[ARCHIVED THREAD] - The Day After (Page 1 of 3)
Posted: 12/30/2009 1:22:06 AM EDT
Anyone remember when it first aired on TV? Man I would give anything to have liven in the 80s. 
|
|
The build up and hype surrounding it was quite a lot, IMO. I was a kid when this came out and I remember all the hand wringing from the adults about this "seminal event" on TV.
It was a thinly veiled hit piece against Reagan, showing the American public just what would happen in a Nuclear War, and the implication (and accusation from Ted Kennedy) was that this is what WOULD happen if the American people voted for Reagan in 1984. |
There were several TV shows during that period in the same vein as "The Day After." They were obvious jabs at Reagan and his policies. The standard liberal idea that if one is weak, one is not a threat, the the world's bullies will leave one alone.  Reagan was a threat to that policy.  Anyway, we all know now (and many then), that he was right.
The 80's were a good time to live if you were young and in school. Not so much if you had to make a living because for the majority of the 80's, the economy sucked. Things were much better in the 90's. In general, people were more conservative in the 80's. The music was good. The fashion was good only in that one knew what 80's fashion was. It was distinct. You can listen to 80's music and see 80's cloths and quickly know they're from the 80's. I don't think that's as true today, although I could just be getting old and not paying attention to those things anymore. 
It was a good time to be a young single guy, no question.
|
|
Quoted:
remember seeing it as a kid at some point (not original airing, i was born in 83) but the scene when the nukes went off with the doctor in his car, that left a lasting impact in me as a kid. The nukes didn't leave the impact on me that the shotgun blast at the end did. The nukes weren't personal, but being shot for no reason was. |
|
Quoted:
Quoted:
remember seeing it as a kid at some point (not original airing, i was born in 83) but the scene when the nukes went off with the doctor in his car, that left a lasting impact in me as a kid. The nukes didn't leave the impact on me that the shotgun blast at the end did. The nukes weren't personal, but being shot for no reason was. That part freaked me out also. I was 14 when it first aired and I watched it with my mom that evening. |
|
A little off topic but along the same lines...
There was another movie in the same period that I remember as a kid about terrorists or activists who had a nuke on a boat in Charlestons harbor. It was done as quasi news shot movie and was pretty good from what I remember. I don't remember what the name of it was though. Any older arfcomers remember that one? |
|
Quoted:
Anyone remember when it first aired on TV? Man I would give anything to have liven in the 80s. I saw the flick when it came out (I was a teenager at the time). But I hate to break it to you.... living in the '80's wasn't particularly awesome. For all Reagan did (and he did a lot), he really let us down allowing the Federal deficit get out of hand. |
|
Quoted:
Quoted:
Anyone remember when it first aired on TV? Man I would give anything to have liven in the 80s. I saw the flick when it came out (I was a teenager at the time). But I hate to break it to you.... living in the '80's wasn't particularly awesome. For all Reagan did (and he did a lot), he really let us down allowing the Federal deficit get out of hand. I respectfully disagree. What he did by doing that was essentially bankrupt the USSR who was trying to keep up and out do the US and brought the cold war to an end. Sure we had the deficit but the threat of global thermonuclear war was greatly diminished. |
|
Quoted:
The build up and hype surrounding it was quite a lot, IMO. I was a kid when this came out and I remember all the hand wringing from the adults about this "seminal event" on TV. It was a thinly veiled hit piece against Reagan, showing the American public just what would happen in a Nuclear War, and the implication (and accusation from Ted Kennedy) was that this is what WOULD happen if the American people voted for Reagan in 1984. Yea. Didnt know it at the time, but it was a hit piece by the left. Decent movie, I will watch it when it comes on TV. |
| That movie was left wing propoganda for the anti-Reagan crowd. I remember watching it when it was aired and was completely freaked out. The leftists wanted to shut down the US-USSR aggression and this movie was ment to get the US population to demand that Reagan back down. FAIL! |
|
Quoted:
A little off topic but along the same lines... There was another movie in the same period that I remember as a kid about terrorists or activists who had a nuke on a boat in Charlestons harbor. It was done as quasi news shot movie and was pretty good from what I remember. I don't remember what the name of it was though. Any older arfcomers remember that one? I remember that, especially when the nuclear response team panicked at the end and the broadcast went off the air. Freaky stuff to see as a kid. ETA, found it.....Special Bulletin http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Bulletin |
|
Quoted: I was 8 and watched it new,scared the shit out of me.I thought is was gonna happen ANY day back then!!!  It was going to happen "any day back then". We all grew up with the reality of nuclear war as a possible outcome. I remember when they quit doing the "duck and cover" drills because it was pretty pointless. I lived several miles from a facility that was for absolutely sure going to be hit by a big one. We were well within the circular area of probability for a Soviet warhead of the time. Did it have an effect on me? Probably, who knows for sure? You want an ultimate SHTF zombie apocalypse scenario? Think nuclear combat, toe-to-toe with the Russkies. Nobody, save a few really twisted types, really wanted to go down that road. |
|
Quoted: A little off topic but along the same lines... There was another movie in the same period that I remember as a kid about terrorists or activists who had a nuke on a boat in Charlestons harbor. It was done as quasi news shot movie and was pretty good from what I remember. I don't remember what the name of it was though. Any older arfcomers remember that one? I worked with a woman whose son was stationed in that area. She only caught the last few minutes of the show and it freaked her out for days. |
|
Quoted:
Quoted:
A little off topic but along the same lines... There was another movie in the same period that I remember as a kid about terrorists or activists who had a nuke on a boat in Charlestons harbor. It was done as quasi news shot movie and was pretty good from what I remember. I don't remember what the name of it was though. Any older arfcomers remember that one? I remember that, especially when the nuclear response team panicked at the end and the broadcast went off the air. Freaky stuff to see as a kid. ETA, found it.....Special Bulletin http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Bulletin That was scarier than The Day After. I saw TDA when it first aired. I remember Commodore Computers being one (if not the only) advertiser, and all commercials ceasing after the nukes flew. I also remember chearing for our forces as they launched. I figure if the world is going to end, we may as well get our shots in. I was (and remain) a little weird.
