HotToastyRag Oh dear God, I wish I'd never seen this movie. It was shown to me in high school, so I didn't feel comfortable just getting up and leaving class. How I wish I'd had more guts.If "end of the world" movies are your thing, then absolutely go see this one. It's terribly famous and a very good movie for that genre. I abhor that genre. Anything futuristic scares the pants off me, let alone "end of the world" movies. Literally, my bones start crawling, I get a sickeningly panicked feeling in my tummy, and I burst into tears. And it's all because of Testament. Testament was the first "end of the world" movie I saw, and it has scarred me for life. Normally, I don't give spoilers during my reviews, but this one is pretty obvious. I can't really mention the plot without giving things away. The plot: We get nuked and die.There you go! If you really want to put yourself through that, be my guest. I am giving you my strongest anti-recommendation I can give, since I reacted so negatively to this movie. I couldn't stop crying all day, even in P.E., and I had nightmares for weeks. And even now, years later, I can't even listen to the news without panicking. This movie is one of the, if not the, biggest tearjerkers I've ever seen. So if you do go against my recommendation, bring a Kleenex box. And then get ready to curse Terms of Endearment for coming out in the same year; Jane Alexander lost the Best Actress Oscar that year.

Jonathan C What happens if, one day, you are watching Sesame Street with your kids and suddenly a news announcer breaks in and says that your country is under nuclear attack. The answer to the question is provided by Testament, an incredibly sad movie about a family in rural California whose town is not hit by the bombs but has to survive after the society around them has been basically destroyed.This movie is understated but potent. We never see any of the explosions, save one bright light right as the family is watching the news broadcast. The dad of the family is off on business in San Francisco, and we wonder what has happened to him when he does not return (although not really). The mom of the family, Carol Weatherly, played masterfully by Jane Alexander, has to find a way to survive with her three kids and one other that she picks up whose parents were away and probably killed in the attack. The town rallies to try to come up with a plan of action, but everyone is stymied by the knowledge that radiation is probably going to kill everyone and there is really no good place to go to. For the most part, people in the movie die a slow and agonizing death.Needless to say, this is not a cheerful popcorn-chewer. It is, however, a rather gripping and moving drama about what surviving a catastrophe might look like, and how people might act when placed in an impossible situation. The struggle is really to retain your humanity in the face of knowing that you are doomed, and, in fact, not just you, but everyone. The movie has sometimes been criticized because the family seems passive--they seem to want to stay in their home and simply wait for a certain demise. I don't think this is a fair criticism; some people from the town try to flee, but it seems sensible to me that there would be others, like the Weatherlys, who would see that any attempt at traveling to safety would face long odds and that trying to live out the rest of their days in their home would be sensible decision.This decision, however, does not save the family from despair, and this perhaps is the saddest part of this extremely sad movie. I am not completely certain that a spark of joyfulness is impossible in this situation, but I am willing to accept that for some people it would be. In that case, Testament is a brilliant nightmare, a reasonably accurate picture of the slow death, physically and spiritually, of a family and a small town.

Steve Skafte This film is one of three made in fairly close succession about the possible consequences of worldwide nuclear war, and certainly the most well-realized of them. The other two range from cheesy America TV movie hype in "The Day After" to extremely dark British horror with "Threads". The latter of the two has something to offer where the first has little, but of the three it is "Testament" that tells the balanced, down-to-earth experience that the majority of us would be only too likely to experience.There's no mushroom cloud here, no special effects. Just a flash of light in the distance, and an ever-building sense of dread. The characters are written like true, believable people in other similar 1980s dramas. I cannot stress enough how real this movie feels. If you go in looking for action or thrills, this is not for you. This is a tragedy, a drama, a film of real humanity. It would survive unhindered without the horrific elements that provide the backbone of the script, because it is not interdependent on them. The characters don't exist simply to fill out the plot points. They have depth. And that's where "Testament" draws its power. This is not a disaster film, populated by varying degrees of cannon fodder. This is a true "what-if". What if my small town, the one where I've grown up and spent the bulk of my life, became the victim of nuclear fallout? I saw my childhood in this film. The young character of Scottie (played by Lukas Haas) reminds me of myself, his mother (Jane Alexander) of my own. I saw all too many hints of those I grew up with, my neighbors, my siblings in the scenes of "Testament".This film broke my heart, and if you let it, it just might do the same to you. It's the face behind killing, the human factor, the cost of collateral damage. But, most of all, it's a warm yet intensely painful story of a mother faced with the unavoidable and imminent death of her loved ones. "Testament" is a dirge, a march to the end through all the purity and life of our fading memories. It holds you close like a dying friend, hoping that an embrace will keep the soul from escaping. This is life at its most precarious.

ferrierdf I saw this film in 1983 soon after it came out. The film affected me greatly. (A child of the Cold War era, I had stuffed canned goods into a knapsack during the week of the Cuban Missile Crisis.) After viewing the film, I immediately arranged to borrow a 16mm copy from the local library and to rent a projector to show it. I contacted neighbourhood parents to ask if any of their children would like come and watch the film. Then, one evening, I went to the library, got the film, picked up the projector, collected the children, threaded the projector, and showed the film. I did this because I felt that if only one child was moved by seeing the film to try to prevent the catastrophe it portrayed, it was worth the effort.