It’s understandable that Peter Watkins’ 50-minute made-for-TV ‘documentary’ about nuclear holocaust in the town of Rochester, Kent has languished in the shadow of Stanley Kubrick’s “Dr. Strangelove”, which had premiered only a year prior.
Where Kubrick’s version is witty, absurd and ultimately surreal, director Watkins’s take on the possibility of nuclear combat is unsparing, brutal and thoroughly convincing. Kubrick’s vision was a fable. This, though, is a nightmare.
Beginning with a hypothetical Chinese invasion of South Vietnam, the outbreak of a “limited engagement” in West Berlin between the Soviets and NATO tenders the US authorization of surface-to-surface nuclear artillery on the battlefield following a rout.
Originally aired on BBC-1 in 1965, “WG” is handled like a public service announcement, with a tag-team narration by Michael Aspel and Peter Graham lending a warm austerity to the otherwise terrifying images.
And don’t for a moment think that this is one of your standard disaster movies either. Fact is often stranger than fiction. As is clearly stated throughout the film, much of what Watkins chooses to include comes from direct analogy, citing anecdotal and historical evidence from events like the firebombing of Dresden or Tokyo during the Second World War.
While the commentary is clearly a bit dated, with heavy-handed swipes at perceived jingoists and attempted moments of irony have themselves been squashed by the march of time, there is a certain degree of truth to the whole affair that leaves a lingering flavor of doom long after you’ve finished watching.
From the forced billeting of refugees to the complete collapse of the civil infrastructure, from the resultant firestorms to the food riots, “WG” is an uncompromising force of nature.
Cooler heads might recognize it for the flawed “what-if” that it is. But deep down this Academy Award-winning film is more than just a mockumentary. It is a horror film in the truest sense.
No comments:
Post a Comment