Review of The Day After (1983) by Robert B — 01 Dec 2008

Man, is this pure early 80s. The Cold War paranoia of the Regan years run rampant all over this movie. I can see why this movie was shocking when it came out. Nukeing middle America is certainly going to rattle cages.

It says at the end of the movie that the images presented were less extreme then what would happen in an actual nuclear attack, and that they governments take that into consideration. Thinking world governments would view this and then reverse policy is just being naieve.

The performances here aren't bad, but some are over the top to a big extent. How were Jason Robards and Steve Guttendburg's characters able to avoid the affects of the radiation until the end of the movie? Especially when their characters were walking outside for a great deal of time after the fallout.

I think the makeup effects were well done, but the story kind of crumples to its finale.