The Day After

I am currently working on my senior year capstone project. My project is going to deal with the fine line between fact and fiction when it comes to a certain contemporary branch of science fiction films and the dystopic themes found within those films. Naturally, I am watching quite a few post-apocalyptic films (so you can expect quite a few reviews in the coming weeks).

I have seen a lot of the films that I will be discussing, but I am going to try to watch them all again with some of my project themes in mind. I had previously seen a few scenes from The Day After, but until recently, never saw it in its entirety. The film originally aired on television in 1983, and created quite a stir. It was written by Edward Hume and directed by Nicholas Meyer.The film stars JoBeth Williams, Jason Robards, John Cullum, John Lithgow, Steve Guttenberg and Amy Madigan.

It is the mid-1980s. An aggressive Soviet leadership orders troops marched to the border of West Berlin, and then decides to invade West Germany with multiple armored tank & troop divisions. In Lawrence, Kansas - on the border with Missouri - a family is preparing for the wedding of their eldest daughter, and Dr. Oakes is keeping busy in his role as chief of surgery in the small University Hospital at Lawrence. These people go on with their daily lives but are drawn closer to the possibility of a nuclear war, as the Russians use a nuclear ballistic missile against a West German city, and then attack a U.S. warship in the Persian Gulf. The Americans strike back by hitting a Soviet ship, and then the Russians hit NATO regional headquarters with a nuclear warhead! People start creating makeshift fallout shelters in their basements...Many are killed outright, but still more must face the danger of radioactive fallout...

I really do not think that I was prepared for how emotional this film would make me. It wasn't particularly graphic. The special effects were not particularly realistic. The truly scary part was how realistic and logical the story seemed. This is something that could truly happen. I would definitely recommend this film. I think that everyone should see it at least once.