sjhvii As drama it was first rate but as a serious look at the problem it was banal. Outside the handful of fruitcakes in the Pentagon and the Kremlin no one ever thought nuclear war would be a breeze.An entire film saying look here these nuclear bombs thingies are really rather unpleasant was crass. As children of the Cold War my generation assumed that if it kicked off nuclear style it would be goodnight Vienna for all of us and this would have told us nothing we could not already have guessedThe utter inescapable horror of nuclear war was after all its whole point and the strategy underpinning the MAD.doctrineThe film gloried in its own misery and failed to notice that rather than hastening Armageddon the Bomb has helped keep the peace in Europe for a record period of time. Furthermore the three central predictions of the film were all wrong. Perhaps 4 new nations acquired the bomb in 50 years not the 12 nations in 15 years it foretold. Nuclear stockpiles generally have been slashed not increased and most importantly there was no massive nuclear War by 1980.. None of this was due to the Jeremy Corbyn like shroud waving. of this film

Anthony Turtle For most other viewers, this film may be a dramatisation of a possible event, one which thankfully has not happened. For me, it is the stuff of legends! One of the interviewees is my father, several of the others were family friends I grew up with who were members of the Gravesend Theatre Guild.The majority of this film hit the floor thanks to the scissors of the censor, it was originally planned as a two hour long film, but at the time many scenes were seen as too horrifying. Scenes showing people hanging themselves rather than carrying on (the shot having been set up with a stuntman fixed to the lamppost and the director called "Lunch") have all been described to me over the past forty-five years. I would love to see the full director's cut.If you are looking for what would happen today in a nuclear war, don't watch this. If you are looking for what would have happened in the 60's if the "Reds" had pushed the button, watch this film. Watch this film and thank whichever deity you pray to that it didn't happen.

ametaphysicalshark For some reason nuclear war has come to be viewed as a dated threat, a relic of the cold war paranoia. Let's take a look at some of the countries currently possessing nuclear weapons: Russia, the United States, Israel, Pakistan, India... Not exactly some of the most historically peaceful states. I still view nuclear war as a possibility; it is not likely, but it is still possible and still worth being afraid of. The thought of a few states having leverage over the rest of the world as a result of possessing nuclear weaponry is a frightening reality.Legendary British TV and film director Peter Watkins' hypothetical 'documentary' on the results of a nuclear attack on Britain in the 1960's won the Academy Award for Best Documentary, even though the Academy knew very well that it was fictional. Still, I would argue that it deserved the award, not only for its unquestionable quality, but as it is frighteningly, terrifyingly educational on the known, scientifically accurate facts it presents on a nuclear attack's effects on the human body and on any given city- even if the attack took place at a distance.Watkins' film is brilliant. It is all the more effective now as the world slowly forgets Hiroshima and Nagasaki, slowly forgets the scale of the horror and destruction which can result from the use of such weapons. The film is an expertly constructed, brutally effective drama, filmed as a documentary and, aside from the events 'documented' being hypothetical, is completely accurate on all of its details, with information taken directly from experts and from nuclear test sites. As much as it is not a real 'documentary', it is one of the most frighteningly realistic ones ever made. The film is so horrifying, so disgusting, so disturbing, that it was not shown by the BBC, who originally commissioned it, until the 1980's, following the success of the similar but fully dramatized "Threads", a film that is possibly even more effective in its portrayal of the horror of nuclear war. "The War Game" is an undisputed classic and completely deserving of its reputation. It's 46 minutes of pure, undiluted horror, and is one of the best 'horror' films ever made. While the dumb, self-satisfied gorehounds are looking for obscure Chinese films which focus on faked or real torture, while they are praising the stupid, braindead "Cannibal Holocaust", this terrifying pseudo-documentary on a very real and very scary subject is left relatively neglected. One of very, very few films which are actually 'scary'.9/10

adimo73 I downloaded all 48 minutes of this film from the internet, having been aware of it for years but never having seen it. It hasn't dated, despite being made in grainy black and white over 40 years ago. In some respects, it's even more shocking than Threads (another excellent film on the same subject). The effects were surprisingly good (people being sucked into buildings by the fire storm for example). What was especially poignant for me were the effects of the war on children, being a father.It's a shame that this isn't better known, when many mediocre big budget films are lauded in the 'top 100 film' lists we see so often on UK TV.