Customer Reviews

The War Game [VHS]

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I saw this film at a nuclear bunker museum in the county of Cheshire, in a small cinema in a crisis briefing room! A stunning and uncomfortably realistic account of how Britain might be affected by a limited nuclear strike. In particular, the focus is on the county of Kent, near London(contains several major targets, i.e. the government, Heathrow Airport, the ports, etc) and how the survivors come to terms with radiation, food riots, martial law, euthenasia for prolonged radiation suffering and a total breakdown in society. Even though this film is over thirty years old, it does still disturb in places. The cold war may be over, but nuclear weapons are still fact. The BBC used the child actors well to portray the hopelessness in the final scenes, and their words will remain on your mind. Do not miss this film, you must see it.

I saw this while in college in the early '70s and I still remember it -- and quite vividly. Not only does it have a plausible and believable scenario (from the late '60s), but its use of documentary films of WW-II firestorms and its textbook-like depiction of damage (physical, collateral, you name it) at various ranges from the targets, is very effective. I plan to buy it and Fail Safe to keep for my kids, grandkids, and anyone else as a reminder of how close we came to the insanity of a "fightable", let alone a "winnable", nuclear war.

...but I did, back when this documentary was shown during my "History of Warfare" class at the University of South Carolina back in the eighties. I ran out, threw up, and as I stumbled out of the bathroom stall I ran smack into another weeping, queasy student, one I had quarreled with viciously for several years (she was a Fundamentalist who attacked me publically for not being a Christian). Before we knew it, we were hugging each other and whispering, "I'm sorry...God, I'm sorry...what are we fighting about?"

The film shocked both of us into recognizing how important it is to keep the doors of dialog open, even between opposing people. War is too attractive an alternative to actually LISTENING to one another. As Gandhi says, "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind".

I hope to buy a copy of this film to donate to the film library of my Unitarian church...but even now, I don't know if I could ever watch it again without nightmares at the very least.

It is incredibly easy to understand why this film was banned in the UK. As someone incredibly familiar with the horrors of Dresden and the holocaust, this was gut wrenching. Ringing so true it feels like a sledge hammer to the head, it very effectively uses WWII era film and information about fire storms. The fact that it does not show spectacular special effects of the actual blast is completely irrelevent to the power of the film.

I saw this film in college during the sixties. Originally intended as a BBC documentary about how the British civil defense procedures would greatly reduce atomic war casualties, the film maker was so shocked by the inadequacy of the system that he produced this movie to show just how horrifying such a war would be. The result is one of the most powerful antiwar statements ever.

This riveting documentary shows a frightening "what if?" scenario revealing what would result from nuclear war with Russia. It focuses mainly on one town in England, showing how the effects from a nuclear missile strike would destroy the population and how anarchy and chaos would result. The grainy footage is shocking at times but isn't nearly as overpowering as it must have been in 1967. Nevertheless, the narration reveals facts that are still frightening today, making me very thankful that the Soviet Union no longer exists (although the threat of nuclear war unfortunately DOES still exists). "The War Game" is brutally honest and gripping entertainment, a chilling view of how close the world came to destroying itself at the height of the Cold War. Highly recommended.

I first saw this film about one year ago and I have been trying to get other people interested in it ever since. Adopting a similar structure to Watkins's previous masterpiece 'CULLODEN',using a newsreel effect to tell the story,Watkins describes the possible effects of a nuclear strike on Britain. The BBC commissioned the film and then got cold feet when they realised that the reality was far more harrowing than they imagined it would be. It has only been shown once on British television and is now incredibly hard to get hold of;especially in its country of origin. In 47 minutes of blistering drama and amazingly realistic 'firestorm' effects Watkins manages to place the viewer right in the middle of this terrifying situation,constantly asking questions about why nuclear weapons exist and why there is an almost complete silence from government and public alike as to what we would do if we ever were threatened with nuclear weapons. Unfortunately,I have only seen two of Watkins's films: 'THE WAR GAME' and 'CULLODEN'. Both 'PRIVILEGE' and 'PUNISHMENT PARK' appear to be completely unavailable in any format anywhere in the world. 'THE COMMUNE',Watkins's last film also appears to be unavailable on both video and DVD. Why are films made by the world's greatest living artist so difficult to get hold of? For some time now I have considered 'THE WAR GAME' to be not just the greatest and the most important film in the history of cinema,but,quite simply,the greatest work of art ever produced!
SEE IT TODAY!!!

Peter Watkins produces a BBC Documentary which is so shocking the network won't show it. One of the damnable government follies portrayed in this extremely realistic period piece is that the government would not give out instructions on how to deal with radiation for free, no, it had to sell them and therefore the information was poorly distributed. Another disgraceful aspect is the cost of building internal or external shelters in homes, which only the well-to-do can afford with any certainty of protection. The attack and explosion sequences are quite realistic and the data used was drawn from experts including US Nuclear experiments in Nevada and South Pacific. While 30 years old, this film still portrays a very possible event only on a much milder scale than would actually be the case. In this film, Britain's dispersed V-Bomber Force is hit with a large number of one megaton intermediate range missile warheads. Today, they would be hit by five megaton or better multiple reentry warheads from long range missiles. Nonetheless, this is a haunting, horrible film depicting human misery. The firestorm scenes and the aftermath are particularly grim. Dresden, Hamburg and Tokyo have already been through such tragedy. It can happen again.

The War Game was a BBC production that wasn't released on television due to it's controversial content. Peter Walkins (auteur extraordinaire) decided to release this as a feature film. The film was a sucess and he took home several awards. After watching this film you can see why The War Game is the granddaddy of all of the anti-nuclear war films.
Watkins shot this movie using grainy black and white film stock and he presented it as a faux documentary. He put a lot of time in painstakingly researching everything he could find about Nuclear War and it's after effects.

Brutal and unflinching, this film is a must see for future filmmakers, fans of nuclear war films and people who enjoy documentaries. Peter Watkins makes an uncredited apperance as an off-screen interviewer. The film crew interviews people before, during and after the nuclear war.
Heavy stuff from one of the most underrated film makers.

Highest recommendation possible.

Terrifying. The stuff nightmares are made of. Everybody talks about the horrifying power of nuclear weapons but no one stops to REALLY think about their effects. Incredibly unsutuble, which is it's main strength. This got banned by the BBC from being shown on TV because of the woman who commisioned said that it was insulting to the British public and the country to think that we could not get our country up and running after the conflict. She also was incredibly angry over the shell shocked, living dead victims of the blast. Not to mince words I think she needs her head examining. An even more terrifying sequel to this called 'Threads, After The Bomb' by Barry Hines is set in Sheffield. It is truly horrifying. I live near Sheffield and every time I have to drive through it I shiver. Warning, nightmares will follow.