Film: Threads This gritty movie was released in 1984 as a documentary movie, but for
the sake of efficient and striking expression, it left out the talking
heads and focused on communicating via aesthetics instead of gunning
facts to the screen at a frenzied speed. Not obvious judging by the
title, "Threads" aims to enlighten the viewer of the terrifying
effects of a nuclear strike.
The movie begins with a view of Sheffield, a gray industrial town in
England, and explains with a handful of words the two-edged sword of
our complex societies: "In an urban society everything connects, each
person's needs are fed by the skills of many others. Our lives are
woven together in a fabric, but the connections that make society
strong
also make it vulnerable". Jimmy and Ruth, who are getting married
soon,
live in the city among their parents, and as such are one of the many
building blocks of the society. Ruth is also expecting a child, and by
the purchase of their home it appears the sun is finally shining over
them, gracious rays flowing past the cracks in the dense wall of
industrial smoke.
The background plot tells of a conflict between the US and the Soviet
Union on Iranian ground, and as the result of this, tactical measures
are taken by NATO and the Warsaw Pact in West and East Germany. There
is a RAF base only 17 miles from Sheffield, so the city is highly
prone
to be caught in the blast if the base is attacked. The conflict
escalates, and the population becomes increasingly anxious to fend for
themselves
under the nuclear shadow, stocking for provisions as recommended by
the government, but it breaks out as looting and felonies by the
panicked
people. Soon, an open war bursts out, and the nukes are sent on their
way. One detonates high over the North Sea, its EMP pulse knocking out
electrical systems, stopping the now-constant broadcasts of public
information; a few minutes after that, a missile salvo hits NATO
targets, including a 150 kiloton warhead at the nearby RAF base.
Finally, a one megaton nuke is detonated above Sheffield.
The nuclear exchange of 3000 megatons on overall between East and
West, 210 megatons for UK alone, leaves the country a barren
wasteland,
decimating millions of people and razing cities with its sheer,
unrelinquishing might. The war ceases, but the effects last for
generations to come. All the threads that made the society function
have
now been severed with one brutally simple attack, and the nation is
left crippled for a long time: casualties rise as the people who
weren't
lucky enough to get shelter from a cellar are exposed to the fallout,
and radiation sickness takes its toll all around whether you were
sheltered or not. Nuclear winter ensues from the billowing dust clouds
blocking out the sun, and temperature drops down drastically. Fallout
reaps the land, and bodies litter the wrecked streets, providing
fertile ground for typhoid, dysentery and cholera epidemics.
Amongst the total ruin, some bonds of society are being resurrected,
and attempts are being made to gather people able to work. Looters
abound,
of course, as the environment suits them fine, but harsh martial law
catches some of them. Despite the hopes of reconstruction, there are
still too many people left for the remaining food reserves to sustain,
and so many perish due to this inescapable fact. Farming is continued,
but it is found very difficult because of the lack of fertilizers and
effective equipment. Eventually, though, the people manage to struggle
through the tough times, albeit many succumb to the harsh winters.
Only the strongest survive because the environment wouldn't will
otherwise,
and the population slowly rebuilds a cohesive society. Still, even
though they managed to rise, the past still spreads its black wings
over them: radiation contaminated the soil, poisoned the people, and
thus
left a permanent mark in the form of genetic mutations. Ruth managed
to give birth to a healthy baby, but after Ruth died of cancer, her
daughter gave birth to a dead baby due to a mutation, distortion in
the genetic patterns.
In a way one could view a nuclear attack as purifying fire, as it
would cut a population down and keep it from bloating by demolishing
the
necessities for upholding the modern society. In spite of the crash
re-enabling humanity to flourish after the modern spiritual
stagnation, its touch would forever plague the survivors, and being an
even more
undesirable course of action when one considers the irreversible
damage to the environment, which is required for our sustenance. Thus,
it is
very doubtful that such a scenario could be regarded as a savior of
any kind, even though it is capable of wiping out untold numbers of
people, presenting a solution to the overpopulation problem.
The movie tells about the events and the aftermath of the explosion
with coarse realism, slipping tidbits of information in-between the
apocalyptic aesthetics. Using nuclear attack as an example disaster,
it illuminates the factor that makes our society strong, but
susceptible
to harm at the same time. The many needs of our people are sated only
by
many material possibilities, and the web is thus a rather complex
structure. Like a cobweb, it will collapse to a greater degree the
further away from the center a thread is severed.
