The Day After

This film is revolutionary in my opinion, because it broke the boundaries of the televised film at a time when tv storytelling technique was quickly evolving. The subject matter seems to have pushed the format forward and what results is a strange hybrid of tones. The performances are both smoothed for the medium and roughed up for the content. This was before editing for television so aggressively engaged the audience, but the subtlety of the acting choices seems to presage that. Characters are battling insanity, in a mainstream tv context, so the challenge is particularly high. It is almost theatrical in the use of stock footage. I'm especially impressed that they didn't sink into a morass of moralism with the script. The spare quality of the third act is almost like a classic foreign film, and the unfinished feeling in many of its plot elements is a relief rather than a disappointment.

Quite simply, only a handful of movies have given me more chills down the spine than this one. The Day After accurately and intimately depicts the tragedy of a nuclear holocaust. Viewers end up thinking that the lucky ones are those that were killed immediately by the blast and, in no case, the actual survivors...

The story is quite simple: a group of US citizens go through their daily occupations in a Mid-West city while, at the same time, political and military escalation between Russia and the US builds up. What must happen finally happens and, guess what, the nukes fly off and cross each other in the sky on their way to their respective targets.

The movie goes on in its depiction of the war after the nukes actually detonate. The fate of the survivors is therefore shown in graphic, vivid and utterly realistic details. Each and every viewer is therefore capable of identifying him/herself to any of the featured characters, making for a closer personal proximity to the movie action and unfolding drama.

The main originality and interest of this movie is that, first, unlike its predecessors and successors, this end-of-the-world tale goes beyond the actual act of the ICBM's lifting off their launch pads. It's like the movie finally dares lifting some veil off the real mystery and horror of the survivors' conditions and struggle to remain alive. The survivors are just human beings that constantly have to fight their radioactive "illness". We all know how futile and useless such a struggle is...

Second, this movie was of almost historical reach when it was first released in 1983. Its shock-wave in the media and public opinion was so powerful that it made the headlines of newspapers back then. People talked about it with fear in their heart and mind. It certainly played a great role in making people accutely aware of the end results of a nuclear conflict, whereas most of them had never questioned its necessity until then. I have no doubt that this movie led to a greater level of awareness on this subject in the West and ultimately helped in negotiating the non-proliferation of nuclear WMD's treaties between the US and Russia throughout the 80's and early 90's.

A must-see movie about what nukes can do and the conditions they would leave us in as a species -should they ever take to the skies...

I remember watching this movie on tv when it came out. I was telling someone about it and decided to look it up...thanks amazon...now I can share this great movie with everyone.

VERY REALISTIC DEPICTION OF WHAT MIGHT HAPPEN DURING A NUCLEAR ATTACT. SHOWS CHAOTIC PARANOIA BEFORE DURING AND AFTER A NUCLEAR ATTACT.

The special effects are dated, that aside, one of the most potent movies I've ever seen.
With the increased rise in misinformation about what a nuclear exchange truly entails this is one movie everyone on earth should be forced, at gun point, to watch. There is no excuse for anyone to be ignorant of the most basic of facts about nuclear apocalypse. That anyone thinks it might be survivable is a fool, that some of these are in positions to make decisions or elect leaders to make decisions is apocalyptic, I do not speak in hyperbole here.
This movie, makes the actors seem real, goes through their lives for as long as it takes to make them real, then shows one the teeth of the apocalypse. At the end it is stated that almost total annihilation, sterility and death are the BEST CASE SCENARIO. They see fit to show that it doesn't matter how rich or pious or white you are, that all flesh is grass by the light of a nuclear sunrise.