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Threads [DVD]
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| Format | PAL |
| Contributor | June Broughton, Harry Beety, David Brierly, Nicholas Lane, Sylvia Stoker, Paul Morris, Barry Hines, Mick Jackson, Karen Meagher, Reece Dinsdale, Rita May, Andrew Dunn, Henry Moxon, Jane Hazlegrove See more |
| Language | English |
| Runtime | 1 hour and 52 minutes |
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Product description
Documentary-style account of a nuclear attack on Sheffield during the 1980s. Ruth Beckett (Karen Meagher) and Jimmy Kemp (Reece Dinsdale) live in Sheffield and are busy preparing for their upcoming marriage. When Russia invades Iran, hoping to bring the country under its influence, tension is increased throughout the West, and particularly at the local R.A.F. base. Blissfully unconcerned with world events, Ruth and Jimmy carry on with their wedding preparations. However, when two Russian ICBM's hit Sheffield, turning the landscape into a radioactive desert, Ruth and Jimmy are forced to face up to the harsh reality of life in the aftermath of a nuclear explosion.
Product details
- Aspect Ratio : 4:3 - 1.33:1
- Is discontinued by manufacturer : No
- Rated : Suitable for 15 years and over
- Language : English
- Package Dimensions : 19 x 13.6 x 1.6 cm; 81.65 Grams
- Manufacturer reference : 5014138302177
- Director : Mick Jackson
- Media Format : PAL
- Run time : 1 hour and 52 minutes
- Release date : 5 Sept. 2005
- Actors : Karen Meagher, Reece Dinsdale, David Brierly, Rita May, Nicholas Lane
- Subtitles: : English
- Language : English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono)
- Studio : 2entertain
- Producers : Mick Jackson
- ASIN : B0009S9LNK
- Writers : Barry Hines
- Number of discs : 1
- Best Sellers Rank: 44,492 in DVD & Blu-ray (See Top 100 in DVD & Blu-ray)
- 1,034 in Military & War (DVD & Blu-ray)
- 3,136 in Science Fiction (DVD & Blu-ray)
- 11,652 in Television (DVD & Blu-ray)
- Customer reviews:
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This portrayal of a possible nuclear war, the impact, the aftermath and the sheer devastating consequences may not be what would actually come to pass; but the plausibility and the all too believable sequence of events within the film is what really affected me on first viewing (2008), and equally so today (2012), as I am sure it has affected everyone else who has seen it. This film is one of the rare occasions where entertainment - whether literature or cinema - transcends being a mere story, and becomes something more; in this case, it takes the seed of fear that is a possibility of nuclear war, and in two hours grows that seed to grim completion. By the time the final shocking scene passes that heralds the end of the film, the viewer no longer considers nuclear war as something they have never truly thought or worried about, but instead as an event that they would never, ever want to imagine occurring in their worst nightmares.
There are several incredible things that 'Threads' achieves, aside of course from terrifying the viewer into despair. One of the most effective plot dynamics of 'Threads' is that this tale of nuclear apocalypse takes place not in London or New York, but in none other than Sheffield - a city in the North of the UK, which as a region is normally reserved for caricature soap operas or light-hearted homely tea-time family fillers. As many other commentators have stated, there are no overblown Hollywood production values here - the grittiness of life in a Northern community adds to the realism. So accurately in fact, that most of us can associate with the everyday lifestyle of the protagonists in the story, and indeed imagine behaving and responding just as they do within subsequent events.
I wasn't born during the real scare of the Cold War in the 1980s; goodness knows how even more shocking this film must have been to those who were living in those uncertain times. The film seamlessly intertwines the logistical, scientific and historical aspects of the Cold War backdrop. The characters in the film follow real advice given in that era during the nuclear attack, in the form of the 'Protect and Survive' information bulletins. These televised broadcasts were themselves fearful viewing; even more so in the context of this story. I can only imagine how frightened some viewers must have been seeing this level of detail in 1984.
Once the attack hits, the film gives a brutal and rapid depiction of a society completely breaking down, with no immediate or even long-term hope of the situation improving. Contingencies and plans for allocating power of central to local government in such circumstances fail abysmally; emergency services are rendered ineffective, and the barbaric way of life - effectively a human devolution - depicted after the threads of society are torn apart are a million miles away from the beginning in rural Sheffield. Every consequence and impact of such an horrific incident has been thought out, and this is evident from the initial panic before the incident, with momentum gathering pace relentlessly up to and beyond the bomb being dropped.
This film remains one of the starkest depictions of war ever created. For all but the most oblivious, a small part of your thinking will change forever after watching this film - so be prepared.
For anyone still here, this is the second of two infamous films produced by the BBC to give a more scientifically accurate account of what a nuclear war would actually mean to us, the populace (the first being 'The War Game'). Nightmare visions aside - and I have to say, my imagination expected more based on my prior reading on the subject, so it didn't do much to me - this is an ironically funny account of why surviving such a thing is not really an option worth considering.
In brief: Sheffield in Britain, 1984, and in far-off places Soviet Union troops try to occupy lands in the Middle East, provoking a response from the United States. After a peaceful but ominous introduction giving us insight into the very ordinary lives of the people of Sheffield, the two superpowers escalate their feud to a full-scale nuclear war that reduces Britain - and we assume everywhere else too - to a Medieval level of living, riddled with cancers and diseases. As someone once quipped after seeing it, 'I kind of wish the Terminator would appear, if just to put them all out of their misery. This is horrible.' This is not easy viewing.
Before the event, people are duped into 'remaining calm' and staying at home (not like there's much point doing anything else though), while the disorganised authorities desperately try to salvage art treasures, relocate fire engines, arrest protestors and install portaloos in their basement shelters. And for the public, the continual replays of the chilling 'Protect and Survive' Public Information Films would serve little consolation I think.
After the strike - by far the most hard-impact scenes in the thing, and very impressive given the production date and budget - the army are enforcers, the authorities reduced to heartless statisticians witholding food from people who will inevitably die from radiation sickness as a matter of simple common sense.
And all along, the facts are brought to you in a clinical monotone narrative and telex-style screen messages that, against the soundtrack-free film, make it all the more unsettling.
This is probably best watched in daylight, and in a very good mood. Any UK viewers may start fretting every morning at 8:33, and you may find yourself suddenly wanting to watch the news a bit more, possibly. Or it may just make you think what I thought; while it is profound and well written, this should never have needed to have been made, and it shouldn't still be relevant. But it is.