We are not immortal in our tower, as the construction is actually a
prison we fortify and heighten every day, sealing ourselves from the
green beneath. It provides safety from the beasts of the night,
secluding us from the cold winds that roam the wilderness, but however
awesome the tower may be, it is rooted to the very same earth that we
are so afraid of - we are even nervously ridiculing the lowest levels
of our precious tower -, and should the tower lose foundational
support,
it would collapse and greet the earth it so sought to escape. The
higher
the fortress towers, the more unstable it becomes, nearing the danger
of losing its footing, and thus leaving the inhabitants in an
environment
that possibly cannot support their numbers, but takes its toll. -
Frostwood
-=-
Film: All About Eve An actress, Margo Channing (Bette Davis), who fears aging, is landed
with a seemingly naive but kind admirer named Eve Harrington (Anne
Baxter). The latter retells the tragic story of her earlier life, and
Margo, who's tired of the falseness and hunger of the autograph
hunters, takes her under her wing; Eve very soon becomes Margo's
supporting handyman. Early on in the film, Margo's lover Bill Sampson
(Gary Merrill) teaches what the theatre really is: it's everywhere,
available to anyone. Something which, through the newcomer's anything
but flattering intent, appears to be quite useful even outside the
stage.
In the world of theatre and acting much is necessarily shallow. The
ambition to "be someone" in society takes on an almost ontological
character in this film, and toys with the metaphors of theatre to ask
us what is real and what is mere surface. It seems as though the
visible flaws in the long run can be completely irrelevant as long as
the essence is of superior capacity. We're given an opposite in an
orderly and modest person, whose "silent qualities" show a predator on
her way up the career ladder. "It is just as false not to blow your
horn at all as it is to blow it too loudly," says theatre critic
Addison DeWitt (George Sanders).
The conclusion is transferred to theatrical terms: the true star is
unchangeable and eternal (she doesn't get "old," after all), and
possesses a charisma that attracts people. The Machiavellian carbon
copy, on the contrary, hunts for prey and doesn't really become
anything more than the autograph fiend she always was. "The career" of
being human suddenly obtains a greater value, and when this is shown
as a contrast to "this megalomaniac society," the film is given a
slightly humanistic touch. This is nevertheless a pleasant idealism
celebrating everything genuine, but it is perfectly balanced by the
film's razor-sharp cynicism that gives us a much-needed look into the
reality that is society.
The dialogue is not entirely believable, but that was hardly the point
when making this; the theatrically emphasized lines are, more than
anything, meant to be the medium of the brilliant writer and director
Joseph Mankiewicz's ideas, which, in contrast, are eerily realistic.
The casting is highly satisfactory, with one exception: Anne Baxter's
acting is, especially at first, far from convincing. Only in part is
her superficiality successful considering the theme of this film.
Baxter's flaws are, however, solved by skipping the buzzed-about
scenes that Eve is said to play so well. (These gaps would have been
sensible no matter the quality of Baxter's performance, and on the
whole, the film is full of this kind of clever solutions.) Apart from
that, one could mention how the ending slightly exaggerates the theme
even if the symbolism in the mirror is quite striking.
The film brings up the fear of losing status and gaining age, and is
all in all most probably mainly a criticism of the American type of
nearly neurotic ambition during the 1940s and 1950s, but when seeing
it more than half a century later it has a more universal character.
With Davis and Sanders as spearheads, "All About Eve" is an
affrontingly entertaining journey through the psychology of a type of
person who uses all her talents to take revenge upon the world that
made her unable to love or be loved. Pretty soon one realizes that the
relation between effort and reward must have taken on peculiar
proportions when she crawls beneath the surface like an unconscious
warning of serious clangers in human evolution. "It's funny, a woman's
career. The things you drop on your way up so you can move faster,"
says Margo, as if she commented on the hurry of the whole of
civilization, and with a sad face watched everything we drop on our
way. -Ensittare
exponentiation ezine: issue [6.0:culture]
[ music | books | film]
Dir: Mick Jackson
Release: BBC (1984)
Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Release: 1950 (138 minutes)