"The Day After" Vs. "Threads", which is more unnerving?

Cafe Society
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For some reason, i’ve been on a Post-Apocolyptic kick on YouTube, and in searching, i’ve found a couple shows i’ve wanted to view…

“Threads”, a BBC show about the aftermath of a nuclear attack on a small English town, it’s often been described as “A British version of ‘The Day After’”, but has often been described as far, far bleaker…

it’s true, so far i’m only up to segment 9 of Threads, and this is some bleak, bleak stuff, i consider myself to have a pretty strong stomach for disturbing images, heck, i’ve sat through the “Faces of Death” series without flinching, but Threads is just…brutal in it’s depiction of “TDA”, it covers a much longer timeframe, and is absolutely unflinching in it’s depictions of people descending into the throes of Radiation Poisoning, and the inevitable breakdown of society, it makes “The Day After” look like “Barney and Freinds”

TDA was, admittedly, toned down for American audiences, but Threads is just brutal, unrelenting and “honest” about the real long-term effects/aftereffects of a nuclear exchange, too brutal, i think, for the average American viewer (and i say this as an American myself…)

the other video i found was of the brilliantly animated “When the Wind Blows”, i saw this film, just once, in college, and it’s stuck in my mind ever since, to watch that lovable British couple slowly wither away, still holding on to the vain hope that “everything will be all right if we just trust the Government and hope for the best” is truly heartbreaking…

i was discussing animation with one of my cow-orkers this afternoon, he’s of the mindset that animation is just for kids and can’t possibly be taken seriously (and he’s also a rabid reality television fan), so needless to say, i dared him to watch “When the Wind Blows” straight through and tell me tomorrow if he still thinks animation is just for kiddies… <evil grin>

i may just have to loan him my copy of “The Iron Giant” as well…

So, for those Dopers that have seen both “TDA” and “Threads”, which do you find more disturbing…

for me, it’s most emphatically “Threads”, “TDA” is a pale imitation, an also-ran…

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I haven’t seen either for many years, but I certainly recall thinking when I did see them that *Threads * was the more horrifying. Perhaps because it was less effects-driven and more personalised. Some of its images were quite iconic: the woman urinating for instance. And then that final scene: just chilling.

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No contest - Threads.

I find it hard to express how much that movie brought me down. Important topic. I’m glad I watched it. But it’s one of very few films on my never-watch-again list.

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Threads is pretty damn brutal stuff, to be sure.

You should also check out The War Game.

It was a “documentary” made over here in 1965 intended to show the aftermath of a nuclear attack on an English City.

Its incredibly well done.

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A second for The War Game, which predates both of the OP’s films.

To me, “Threads” seems to be the legitimate successor and updating of The War Game. “The Day After”, for all its scariness (and much as I like it), seems too “clean” and well-defined. The end of the world is too orderly.
What compels me about The War Game is how realistically messy everything is. The single most striking image is of survivors sitting and rocking, their eyes soulless and empty, covered in something black (it’s a black and white film). You never know if it’s blood, or dirt, or what. But the look in their eyes shows that Nobidy’s Home.

THAT’s the effect of sudden, devastating, complete annhilation, and it’s not in The Day After. Threads comes closer to this.

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I’ll check out The War Game tonight after work…

last night, I decided to put a hold on “Threads” (I’ll finish it tonight) and watch “When the Wind Blows” to see if it was as good as my memories of it were

It was better…

In college, I had the vaguest notion of the effects of nuclear explosions, i knew they were bad, but the details were lacking, now, with my knowledge of the effects of fallout and radiation, some of the simpler scenes were positively chilling…

Jim building the “shelter”, blindly following the instructions in the Government pamphlets, using the thin interior doors from his house to create a rickety, cramped lean-to with barely enough room for the two of them, then stocking the “shelter” with useless supplies, reducing the already limited space to near-nothing, but having an unshakable faith that the shelter would protect them from both the blast, the pressure wave and the fallout and radiation…

Jim and Hilda coming out of the “Shelter” (a hastily rigged up lean-to made of doors with pillows on top) mere hours after the attack, into their dusty, fallout laden home…

Jim and Hilda out in their garden, lying on lawn chairs and gazing at the cloudy, dust filled skies, remarking idly on how dark it is, even at mid-day, as thunder rumbles in the distance and rain (laden with fallout) begins to fall on them, they continue to lie out in the rain for a short while…

…and then collect the rainwater for use making tea (not realizing the rain is laden with fallout and intensely radioactive) and drinking the radioactive brew…

and most chilling of all, Jim’s blind, unwavering faith in “The Powers That Be”, i.e. the Government, that everything will be all right if you just trust TPTB and follow the (contradictory) rules in the Government supplied “Protect and Survive” pamphlets…

Jim’s faith in TPTB never wavers, even as they succumb to Radiation Poisoning and waste away, Jim still believes the Council will come to rescue them even as he draws his last, tortured breath and he and Hilda pass silently into the night…

Now that I come to think about it, I think WTWB may have been the tipping point for my transition to Athiesm, simply substitute Jim’s blind faith in TPTB for “God”…

there are very few animated shows that cause dust to get in my eyes, WTWB is one, as is The Iron Giant…

Now if only WTWB would be released on a Region 1 DVD…