Testament is probably the least bombastic and explosive film about the aftermaths of nuclear war you'll ever see. What we are presented with instead is a deeply intimate and poignant family/small town drama centred around the Oscar-nominated lead performance from Jane Alexander.
The film is set in the small town of Hamelin in California which manages to remain unscathed when nuclear bombs rain down on the major cities in the US. The townsfolk count themselves lucky to have survived the attacks and attempt to bunch together to continue living their lives as normally as they can. Fairly quickly though the hopelessness and despair starts to seep in as the bodies start to pile up and the fallout and radiation from the bombs begins to take hold of the community.
We never see the terrifying immediacy of mushroom cloud explosions, blown-out buildings or charred corpses we observed in films like The Day After and Threads, but Testament offers something more: the overwhelming despair of watching society disintegrate and fall apart in slow motion whilst accepting your own mortality in a seemingly empty future.
This is one of the most sobering films made about the futility of nuclear warfare and the direction from Lynne Littman is stellar. She manages portray this story in a manner that doesn't come across preachy or voyeuristic. Definitely check this one out if you can.
The film is set in the small town of Hamelin in California which manages to remain unscathed when nuclear bombs rain down on the major cities in the US. The townsfolk count themselves lucky to have survived the attacks and attempt to bunch together to continue living their lives as normally as they can. Fairly quickly though the hopelessness and despair starts to seep in as the bodies start to pile up and the fallout and radiation from the bombs begins to take hold of the community.
We never see the terrifying immediacy of mushroom cloud explosions, blown-out buildings or charred corpses we observed in films like The Day After and Threads, but Testament offers something more: the overwhelming despair of watching society disintegrate and fall apart in slow motion whilst accepting your own mortality in a seemingly empty future.
This is one of the most sobering films made about the futility of nuclear warfare and the direction from Lynne Littman is stellar. She manages portray this story in a manner that doesn't come across preachy or voyeuristic. Definitely check this one out if you can.