Threads (1984 BBC Nuclear War film)

Hugh JboobsHugh Jboobs Posts: 15,316
Forum Member
✭✭
Just wondered if many people have seen this film and what their thoughts are? It was a made for TV film which screened on the BBC in 1984 and starred Karen Meagher and Reece Dinsdale.

I first saw it mentioned on a thread here entitled "Most shocking and disgusting films". I then read all about it on Wikipedia and read some of the reviews on Amazon. On the strength of that, I ordered it from Amazon and it's just arrived - I haven't watched it yet! (It's also available on YouTube I believe).

It sounds amazing, though very harrowing. Definitely not one to watch if you want cheering up!

So who's seen it? What did you think of it? :)

(Tried to put a link to the IMDB page but it wouldn't let me for some reason :confused: Here's the Wikipedia link instead: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Threads)
«1

Comments

  • ironjadeironjade Posts: 10,001
    Forum Member
    ✭✭
    Still harrowing after all these years. Did little for Sheffield as a tourist destination.
  • LojenLojen Posts: 1,009
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    Lets see if I can think up a few words to describe it; gritty, grim, bleak, harrowing.

    It's well worth a watch all the same if only to see a more realistic depiction of the after effects of nuclear war than Hollywood would ever produce.
  • CLL DodgeCLL Dodge Posts: 115,630
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭✭
    Saw it when first transmitted (when a nuclear conflict rather than just a dirty terrorist bomb seemed far more likely).

    Saw it many years later on DVD (released 2005). Still seemed an effective bit of film-making.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 43
    Forum Member
    I purchased this for the exact same reason you did, I also read that thread :)

    Me and my husband were pretty shocked by it, I wasn't so much because I expected it to be grim but it took my husband completely unawares.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 42
    Forum Member
    Its up there with the most grim films I have ever seen. I can watch pretty much anything without it playing on my mind afterwards but this one stayed in my head for a while after watching.
  • GulftasticGulftastic Posts: 127,194
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭✭
    It's on youtube.

    One of the scariest things I saw in my teen years. I was terrified of nuclear war.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 14,920
    Forum Member
    ✭✭
    Scary broken milk bottles.
  • ROWLING2010ROWLING2010 Posts: 3,909
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    I saw it at school. well part of it at least and for years I wanted to know what happened next.
    Saw it on sale in HMV on DVD a few years ago and brought it. Amazing, terrifying film. Especially for the time it was made.

    Gave me nightmares and kinda made me regret wanting to know what happened next
  • VoynichVoynich Posts: 14,481
    Forum Member
    ✭✭
    Depressing as hell and it traumatised me as a kid! :D
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 65
    Forum Member
    Margaret from "trollied" is in it she plays the lead blokes mother
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 6,138
    Forum Member
    bought it recently on DVD. Sorry to say I found it more quaint than shocking, with it's 'let's put the kettle on' attitude.
  • GulftasticGulftastic Posts: 127,194
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭✭
    For all it's grimness, it has lead to possibly the best entry on the whole of the IMDB:

    http://uk.imdb.com/name/nm1856457/
  • CLL DodgeCLL Dodge Posts: 115,630
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭✭
    Gulftastic wrote: »
    For all it's grimness, it has lead to possibly the best entry on the whole of the IMDB:

    http://uk.imdb.com/name/nm1856457/

    Wonder who added the credit. Maybe she did.
  • MandarkMandark Posts: 47,930
    Forum Member
    It was a lot better than the American effort, The Day After, that came out around the same time. Even still you had whole room fulls of Americans crying at that film.
  • blueisthecolourblueisthecolour Posts: 20,123
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    It's a film that starts off as a 'kitchen sink' style drama typical of the time which you then expect to become a standard survival thriller once the bombs drop. However it actually becomes this unrelentingly horrific and miserable portrayal of life after a nuclear war. There's no redemption, no signs of hope, no happy ending. Just an increasingly bleak tale of sadness, struggle and despair.

