The War Game

Aggressively didactic depiction of a hypothetical cold war outcome and all the more effective for it.

Despite my miserable experience with Punishment Park, I gave Watkins another chance. This one's another pseudo-documentary, but this time far more convincing, even though the viewer is periodically reminded that the scenario is hypothetical. It's quite disturbing and bold for its time. It's been superceded by better films like Threads and Where the Wind Blows, but it deserves credit for pre-dating those works by some 20 years. The acting is uneven and the script is sometimes a bit off.

This would indeed have been shocking for many people in 1965, as it still really is today, that is, 53 years later. It is remarkable that many people seem to feel that the threat depicted here no longer exists: I believe the correct psychological term for this is denial.

Extraordinarily intense recreation of an anticipated nuclear attack circa 1965. Originally shot for TV and later understandably rejected on grounds of adult material, film packs a mighty impressive punch. Still scarier than any modern disaster film, the convincingly naturalistic performances by the cast (a mix of amateur and professional) and documentary feel make this one of the greats, not to be missed.

To me films like this are more interesting in terms of being an illustration of their times than for their actual persuasiveness or informativeness. The serious tone, the continual use of terms like "inevitability," the palpable fear and confusion, all these things are quite evocative of the perception of a threat in a way that doesn't exist now.

The most terrifying film I know.

A must-see, still unsettling 54 years after it was made. I think that despite it's age people could still learn something from this.

It feels like a rough draft for Threads. Although the ironic juxtaposition of the current and future documentaries is occasionally devastatingly effective, it lacks the production value to truly horrify. And like Threads, the brutally realistic depiction of the future is somewhat blunted by the fact that its future did not, in fact, happen.

Watkins's argumentation style is in-your-face, as it should be. Even more disturbing than the enacted scenarios of a nuclear aftermath are the facts about what the horrifying consequences of one would be. A must-see near-masterpiece.

Disturbingly powerful especially when considered within the context of the era in which in was made.