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Threads (1984)

Rate: 3
Viewed: 9/25

Threads
9/25: Threads is among the most agonizingly slow movies ever made.

While watching it, I kept thinking how much better The Day After was. It had solid acting, characters to care about, and a realistic storyline. Threads is totally haphazard in the cinematic sense, thanks to the shoestring budget of £400,000.

However, there are a couple of positives. One, the photography is realistic enough. Two, how it may happen, if there's a nuclear holocaust, seems spot-on, but it'll probably be much worse. Yet director Mick Jackson commits the mistake of having almost no leading character to focus the film on. If it's going to be Ruth Beckett (Karen Meagher), then he should do that already from the outset and keep at it all the way to the end.

All right, what if it happens to England? My answer to that is: who cares?!? The country has waged war on others for so many centuries, and I'm sure a few, namely Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Zulu of South Africa, would be happy to take over in the form of payback. By the way, UK is a world power? Ha! It has never been since the end of WWII. Only the United States and Russia matter when it comes to nuclear weapons, and the rest are just bystanders.

All in all, The Day After is way better than Threads, and I also recommend Fail Safe.