftermath of a nuclear attack remains horribly pertinent. Scripted by Barry Hines (author of the novel on which Ken Loach's Kes was based) and directed by Mick Jackson (who later went to Hollywood with The Bodyguard and Volcano), at the time Threads seemed like a response to the American TV movie The Day After although it stands nobly on its own. Showing the after-effects of World War III on the United Kingdom by concentrating on two Sheffield families linked by an unplanned pregnancy, it illustrates the scientific, political, medical and social consequences of the severing of the many vital connective "threads" that support a Western society. Grim in a particularly 1980s way, this is a compulsive if uncomfortable watch and accomplishes a great deal without the distraction of spectacle, picking through all the melted milk bottles and firing squad traffic wardens to find the human horror at the heart of it all. --Kim Newman
Customer Reviews:
The most frightening film ever made.......2008-02-16
I've seen all kinds of gore and horror films, and none of them compare with this which was made for BBC TV back in the 80's.
Watching this again, it made me realise how banal television has become, and that it is (in the main) literally just candy floss for the brainless and lifeless.
For this to be broadcast at a peak time slot these days would be a miracle, and I don't think it would happen due to the extreme horror on show here, it certainly wouldn't fit in with 'The One & Only','Strictly Ballroom' or any of those other fluffy light wastes of time.
I think this is an incredibly important film, and everybody should see it at least once,as once seen it's never forgotten.
The scariest film I have seen.......2008-02-12
It sounds a bit silly, but this film/docudrama really frightened me.
It was made in the 80's and so the graphics are dated, which in a way added to the effect. It is gritty and real. Scenes like the sirens going off in the Main Street, and a woman peeing herself watching a mushroom cloud blow up over her town - the whole warning scene, and indeed the attack, is frightening - not because the graphics are wonderful, but because the screenplay makes you think, "This could be my town". The front of BHS is blown up, and the tower blocks blasted to the ground really moved me because it makes you think, "This isn't as surreal as you'd think".
The aftermath of the explsion, however, is the most moving area personally - watching people die slowly from radiation poisoning and cancers, and slowly, as the adults die, the British society fails. I hadn't really thought about a nuclear attack in this way - the end of the film shows a girl who has never learnt to speak, 10 years after the attack. Trying to awake her mother, all she can say is "Up. Up."
Overall "Threads" is a terrifyingly real situation, that I think people should see, because it brings the Hollywood 'Happy Ever After' to an abrupt close, and for once, it's nice (in a way) to see the UK being put into the frame - not New York City or Chicago that films have blown up countless times.
5* - Buy it
Warning: This film is intensely moving.......2008-01-13
At the age of 18, it's always annoyed me that I live in a society where Hollywood dominates what people should believe via film, with people of my age and younger taking no notice of public awareness schemes. Threads, from 1984, would make even the eldest person sob a tear drop.
It was made perfect time, as the Cold War was a big thing during the 80's with the Russians scaring everyone stupidly, purely because of the 'technical genius' of creating a nuclear bomb that had various war-heads, from thermo, to kinetic. Also because of its time, the producers had the chance to gather all the statistics and information required to draw up a plan on what would happen; that being, no matter when the bomb hits, we are always totally un-prepared.
Set in Sheffield, the story lightly gets us acquainted with a young lad and his girl-friend who have a baby on the way, and want to marry. The leading up to the blast shows, quite rightly, our ignorance towards present issues. In the pub, watch the men ignore what's happening on the TV only to take notice once Iran make a move on the U.S forces. It shows how desensitised we've become to war.
The blast, from the horribly scary siren, to the it's final radiation shower, is depicted in harrowing fashion. This was certainly the way in the 80's - just watch the many Schools films that depict other things, such as why not to fly kites near pylons etc.. all of which have a unique style.
Melting bodies, burnt faces from the intense and blinding light make the blast scene one not to be forgotten, and like myself and many other reviewers, will be scarred in your memory. The realism is just speechless - the public scream and shout as if it had actually just taken place.
As demonstrated in the film through this scene, the fallout stage is separated into different actions, from the explosion, to the dust shower. But perhaps the most shocking scene after this is were we see the casualties bombarding the hospitalised centre. Bloods trickling on the floor, shards of glass broken anywhere. Women screaming. And a horrible amputation, not to mention the effects of radioactive dust, making people be sick and cough up blood.
I strongly believe that a '15' rating does no justice to this film. Admittedly, I would want to see Secondary School kids shown this in schools, but based on its content, I can't see anyone who would be comfortable with it.
The film ends silently, but deeply sad as by now, in the future of the locals who have survived the fallout, the end witnesses a woman giving birth to a child. Their was no question it would survive due to the long term exposure to radiation, and with the scene freezed as the woman is about to scream, it's over.
The director should be proud of himself for creating such a moving and eye-opening film that, yes, in typical 80's fashion is layed out simply, but that's the whole point! It didn't mean their was a low budget. Their is no music in this film. No tricky camera angles. And apart from the blast scene and incinerated bodies, no goofy special effects. It wins you over by its silent scenes, and scares you with its facts.
