Saturday, January 15, 2022
Testament
- Commentary: If you read comments left about this movie on Amazon.com (from where I purchased it) you'll notice that many of the commenters mention how long it's been since they first saw it: 30 years, 35 years; for me it's been 38 years. That was also the last time I saw it. In all these years, I haven't forgotten it. It was the first movie on my list of "nuclear movies to acquire" that I drew up a couple of months ago. No, it wasn't a long list. There aren't that many, and I wasn't interested in a lot of the movies I discovered.
During a significant portion of the Cold War, during my raising from elementary school through college, I lived on an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean that was definitely a tactical target for bombing by U.S. "enemies", in part because it housed the B-52's that busied themselves, daily, with trips to and from Southeast Asia, in part because it was the U.S. Naval home of the nuclear submarine "Proteus", in part because the island was a strategic communications center for about half the earth, in part because Australia also had a stragetic communications center there and in part because the island was constantly surrounded by Russian "fishing trawlers" that monitored all communications coming into and leaving the island, while the crews gambled at cards with the local fisherman. Although our family was civilian when we lived there, everyone on the island was aware that the island was so small that, if it were bombed, it would be as though nothing ever existed at its coordinates. This was not of particular concern to anyone, except, perhaps, the U.S. military installations on the island. The rest of us, well, why worry about something we couldn't influence? I remember that, for instance, there were no "duck and cover" drills in any of my classes, whether they be elementary, high school or college. I didn't even become aware of the phrase "duck and cover" for many years after having left the island. After all, one blast and everyone on that island would be on their way to the afterlife.
This is why, having seen the movie some years after leaving that island, I became fascinated with it. I didn't immediately relate to it. The situation we lived in during those early years of nuclear threat was nothing like what was portrayed in this movie. I mean, really, radiation sickness? No one living on that island during a nuclear attack was ever going to have to worry about that!
However, although my life on that island had long ended when this movie came out, by that time I was living in the U.S. Nuclear culture. I continued having no fear of nuclear attack and it's aftermath, having been well schooled, throughout my entire youth, in "don't worry about it, you won't survive it" culture, but was riveted by this culture I'd missed and whether I shouldn't seriously consider it, since moving from an island where obliteration in nuclear warfare was a given to a country where, well, it wasn't.
Take a look at this list: Films about the nuclear holocaust. It contains 61 titles. I'm assuming that it is not complete, and may never be, since these films continue to be churned out, but it starts in 1951. 1951, people! That was the year I was born! The most recent on the list was released in 2019: Chernobyl, a fictionalized account of a real nuclear disaster. There is even a punk rock musical on this list, Population: 1, released in 1986.
Staggering, really! You'd think ... well, what would you think?!?
I haven't [re]watched this movie, Testament [this review, by Glenn Erickson, DVD Savant/Cinesavant is illuminating about the history of nuclear apocalyptic films, as well as being an excellent review of this movie, in case you're interested], yet. I'm going to do that, today. I don't know if I'll write anymore about it. Possibly, since most of what I've written above is about the "genre", not this movie. But hang on, readers. We'll see.
Actor Role Actor Role Actor Role Actor Role Jane Alexander Carol Wetherly William Devane Tom Wetherly Ross Harris Brad Wetherly Roxana Zal Mary Liz Wetherly Lukas Haas Scottie Wetherly Philip Anglim Hollis Lilia Skala Fania Leon Ames Henry Abhart Lurene Tuttle Rosemary Abhart Rebecca De Mornay Cathy Pitkin Kevin Costner Phil Pitkin Mako Mike
Here's a link to the Wikipedia write-up of the film.
Release Date: 1983
Directed by Lynne Littman.
Labels: apocalyptic, dramaE, female-director3, haunting3, nuclear, reflective, tragedy2, TV3, war2, william-devane
