The Day After

Yesterday I was pacing around Kroger when my eye caught a movie on the bargain bin. It is called "The Day After". It was a made-for-TV movie on ABC in 1983. I vividly remember this movie because it was filmed and set in Lawrence and Kansas City, KS. It depicts the unimaginable results of a nuclear exchange between the United States and the Soviet Union. After the film was shown on TV there was a panel discussion with real people like then Secretary of State George Shultz. It was frightening.

I picked up a copy for myself and for my dad. I knew he would appreciate the nostalgia. I watched my copy last night. OH MY GOD! It's unbelievable. Combine the devastation of Katrina, the Asian Tsunami and the earthquakes in Pakistan: that's a picnic compared to nuclear war and the aftermath. I remember thinking when I was a kid, watching it the first time, that if that ever really happened I would just want to go downtown and wait for the bomb to kill me. I wouldn't want to live through it. My sentiments on the matter are reinvigorated. The film is certainly dated. The Russians aren't (most likely) going to nuke us. But it was less scary when the Russians were the only bad guys with bombs.

It's worth the $9 purchase. To wet your appetite, check out:

http://www.lawrence.com/news/2003/nov/19/fallout_from/
http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/D/htmlD/dayafterth/dayafter.htm

The best quote from these articles is this:

"The making of the film was to date the most worthwhile thing I ever got to do in my life," Meyer asserts. "Any movie that the President of the United States winds up saying changed his mind about the idea of a winnable nuclear war is not an insignificant achievement. The Reagan administration came in thinking about 'acceptable numbers' of nuclear casualties. (Reagan's memoirs reveal) what he had to say about the effects of what 'The Day After' had on his thinking.

"When he signed the Intermediate Range Weapons Agreement at Reykjavik (in 1986) with Gorbachev, I got a telegram from his administration that said, 'Don't think your movie didn't have any part of this, because it did.'"