The War Game

A chilling pseudo-documentary dedicated to the measures England had in place to deal with a nuclear assault during the cold war era. Framed as a newscast interspersed with short, stern-faced lectures and quotes from the experts, it's a brutally honest glimpse into the horrors that were looming around every corner. Since it is, at heart, a public service film, it falls into a few of the associated traps - low budget, obviously staged setups, a flood of monotone speakers glaring directly into the camera - but the unflinching approach it takes to such a powerful, intense subject excuses most of those shortcomings. By no means a party picture, it's still a fascinating look into how poorly prepared humanity was (and still is) for the mutual destruction its nations were flirting with, almost playfully, at the time. Chillingly effective, alarmingly grounded and hauntingly vivid - our trigger-happy national leaders could stand a modern viewing, lest the concept of nuclear war become too abstract.