I just can't believe its been so long since this was released. But to me, this is a good thing - it shows how now we're prepared to simply make money from the idea, as in the film 'Twenty Eight days later' etc... Threads should NOT be under-estimated for its effect on the audience. If you have any worry about easily becoming upset, I urge you to reconsider watching this. '15' simply isn't enough.
This film should teach us all one important thing. Their are no winners in Nuclear Warfare.
Disturbingly real.......2008-01-07
This was a truly disturbing film, in the noblest cause I suppose, giving 80's children like me recurrent nightmares when it was first broadcast at the height of the cold war. Low budget indeed, but that only serves to give it the desired grittiness and the effect of watching real, ordinary lives and a real, organic society, being destroyed by an event that had perhaps prior to this film simply been unimaginable.
The 10 minutes or so depicting the actual nuclear attack are simple with regard to the special effects - images of nuclear bomb tests spliced with images of the actors and extras running about in panic and disbelief, but nonetheless they are horribly effective. In particular, the shot of the woman peeing herself as she stands in the middle of the street looking up at the mushroom cloud, while the friend of the main character gasps that 'they've only bloody gone and done it', is simply something that you can never remove from your mind.
As one of the previous reviewers cleverly put it, this film could be a depiction of a nuclear bomb dropping on Coronation Street (of the popular British tv soap) and that is as close as any filmaker could possibly bring the threat of armageddon to the televisons and homes of the average British family of the 1980's.
Superior realism.......2008-01-03
Two American nuclear holocaust films, "The Day After" and "Testament" pale beside the realism of "Threads". A colleague from the UK told me of this film and I was almost ready to dismiss it, out of hand without even watching it. Following and during my watching of this disturbing film, I kept physically reacting to it's serious and non-hysterical quality. It is truly life-altering!!!!
All American politicians, and jingoistic TV comentators need to see this film. A region 1 version should seriously be considered. The abject sense of permanent change and barbaric helplessness, with absolutely no help forthcoming in any foreseeable future following such insanity is so accurately portrayed, that all one can say is, behavior must be altered on a global scale NOW!! If it were not for the current (2008), Vladimir Putin cult of adulation and newly arisen sense of Nationalism in Russia, I would have seen this film as past history.........but....no more!!!
Amazon.co.uk Review
Hideously plausible when first broadcast in 1984, this BBC TV docu-drama now seems like a terrifying might-have-been, although a great deal of what it says about the probable aftermath of a nuclear attack remains horribly pertinent. Scripted by Barry Hines (author of the novel on which Ken Loach's Kes was based) and directed by Mick Jackson (who later went to Hollywood with The Bodyguard and Volcano), at the time Threads seemed like a response to the American TV movie The Day After although it stands nobly on its own. Showing the after-effects of World War III on the United Kingdom by concentrating on two Sheffield families linked by an unplanned pregnancy, it illustrates the scientific, political, medical and social consequences of the severing of the many vital connective "threads" that support a Western society. Grim in a particularly 1980s way, this is a compulsive if uncomfortable watch and accomplishes a great deal without the distraction of spectacle, picking through all the melted milk bottles and firing squad traffic wardens to find the human horror at the heart of it all. --Kim Newman
Customer Reviews:
The most frightening film ever made.......2008-02-16
I've seen all kinds of gore and horror films, and none of them compare with this which was made for BBC TV back in the 80's.
Watching this again, it made me realise how banal television has become, and that it is (in the main) literally just candy floss for the brainless and lifeless.
For this to be broadcast at a peak time slot these days would be a miracle, and I don't think it would happen due to the extreme horror on show here, it certainly wouldn't fit in with 'The One & Only','Strictly Ballroom' or any of those other fluffy light wastes of time.
I think this is an incredibly important film, and everybody should see it at least once,as once seen it's never forgotten.
The scariest film I have seen.......2008-02-12
It sounds a bit silly, but this film/docudrama really frightened me.
It was made in the 80's and so the graphics are dated, which in a way added to the effect. It is gritty and real. Scenes like the sirens going off in the Main Street, and a woman peeing herself watching a mushroom cloud blow up over her town - the whole warning scene, and indeed the attack, is frightening - not because the graphics are wonderful, but because the screenplay makes you think, "This could be my town". The front of BHS is blown up, and the tower blocks blasted to the ground really moved me because it makes you think, "This isn't as surreal as you'd think".
The aftermath of the explsion, however, is the most moving area personally - watching people die slowly from radiation poisoning and cancers, and slowly, as the adults die, the British society fails. I hadn't really thought about a nuclear attack in this way - the end of the film shows a girl who has never learnt to speak, 10 years after the attack. Trying to awake her mother, all she can say is "Up. Up."
Overall "Threads" is a terrifyingly real situation, that I think people should see, because it brings the Hollywood 'Happy Ever After' to an abrupt close, and for once, it's nice (in a way) to see the UK being put into the frame - not New York City or Chicago that films have blown up countless times.
