The War Game

England   w/d Peter Watkins

This is the BBC-produced mock-doc that was so explosive (sorry) that it was banned in Britain for twenty years. It tried to answer the question: what would it be like if England got involved in a nuclear scrape? And the answer was...pretty fuckin horrible.

Watkins used a doc style which was extremely effective and became his signature technique for forty years...culminating in the superb La Commune (2001).

This was a landmark film which still brings a chill. It was one-upped in the 80's by Threads which made it as clear as possible that nuke war meant the end of the world as we've known it. Good thing we've since gotten rid of all the nukes, innit?

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