The Day After Video

Average Rating:

The first half of the picture is taut and engrossing, showing the town of Lawrence, Kansas trying to deal with the mounting crisis as students at the University of Kansas attempt to register for upcoming classes. The feelings of confusion, disbelief and helplessness experienced by the residents are effectively depicted. The contrast between those who fatalistically prepare for the worst and those who refuse to accept the severity of the situation provides a powerful conflict of perspective. This portion of the movie ends with an emotionally striking scene of the spectators at a football game staring upward in confusion and consternation as a flight of minuteman missiles from Whiteman Air Force Base leaves multiple arcing trails in the mid-day sky.

The military footage, including the nuclear alert and response, is taken directly from a 1980 documentary series entitled "The Defense of the United States." It is technically accurate and does a fairly good job of depicting the likely sequence of events as the ongoing conflict rapidly escalates from a European crisis into a general nuclear exchange. The scenes of nuclear detonations and the immediate destruction caused are all stock footage which the viewer will recognize from countless other productions related to this subject.

Once the nuclear blasts have ended, the story settles into a stock melodrama about ordinary people trying to cope with extra-ordinary events. Unfortunately, there are too many characters to allow any of them to be developed to a point where the viewer really cares what is happening or what will happen.

The basic plot of trying to deal with a lack of supplies, communications, power and the breakdown of local society could come from any disaster movie. The depiction of nuclear winter, which could have been a major central theme, is woefully inadequate and becomes just another undeveloped sidelight.

In the final analysis, The Day After tries to do to much with too many characters and accomplishes virtually nothing. If you have a strong interest in nuclear disaster movies, you may find the first half of the picture interesting. Otherwise, there isn't much to recommend this film.

But this telefilm, guided by the talented Nicholas Meyer(Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan), rose to new heights and presented us with a vision of a world that has lost all sense of reason and hope, with 2 powerful nations taking their ignorance out on the billions who are innocent, but still pay for the actions brought on by the ignorant. Jason Robards plays a doctor and Steve Guttenburg(his best performance by far) as a man traveling home are just two of the many everyday people bound together by horrible circumstances.

Two of the most powerful scenes that brought tears to my eyes is where a battered priest is reading from his Bible from a bombed out church, with devastation all around him, and the people in attendance are scarred, bloody, and dying. And as the priest trys to raise hopes about God's plan, and about keeping faith, a little girl dies in her sleep, apparently from radiation sickness.And the family, without saying anything, gets up from their pew, and walks away, while the priest, in desperation, increases his voice, having a hard time himself believing in a God that would let this happen.

Another heart-wrenching scene is when a group of people are in a building hiding from the radiation, when they pick up a message from the President of the United States, telling Americans that a cease fire had been called, and that the US did not surrender, won't surrender, and he felt sympathy for the losses inflicted, but the great nation of America still lives, and he too had suffered personal losses. And as he said this the camera pans around the room, and instead of patriotic fervor from the survivors, you get the more realistic blank faces, from people who had just seen the world as they knew it destroyed, family, friends dead. This scene shows how futile and pointless war of any kind is.

What was the most powerful is that even though we can inflict so much pain on each other, as presented very clearly and graphically in this film, is that there are those who will die to save others in the aftermath, such as in the hospital where the doctors died themselves, worked to death comforting the dying. I think that this film will touch everyone's soul, and hopefully someone in power will take heed of this movie. The threat of nuclear holocaust is still with us, and it would not take much for this film to become reality. Please buy this, rent this, or catch it the next time it is on television. We should not all have to suffer just because a few egomaniacs can't shake hands. This is just one of the many lessons this film teaches, and hopefully it will be a lesson learned, for all of our sakes.