The Day After (1983)

In the early 80's, we were at the height of the cold war. We lived under the threat of the outbreak of WWIII at any time, with the NATO and the SOVIET BLOCK both pointing the nuclear missles at each other, with both fingers hovering over the dreaded button!
We in the U.K were lucky enough to have the excellent TV movie THREADS, that deals we the possibility of a neclear attack over Sheffield. This film was very uncompromising and at the time shocked the country.
The Americans were unfortunate enough to have this similar, but very soapy effort. It's like watching the end of the world DALLAS style. Where the film is supposed to shock us and give us emotional scenes as people dealing with the effects of the dreaded fall out, now only raises unintentional laughter at it's soap opera approach. But the film does have two major saving graces. The first one is the scenes of the missles being launched, are very unsettling as people go about the daily duties, with missles being launched around them. The second saving grace is the acting, Jason Robards is on superb form, and keeps the human characters fermly on the ground.
But be warned there is one of the most grating and corny Americin flag waving endings ever, with the fall out victims singing the Star Spangled Banner, it just makes you want to scream at the TV " HURRY UP AND DIE"
If you want to see a shocking account of the end of days, I suggest buying THREADS, and avoid this !

Ignore MovieAddict's review, this is a tv movie made on a full scale movie budget. Brilliant effects and very harrowing to watch.

A must have for any nuclear war film fan.