5* - Buy it
Warning: This film is intensely moving.......2008-01-13
At the age of 18, it's always annoyed me that I live in a society where Hollywood dominates what people should believe via film, with people of my age and younger taking no notice of public awareness schemes. Threads, from 1984, would make even the eldest person sob a tear drop.
It was made perfect time, as the Cold War was a big thing during the 80's with the Russians scaring everyone stupidly, purely because of the 'technical genius' of creating a nuclear bomb that had various war-heads, from thermo, to kinetic. Also because of its time, the producers had the chance to gather all the statistics and information required to draw up a plan on what would happen; that being, no matter when the bomb hits, we are always totally un-prepared.
Set in Sheffield, the story lightly gets us acquainted with a young lad and his girl-friend who have a baby on the way, and want to marry. The leading up to the blast shows, quite rightly, our ignorance towards present issues. In the pub, watch the men ignore what's happening on the TV only to take notice once Iran make a move on the U.S forces. It shows how desensitised we've become to war.
The blast, from the horribly scary siren, to the it's final radiation shower, is depicted in harrowing fashion. This was certainly the way in the 80's - just watch the many Schools films that depict other things, such as why not to fly kites near pylons etc.. all of which have a unique style.
Melting bodies, burnt faces from the intense and blinding light make the blast scene one not to be forgotten, and like myself and many other reviewers, will be scarred in your memory. The realism is just speechless - the public scream and shout as if it had actually just taken place.
As demonstrated in the film through this scene, the fallout stage is separated into different actions, from the explosion, to the dust shower. But perhaps the most shocking scene after this is were we see the casualties bombarding the hospitalised centre. Bloods trickling on the floor, shards of glass broken anywhere. Women screaming. And a horrible amputation, not to mention the effects of radioactive dust, making people be sick and cough up blood.
I strongly believe that a '15' rating does no justice to this film. Admittedly, I would want to see Secondary School kids shown this in schools, but based on its content, I can't see anyone who would be comfortable with it.
The film ends silently, but deeply sad as by now, in the future of the locals who have survived the fallout, the end witnesses a woman giving birth to a child. Their was no question it would survive due to the long term exposure to radiation, and with the scene freezed as the woman is about to scream, it's over.
The director should be proud of himself for creating such a moving and eye-opening film that, yes, in typical 80's fashion is layed out simply, but that's the whole point! It didn't mean their was a low budget. Their is no music in this film. No tricky camera angles. And apart from the blast scene and incinerated bodies, no goofy special effects. It wins you over by its silent scenes, and scares you with its facts.
I just can't believe its been so long since this was released. But to me, this is a good thing - it shows how now we're prepared to simply make money from the idea, as in the film 'Twenty Eight days later' etc... Threads should NOT be under-estimated for its effect on the audience. If you have any worry about easily becoming upset, I urge you to reconsider watching this. '15' simply isn't enough.
This film should teach us all one important thing. Their are no winners in Nuclear Warfare.
Disturbingly real.......2008-01-07
This was a truly disturbing film, in the noblest cause I suppose, giving 80's children like me recurrent nightmares when it was first broadcast at the height of the cold war. Low budget indeed, but that only serves to give it the desired grittiness and the effect of watching real, ordinary lives and a real, organic society, being destroyed by an event that had perhaps prior to this film simply been unimaginable.
The 10 minutes or so depicting the actual nuclear attack are simple with regard to the special effects - images of nuclear bomb tests spliced with images of the actors and extras running about in panic and disbelief, but nonetheless they are horribly effective. In particular, the shot of the woman peeing herself as she stands in the middle of the street looking up at the mushroom cloud, while the friend of the main character gasps that 'they've only bloody gone and done it', is simply something that you can never remove from your mind.
As one of the previous reviewers cleverly put it, this film could be a depiction of a nuclear bomb dropping on Coronation Street (of the popular British tv soap) and that is as close as any filmaker could possibly bring the threat of armageddon to the televisons and homes of the average British family of the 1980's.
Superior realism.......2008-01-03
Two American nuclear holocaust films, "The Day After" and "Testament" pale beside the realism of "Threads". A colleague from the UK told me of this film and I was almost ready to dismiss it, out of hand without even watching it. Following and during my watching of this disturbing film, I kept physically reacting to it's serious and non-hysterical quality. It is truly life-altering!!!!
All American politicians, and jingoistic TV comentators need to see this film. A region 1 version should seriously be considered. The abject sense of permanent change and barbaric helplessness, with absolutely no help forthcoming in any foreseeable future following such insanity is so accurately portrayed, that all one can say is, behavior must be altered on a global scale NOW!! If it were not for the current (2008), Vladimir Putin cult of adulation and newly arisen sense of Nationalism in Russia, I would have seen this film as past history.........but....no more!!!
UK DVD:
- Three Colours Trilogy
- Unbearable Lightness Of Being - 2 Disc Special Edition
- Vanity Fair
- Waking The Dead : Complete BBC Series 5 [2005]
- Walkabout [1971]
- Werner Herzog Box Set 1
- William Shakespeare's Macbeth [1978]
- Yanks [1979]
- Y Tu Mama Tambien [2001]
- Zhou Yu's Train [2002]
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UK DVD
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