Threads, which screens as part of the Peripheral Visions series at the Belcourt, is basically the U.K. version of The Day After. Younger folk may not remember the highly rated 1983 TV movie (directed by Star Trek II helmer Nicholas Meyer), which had an all-star cast (Jason Robards! John Lithgow! Steve Guttenberg?) dramatize the aftereffects of nuclear war in America. Released a year after After on the BBC, Threads (directed by Mick Jackson, who would later direct The Bodyguard) amps up the bleakness, showing how catastrophic and nightmarish things get in the working-class town of Sheffield after an atomic blast. Threads gives a more educational breakdown of nuclear war, as an off-screen narrator informs viewers what happens before, during and after an atomic blast. (Wait till you see people vomiting from radiation sickness!) It also unflinchingly brings home the message that there is no happy ending after a nuclear war. It’s pretty much all bad. Since we have a dude in office who constantly flirts with disaster, it can’t hurt to keep that in mind. CRAIG D. LINDSEY
Peripheral Visions: Threads
