Harrowing and timeless 1983 realist family drama of postnuclear survival. Among my faves of this narrow genre (that being realist postapocaliptic films that are worth watching), along with the equally rough and moving “Threads” and the extremely-bleak-for-the-1950s “On The Beach”. No sci-fi elements, no action, it’s just a straight drama. Did I mention it’s harrowing? It’s harrowing.
The fact that this, “Threads”, and “The Day After” came out around the same time, and all anyone ever talked about or remembers was the soap operatic, TV-ified “The Day After” (although all three were originally produced for TV), is a grim statement about our society’s desire to appear to be confronting the potential horrors we’ve spawned while simultaneously, to the greatest extent possible, avoiding looking at all at the potential horrors we’ve spawned.