|
|
Quoted:
Quoted:
saw it as a kid, scared the shit out of me. Threads is worse Yep. The Day After was 'TV Scary'. Threads.... made you want to off yourself from despair. Threads was powerfully depressing...not just for the storyline, but for the fact it demonstrated, yet again, the intrinsic superiority of British TV over American. Special Bulletin was really good, if for no other reason than it was the first portrayal of nuclear terrorism. |
|
I lived in St. Joseph, MO. which is about 55 miles North of Kansas City. I enlisted in the USMC on 9/15/83. The Day After aired about a month later, IIRC. Living in the area where the events portrayed on the show was a bit unsettling. A few days after the show aired, the Marine Barracks in Beirut was bombed. The show and the bombing strengthened my resolve to kill and if need be die for this country. Now the fucking socialist bastards I swore a blood oath to defend against are in firm control of two of the three branches of government. God help us if one of the conservative USSC justices should die before the socialists are removed from office. |
|
I like the opening, where the stadiums are in the middle of wheat fields
Also it gets points for the Boxer
I think it's a good movie to show our families because while we understand it's a bunch of bunk it does show that when the shit hits the fan, seriously, the machine breaks down completely. |
|
IIRC this was filmed in Lawrence, Ks., half and hour drive from my folks. I was deployed, and my dad wrote me humorous letters about how many anti-nuke/war, Greenpeace ecofreaks there were splattered on the local news, and coming into town for public gatherings. Yes, Topeka, Ks was being infiltrated by Commie sumbitch, smelly, long-haired, freaks. Ah yes, those were the days. |
|
I was at a church summer camp in 1988 when I was 8, somebody left The Day After in a VCR set just before the Kansas City nukes. The staff was busy with other kids so I played it through to the end. Probably messed me up some.
Quoted:
Quoted:
remember seeing it as a kid at some point (not original airing, i was born in 83) but the scene when the nukes went off with the doctor in his car, that left a lasting impact in me as a kid. The nukes didn't leave the impact on me that the shotgun blast at the end did. The nukes weren't personal, but being shot for no reason was. They shot him for a reason, it was strongly implied that they were about to eat him. What got me was not knowing what happened to his wife and daughter. Nothing good, obviously. |
|
Quoted:
Quoted:
A little off topic but along the same lines... There was another movie in the same period that I remember as a kid about terrorists or activists who had a nuke on a boat in Charlestons harbor. It was done as quasi news shot movie and was pretty good from what I remember. I don't remember what the name of it was though. Any older arfcomers remember that one? I remember that, especially when the nuclear response team panicked at the end and the broadcast went off the air. Freaky stuff to see as a kid. ETA, found it.....Special Bulletin http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Bulletin Google Video, here's the complete Special Bulletin |
|
I remember seeing it on TV as a kid. Lived just a few miles from Nellis AFB at the time and we knew we were toast if the balloon ever went up. It was interesting to listen to the background news reports in the show which detail the escalating tensions and finally with a Soviet blockade of Berlin and a subsequent NATO attack to break the blockade. I kept thinking that these people were idiots going about their daily lives, listening to the radio etc. ... did they not realize what that meant? By the time the news started talking about tactical nukes being used, it was pretty much too late for them. The scenes showing the USAF personnel going through their launch protocols was alternately cool, interesting and scary as hell. They were depicted performing their duties professionally, without question or compromise. When they report over 300 inbound ICBMs... pretty scary.
Also pretty sobering were the scenes of the people in the midwest watching the ICBMs leave arcs in the sky as they flew out. I don't care what the political bent of the movie was, we knew it could happen. In one of my 6th grade classes, we were asked one time to do art projects to depict what Las Vegas would look like in the future. They were expecting a lot of flying cars pictures and spacey looking casinos, but a good 30-40% of kids drew various images of desolation and rubble. It was on our little minds that much. They canceled the planned display of the pictures. The ending scene with Farmer Bob getting shot seemed gratuitous. He was one of the only people in that show who seemed to have a lick of sense (John Lithgow's character was another), and his approach to the vagrant refugees didn't seem in character. The doc in the show was a little ridiculous –– basically "Dr. Kildare, The Nuclear War" Good stuff |
|
The movie was no question, a major hit piece on Reagan and his Cold War policy of "We Win––-They Lose!", on his "Star Wars" ABM system and on the Administration's huge build up of conventional and nuclear weapons. The Left were terrified by the growth of the military and the message it was sending to the Soviets.
The '80s were absolutely my best decade. We had Ronaldus Magnus for the majority of the decade. We lived in Hawaii for three of the years then in San Diego. I served in three ships, two destroyer squadrons and one shore billet. It was heady times and we loved every minute of it. Great family, great dog, great jobs, lots of parties, fun deployments and no big worries. Certain parts of the movie do ring true...like the effects of the e-bombs and the other nukes striking the ground or going off as air bursts. Chaos and a general breakdown of society. Times would suck...no doubt. |