    It's impossible to watch and not question the madness of nuclear weapons.
  • jrmswfcjrmswfc Posts: 5,644
    Forum Member
    Voynich wrote: »
    Depressing as hell and it traumatised me as a kid! :D

    If you think you were traumatised, I watched it as a schoolboy living in Sheffield!
  • Trsvis_BickleTrsvis_Bickle Posts: 9,202
    Forum Member
    It's still the most terrifying drama I've ever seen on screen and I saw it back in the 1980s when nuclear war was a very real threat. Obviously it had a much greater impact when I saw it in the 1980s but, as a human story, and as an indictment of the insanity of nuclear warfare, it has aged surprisingly well.

    IIRC it was done on a shoestring budget. These days, you would expect devastation on that scale to require a huge CGI budget but the makers kept the focus at the level of individual humans and the aftermath of the war. I believe that old stills of bombed German cities from WWII stood in for ruined Sheffield.
  • shirlt9shirlt9 Posts: 5,085
    Forum Member
    Have watched this a number of times..have it on DVD..bleak...probably due another watch.
  • Hugh JboobsHugh Jboobs Posts: 15,316
    Forum Member
    ✭✭
    Well I've just finished watching this.

    Grim as hell. :(

    Glad I watched it though. It's given me a much better appreciation of what nuclear war would actually mean. Horrible to think about.


    I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.
    -- Albert Einstein
  • tremetreme Posts: 5,445
    Forum Member
    "Giz it!"
  • VoynichVoynich Posts: 14,481
    Forum Member
    ✭✭
    Gulftastic wrote: »
    For all it's grimness, it has lead to possibly the best entry on the whole of the IMDB:

    http://uk.imdb.com/name/nm1856457/

    :D

    "Indeed, a truly memorable turn by the legendary Sellors. I do believe the urination itself was simulated, which just makes her realistic portrayal all the more incredible."
  • jendejende Posts: 21,432
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    I remember watching it at the time when I was in my teens and very anti nuclear. This really didn't make me feel any different! I thought the fact it was so harrowing was actually a good thing. Because let's face it, nuclear bombs being dropped all around, is never going to end happy ever after. I was really impressed and was shinning up my CND badge like nobodies business!!! I do think it is the sort of film that the Brits can actually do better than the Americans. That isn't some nationalistic crap talking, I just feel that Brit films can be more realistic than American ones sometimes.

    Another good film in the same vein was When the Wind Blows. It was actually a animated film, so there wasn't any actors. The book was written using the pictures so they stuck with the animation. It's not as harrowing as based just on an old couple, but to me it was very effective. Didn't have a happy ending either.
  • jendejende Posts: 21,432
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    Well I've just finished watching this.

    Grim as hell. :(

    Glad I watched it though. It's given me a much better appreciation of what nuclear war would actually mean. Horrible to think about.


    I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.
    -- Albert Einstein

    It is. I don't think it helped at the time in the 80's, that Ronald Regan was in power in America. It was quite disturbing to know he had control of nuclear weapons!! But when I think back, I was a young teen when I watched this and there was more fear re nuclear then than there is now. So Threads was able to make a statement about something that was quite a big issue with some, at the time. I think it definitely brought up the reality and that we may have the whole Mutually Assured Destruction thing going on (which to me is never really assuring!), but when push comes to shove, they had so many bombs banging around it was worrying!

    To quote another film. War Games - Mutually Assured Destrution - Winner:none. A 'strange game' and the conclusion being the 'only winning move is not to play.'
  • StrmChaserSteveStrmChaserSteve Posts: 2,728
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    i remember my form teacher at school got sack for showing 'threads' to year 1 pupils

    She was some sort of anti-nuclear protestor

    there were a number of them at the time

    The Day After (not tomorrow)

    When the wind blows (animation) & david bowie music

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9aHT-IlkHo
  • QwertyGirl1771QwertyGirl1771 Posts: 4,472
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    I remember watching Threads and not being able to sleep for a few nights because when I heard a plane fly overhead I would think 'this is it'. It was quite frightening at the time. The chilling music for the little information films on what to do during a nuclear attack was scary. I also remember When The Wind Blows, which was such a sweet film but also very sad. On my You Tube channel I've got quite a collection of nuclear disaster films and documentaries (The War Game, Trinity & Beyond, Atomic Film Makers to name a few) . I thought The Day After was rubbish though.
Sign In or Register to comment.