those "protect and survive" films

[rhod]

Worth checking out the 1982 documentary "Atomic Cafe"

It was a mash-up of 1950s US atomic public information & propaganda films. Very funny & frightening.

Its style has been much imitated since, but this was the original - I'd love to see it again.

In answer to one of your questions electrogirl - hardly anybody had any sort of plan for what they would do in the event of a nuclear attack. The threat was abstract, in much the same way that climate change is regarded now. Most people preferred not to think about it, and to worry about it if & when it happened.

 

[Calva dosser]

In answer to one of your questions electrogirl - hardly anybody had any sort of plan for what they would do in the event of a nuclear attack. The threat was abstract, in much the same way that climate change is regarded now. Most people preferred not to think about it, and to worry about it if & when it happened.

You weren't asking me, I must be on ignore. See earlier post. Lots of people had lots of plans.

Whether they would have worked though......
http://www.cybertrn.demon.co.uk/atomic/ukwmo/ukwmo.htm

 

[rhod]

Maybe there were plenty of plans at national/local government level, but 99% of the average population wouldn't have had the faintest idea of where the nearest shelter was, or what they should do at home (beyond huddling under the kitchen table & hoping for the best).

The popularity of big disaster movies and series like "Threads" in the '70s may be a result of people's deep-seated fears of imminent annihilation, but it wasn't really a topic that was high up on the list of people's day to day concerns.

 

[Belushi]

The popularity of big disaster movies and series like "Threads" in the '70s may be a result of people's deep-seated fears of imminent annihilation, but it wasn't really a topic that was high up on the list of people's day to day concerns

I remember it differently - very many people were deeply concerned about the possibility of nuclear war, as the size of CND at the time testifies.

 

[skunkboy69]

I was growing up in the 80's and remember all these films and seeing the warnings.I remember being quite scared but also had the "oh well....." attitude.

 

[Backatcha Bandit]

There's loads of 'public information' films about 'nuclear attack' from the 50's etc over on archive.org

http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=subject:"Atomic-nuclear: Civil defense"

My favourite is still 'Duck and Cover' - the one with 'Bert the Turtle' and the great shot of the kid hurling himself off his bike onto the ground. We showed that one (as a prelude to 'Threads') at BGG last year - everyone was cracking up!

electrogirl - I've got a DIVX of 'When the Wind Blows' - I'll see if I can upload it somewhere.

 

[Backatcha Bandit]

Clip from Raffery's 'Atomic Cafe' here:



Plus a bunch of .wav samples from it can be found here: http://www.clayloomis.com/acafe.html

 

[Reno]

Miracle Mile is a great film Calva dosser, but I'm not sure what the point is in a spoiler ridden synopsis which gives away the end. The whole film hinges on the question as to whether threat of a nuclear strike is for real or not.

 

[maya]

Of course what the various "...duck! ...and cover!" films didn't mention was that regardless of your skilled ways of ducking and covering, if a REAL bomb dropped you'd be dead and gone in the fraction of a second anyway... Even the backyard bunker wouldn't stand the impact... "Information films", my arse...

 

[electrogirl]

electrogirl - I've got a DIVX of 'When the Wind Blows' - I'll see if I can upload it somewhere.

ooh that'd be top!

 

[Calva dosser]

Miracle Mile is a great film Calva dosser, but I'm not sure what the point is in a spoiler ridden synopsis which gives away the end. The whole film hinges on the question as to whether threat of a nuclear strike is for real or not.

Ooops, sorry I read novels back to front as well. Can't do anything right this week.

You're right, the idea of 'how far would you go if you knew it was true' scenario.

I recall thinking, one night, driving round the M25 to the monitoring post, "if it was for real, and not an exercise, do I pick up girlie, hide her in the hedge and then kill my colleagues so there's room for her downstairs"

It was a deeply unpleasant time to be alive, if you thought about it.

 

[Reno]

Ooops, sorry I read novels back to front as well. Can't do anything right this week.

You're right, the idea of 'how far would you go if you knew it was true' scenario.

I recall thinking, one night, driving round the M25 to the monitoring post, "if it was for real, and not an exercise, do I pick up girlie, hide her in the hedge and then kill my colleagues so there's room for her downstairs"

It was a deeply unpleasant time to be alive, if you thought about it.

I wasn't a big fan of the 80's for a variety of reasons, but this was one of them. Mind you, we are now living in an age when some Koran addled yahoos are doing their best to get their mitts on the ingredients to nuke us all into oblivion.

 

[rollinder]

I had a mini obsession for a bit of the early 90s

We got shown part of When the Wind Blows at school by a mad RE teacher who was supposed to be covering annother subject, we'd never heard of it before and didn't see enough to find out what happened to them but when they were failing to get the signels on the radio I just knew they were the only people left alive. Found the book while staying with my Dad in the hollidays - gave me nightmares/flashbacks for ages. (starts remembering the imagery of them slowly dying of radiation )

later in English we had to study an Adrian Mitchell poem based on the protect & survive booklets and what to do if someone dies while in the shelter and how he won't put their bodies into the bags instead will take them outside and lie in wait for the leaders to leave the shelter

 

[rollinder]

found it -

this poem stayed with me for ages (I've still got the photocopied page somewhere a decade later)


Appendix IV - Requirements in the Shelter

Clothing

Cooking equipment

Food

Furniture

Hygiene

Lighting

Medical

Shrouds'

What

'Shrouds.

Several large, strong black plastic bags

and a reel of 2-inch, or wider, adhesive tape

can make adequate, airtight containers for deceased

persons until the situation permits burial.'



No I will not put my lovely wife into a large strong black

plastic bag

No I will not put my lovely children into large strong

black plastic bags

No I will not put my lovely dog or my lovely cats into

large strong black plastic bags

I will embrace them all until I am filled with their

radiation

Then I will carry them, one by one,

Through the black landscape

And lay them gently at the concrete door

Of the concrete block

Where the colonels

And the chief detectives

And the MPs

And the Regional Commissioners

Are biding their time



And then I will lie down with my wife and children

And my dog and cats



And we will wait for the door to open.

Adrian Mitchell

 

[rollinder]

didn't When the Wind Blows have a bit where the couple were convinced they'd be safe because they'd put cardboard on the windows or painted the walls white or something?

 

[jiggajagga]

didn't When the Wind Blows have a bit where the couple were convinced they'd be safe because they'd put cardboard on the windows or painted the walls white or something?

Even more harrowing was the fact that they trusted their politicians to 'do the right thing'. Very sad.

 

[Calva dosser]

Raymond Briggs is a scarily funny man. Anyone ever heard the radio play 'The Man'?

Funny as fuck but blubworthy at the same time.

"I had to leave, the woman came with the clothes. I never stay this long 2 days max, but you're a good bloke"

From an 8 inch tall 48 year old to a young boy who had given him shelter.