TESTAMENT. Based on a story by Carol Amen and directed by Lynne Littman. With Jane Alexander, William Devane and Ross Harris. At local theatres. This is Lynne Littman’s first feature —a beautiful, haunting, terrifying film that Once seen will not easily be forgotten. She has stated that her enthusiasm and dedica- tion in making this film will change her life, and hopes it is worthy enough to change the lives of those in her audience. It cannot help but do that. If one hundred million people were to see this film, they’d all be out in the next anti-nuclear demonstration to rid this world of nuclear weapons. That’s what the story is about — a nuclear war. The story, simply, is about a family in a small town in Northern Califor- Nia. Carol Wetherby (Jane Alexander), her husband and three children ages six to 16, live a normal, average life. She is a gram- Mar school teacher, interested in drama for ee kids, he is a travelling salesperson. All is normal until late one afternoon. They hear nothing, but see a huge yellow cloud appear in the Southwest, spreading wider and wider, blocking out the sun. Then panic starts: lights, power is gone, no phones, radios or TV. The last word in is that a nuclear war has begun; which side started it is not known. But it’s on. This little town is out of the zero zone, but there is little consolation. Daddy, in San Francisco is in it, and frightened travellers coming north say it is ap- proaching Santa Rosa. There is no escape. Jane’s job can only be one — to keep her children calm, understanding, and from going crazy with fear. The days pass. Jane continues in school, rehearsing the children in a play (an adaptation of a Sesame Street production). There is panic. But in a country where it’s been ‘‘every man for himself’ people learn, now that their inescapable end is in sight, to be helpful to each other; it makes things easier. The mother loses her youngest, then her 14-year-old daughter is overcome. So sim- ple, so close to life in ordinary ways the most casual incident takes on awe-inspiring significance. One example: when the young daughter knows she’s about to die, and her mother sits beside her, she makes a simple request. There is something she has never experienced yet in life, and now she never will: what is it like to love a man? _A film not to forget but to change lives And, she warns, no playing mother and child with me. There isn’t time. Jane Alex- ander’s deeply felt, eloquent reading of this section of the writer’s lines is something the audience will not soon forget. There are no violent explosions, no technical wonders of special effects such as astonished and intrigued viewers of all ages in ‘‘Star Wars I, II, III’’; no Super-heroes who save our good from evil (Hollywood dream factory style). This is clear, unromantic, no-nonsense, realistic view of the end of life on earth; this is what can all too easily start to happen tomorrow or the day after. This is what the majority of people seem to have accepted. — even if uneasily, with no understanding — of our ‘“‘peace-keepers,’’ our guardians of the ‘‘Free World’”’ from Korea to Viet- nam, to Chile — and now, Grenada. you know that they must. Then shout and fight for peace. ; By all means, see this film. Tell everyone —Lester Cole ‘Visualizing the nightmare of a generation’ It is perhaps fortunate that a feature film _ an take upwards of a year to go from accep- tance of the screenplay to the final prints be- ng made for distribution. Because of that, € long-awaited television film The Day fter (as well as another film now in local eatres, Testament) which was conceived at the height of public discussion of disarma- Ment in North America, actually appears on the screen at a time, a year later, when the future of the world hangs in even more Critical balance on the eve of the deployment Of the new U.S. missiles. No agency has released any figures yet but Certainly tens of millions of viewers across the U.S. and Canada were in front of their television sets for 2% hours Sunday night. any of them, undoubtedly, reacted to the Controversy which was created by theattacks | ON the film from the ultra-right. But many, Many more watched out of an interest 8enerated by the intense activity of the peace Movement and out of a growing fear — “teated in large part by the Reagan ad- -™nistration which has presented nuclear patas amilitary ‘‘option’”’ — that the horror period on the screen might actually hap- In fact, The Day After grows out of the Public consciousness created by Reagan’s military and foreign policies. At the height of the film — when the Minuteman missiles roar into the sky, when announcements on incoming missiles touch off panic in the streets and, when the images of the actual blast race across the screen, it is a haunting visualization of the nightmares of a genera- tion which has grown up in the nuclear shadow. Perhaps more important, it is an illustra- tion of the reality that Physicians for Social Responsibility have been trying to inform the public about since the group was formed. That illustration is made even more graphic by the scenes of outside the hospital as thousands of maimed and dying flock for treatment they can never receive. And there is no exaggeration in those scenes. Screenwriter Edward Hume spent six months researching the material and most of it came from a U.S. Congressional study by | TELEVISION the U.S. Office of Technological Assess- ment on ‘‘The Effect of Nuclear War.” That is the great strength of The Day After — depicting the unthinkable and presenting the American people particularly with a reality that successive U.S. ad- ministrations have refused to acknowledge. The story itself has a number of short- comings, partly because it follows a standard Hollywood ‘‘disaster film’’ pattern which gives only glimpses of characters and the reasons for their actions. The succession of events that leads to nuclear holocaust is an il- logical jumble, presented one-sidedly. And many will find it difficult that the world would drift towards annihilation without so- meone — even in Lawrence, Kansas — rais- ing a voice in protest. Still, there is no question: presenting The Day After took some corporate courage on the part of ABC in the U.S. It was attacked by the Moral Majority for its action and by members of the Reagan administration. (In this province, the difference was apparent: the station which carried it, CK VU, slotted the NFB film, If You Love This Planet, im- mediately after and announced a public discussion for next evening. That in keeping with a policy set by the general manager last year when two weeks of disarmament pro- gramming preceded the Walk for Peace.) In that sense, The Day After carried a double message. Millions of people have been barred for more than 30 years from see- ing the film footage of Hiroshima that was locked away in a classified Army vault. They have been told in the past by the likes of Her- man Kahn and Henry Kissinger and by Richard Pipes and Caspar Weinberger in the current administration that nuclear was is “‘survivable’’? — a myth that depended on public ignorance to be accepted. Now as those millions get a glimpse of the terrible finality of nuclear war, that myth could be exploded. And perhaps they will also see that it is groups like the Moral Majority which wanted to prevent the film being shown that are blocking the path to disarmament and peace. Perhaps too, they will ask some more questions — and then take action. —Sean Griffin i CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING COMING EVENTS D ns 4 — Annual Labor Bazaar, Pend to 5 p.m., AUUC Hall, 805 E. €r. See display ad this page. D BAS 31 — Big NEW YEAR'S M for COPE. Tell your friends! ore Info. 872-6003 FOR SALE 0 E NEBR. 205-14 steel-belted $129 “oladials, on rims, like new, - Other good tires. 321-9378. 1992 LADA, bi Un, , blue, 8 mos. old, aes 18,000 km. 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