Although atomic weapons in the entire history of mankind were used for military purposes only twice (in 1945), for the rest of the time, the military strategy of states and international diplomacy were heavily influenced by the steadily developing plans for conducting nuclear war. Thanks to the exuberant imagination of the scriptwriters and directors, the “nuclear winter” has come on the cinema screens more than once. Films about nuclear war and its consequences are quite popular among viewers.
An effective form of cultural influence
Everyone knows that the products of the global film industry are not only for entertainment. It carries a decent cultural and ideological burden. Films about nuclear war as a propaganda tool can have a rather high emotional impact on an impressionable audience. They actively create in the imagination of the beholder an illusory picture of the world in the direction in which it is required. Often, the propaganda effect on the layman occurs discreetly and covertly, outside of his personal psychological control, on an emotional level. Very actively uses the management of feelings of correctness and justice Hollywood.
U.S. Propaganda
US films about nuclear war are always unobtrusive, but clearly consistent with the current foreign policy of the state. In past decades, paintings were released about the nuclear bombardment of the United States (the film "The Next Day", released in 1983). On the screens, movie heroes like James Bond fought with the GRU and the KGB (the film “From Russia with Love” in 1963), then the good guys beat off the attacks of North Koreans and even aliens (the films “Battle for Los Angeles” and “Transformers”). All pictures of Hollywood production, which have already become classics or modern, demonstrate to the whole world the ideal US army that can save humanity from death. This is the most effective and very beautiful method of propaganda of the values, power and strength of the country. The nuclear war films listed below are made in the United States. Not all of them have a pronounced propaganda message, although hints are present in every film:
- “Panic in the Zero Year” (Ray Milland, 1962);
- “The Next Day” (N. Meyer, 1983);
- The Magic Mile (Steve De Jarnatt, 1988);
- “Nuclear Dawn” (Jack Scholder, 1990).
The ongoing "dialogue"
European cinema is in an ongoing "dialogue" with American, which at the same time remains a landmark, a flagship and a source of self-identification. Soviet and European filmmakers did their utmost to strive for national art, while at the same time continuing to rate their work from the point of view of the well-known American model. Films about nuclear war very often are the product of the joint creative work of European countries, Australia and the United States. Examples include First Day (Giuliano Montaldo, 1986, USA, France, Canada, Italy) and the sequel On the Last Bank (2000) and its original On the Bank (1959, USA, Australia).
Rejection of stamps
Individual masters of the European cinematheque are united by rejection of cliches, monotony, and commercialization of cinema. Their paintings are more socially oriented. They are somewhat "grounded", they contain more appeal to life and the fate of a simple layman. Even European films about nuclear war did not cover the process itself, but the fate of the heroes during this terrible tragedy:
1) “Masters of darkness” (Leon Klimovsky, 1972, Spain);
2) “The War Game” (dir. Peter Watkins, 1965, Great Britain);
3) “Runway” (Chris Marker, 1984, France);
4) “Threads” (M. Jackson, 1984, Great Britain).
Teaching film
Separately, it is worth noting the truly brilliant creation of the domestic film industry - the film directed by K. Lopushansky “Letters of a Dead Man” (1986), which can be put on a par with the works of masters of classical Russian literature, which always differed in their special attention to the inner world of heroes and humanism. The plot of the film tells the story of an elderly scientist Larsen, a Nobel laureate who barely survived the death of his relatives in the fire of a nuclear apocalypse, to which his research is directly related. He tries in vain to understand the cause of what is happening and find the cherished point of support, in order to find the meaning of further existence, the hope of survival. The explosion itself in the picture is similar to the process of lighting a "electric candle", which has another name - an arc lamp. The film about a nuclear war is very different from its Western counterparts.
Think scary
If explosions of nuclear warheads occur on our planet, the resulting thermal radiation and deadly radioactive fallout, even of a local nature, will cause irreparable damage. Subsequent indirect consequences: the destruction of communication systems, the familiar social foundations of civilization will lead to serious problems. Films about "after a nuclear war" usually tell about their variations in the development of events following the nuclear apocalypse. Traditionally, all the tribal memory of the genre is collected in films, but only in different concentrations. The viewer is accustomed to seeing bikers dressed in cans on vintage vehicles, the comic graphics of the fights of the central characters, the picturesque and impressive rags, the miserable remains of gas stations, supermarkets and endless gray-brown landscapes up to the horizon. However, some films like The Book of Eli and Mad Max manage to not only collect all the usual cliches, but also tear them to a dazzling brilliance. The films below are the best of their kind:
- Akira (1988);
- “The Battle for the Planet of the Apes” (1973);
- The Terminator (2009);
- Malville (1981);
- "Radioactive Dreams" (1984);
- Crypoids (1987);
- "Equalizer 2000" (1987);
- The Last Warrior (1975);
- Mad Max: The Road Warrior (1981);
- The Six-String Samurai (1998);
- The Book of Eli (2009);
- The Road (2009).