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Torbjorn Flygt recommended The Wall in Books (curated)
Awix (3310 KP) rated Dr. Strangelove (1964) in Movies
Jun 12, 2018
Love the Bomb
Inspired, justly-celebrated black comedy satirising the absurdity of the nuclear arms race. American general is unhinged by a sudden attack of impotence, 'does a silly thing' and launches an atomic attack on the USSR. The President tries his best to restore order and sanity but finds the deck is stacked against him - suddenly it feels like too much trouble not to have a war...
The brilliant triple-performance by Peter Sellers is what you remember of this film, but it is powered along by the tension between the black absurdity of its characters and situations and the naturalistic realism with which they are depicted. Some terrific dialogue and brilliant visual gags, and a lacerating subtext about masculinity running out of control. Current concerns about crazed egomaniacs with their fingers on nuclear buttons mean that Dr Strangelove shows every sign of becoming worryingly topical again, but you can hardly blame Stanley Kubrick for that.
The brilliant triple-performance by Peter Sellers is what you remember of this film, but it is powered along by the tension between the black absurdity of its characters and situations and the naturalistic realism with which they are depicted. Some terrific dialogue and brilliant visual gags, and a lacerating subtext about masculinity running out of control. Current concerns about crazed egomaniacs with their fingers on nuclear buttons mean that Dr Strangelove shows every sign of becoming worryingly topical again, but you can hardly blame Stanley Kubrick for that.
Awix (3310 KP) rated Threads (1984) in Movies
Sep 7, 2019 (Updated Sep 7, 2019)
Landmark BBC docu-drama depicting the effects on the UK of a nuclear war (implied to take place in 1988, not that it matters). A young couple plan to get married, not really paying much attention to the deteriorating international situation and rising tensions between the US and Soviet Union. And then events pass the point of no return and the world changes forever.
Not really something you watch to be entertained, Threads has lost very little of its power to appal and terrify. The first half, before the nuclear attack, has an almost kitchen-sink realism; the sense of foreboding is almost unbearable. Even the resources of the BBC can't quite bring the nightmarish aftermath to the screen in the same kind of the detail - or perhaps even the writer's imagination recoils from the sheer grimness of it all. Instead, Threads takes an almost impressionistic approach, providing snapshots of horror from the years following the collapse of civilisation. Distressingly convincing and powerful, and it still feels relevant; one would wish it were otherwise.
Not really something you watch to be entertained, Threads has lost very little of its power to appal and terrify. The first half, before the nuclear attack, has an almost kitchen-sink realism; the sense of foreboding is almost unbearable. Even the resources of the BBC can't quite bring the nightmarish aftermath to the screen in the same kind of the detail - or perhaps even the writer's imagination recoils from the sheer grimness of it all. Instead, Threads takes an almost impressionistic approach, providing snapshots of horror from the years following the collapse of civilisation. Distressingly convincing and powerful, and it still feels relevant; one would wish it were otherwise.
2 very good lead actors (1 more)
Great shots of Scotland and the Submarine
Great Drama
A very good enjoyable drama. Largely set on a nuclear submarine after a death is reported on board. Is the start of something much bigger and sinister?
Suranne Jones and Rose Leslie really shine in this. As two detectives working a case that gets more alarming the deeper they delve. With Suranne's character on board the Submarine and Rose investigating on land. There are many twists, cold War tactics and government cover ups to be unravelled in the 6 episodes. It will have you on the edge of your seat!
Suranne Jones and Rose Leslie really shine in this. As two detectives working a case that gets more alarming the deeper they delve. With Suranne's character on board the Submarine and Rose investigating on land. There are many twists, cold War tactics and government cover ups to be unravelled in the 6 episodes. It will have you on the edge of your seat!
David McK (3185 KP) rated Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol (2011) in Movies
Oct 11, 2020 (Updated Sep 18, 2022)
Your mission, should you choose to accept it ...
Fourth entry in the Tom Cruise headlined Mission: Impossible series, where he and fellow agents of the International Monetary Fund (that's why IMF stands for, right? Not Impossible Mission Force?) are on the run and seeking to stop a nuclear war following a failed mission in Russia that sees them disavowed.
This is the one where the standout sequence is Tom Cruise scaling the outside of the Burg Khalifa (the tallest building in the world) just before a sandstorm hits, and that introduces Jeremy Renner's CIA analyst, who also has a connection to Hunt's past.
This is the one where the standout sequence is Tom Cruise scaling the outside of the Burg Khalifa (the tallest building in the world) just before a sandstorm hits, and that introduces Jeremy Renner's CIA analyst, who also has a connection to Hunt's past.
Matthew Krueger (10051 KP) rated The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) in Movies
Oct 3, 2019
Oringal Sci-Fi Classic
The Day the Earth Stood Still- is anethor classic sci-fi movie that came out in the early 1950's. With this film, the thing from anethor world and the war of the worlds. The early 50's was on fire with sci-fi movies.
The Plot: When a UFO lands in Washington, D.C., bearing a message for Earth's leaders, all of humanity stands still. Klaatu (Michael Rennie) has come on behalf of alien life who have been watching Cold War-era nuclear proliferation on Earth. But it is Klaatu's soft-spoken robot Gort that presents a more immediate threat to onlookers. A single mother (Patricia Neal) and her son teach the world about peace and tolerance in this moral fable, ousting the tanks and soldiers that greet the alien's arrival.
This film and the other that i mention are must watch.
The Plot: When a UFO lands in Washington, D.C., bearing a message for Earth's leaders, all of humanity stands still. Klaatu (Michael Rennie) has come on behalf of alien life who have been watching Cold War-era nuclear proliferation on Earth. But it is Klaatu's soft-spoken robot Gort that presents a more immediate threat to onlookers. A single mother (Patricia Neal) and her son teach the world about peace and tolerance in this moral fable, ousting the tanks and soldiers that greet the alien's arrival.
This film and the other that i mention are must watch.
Awix (3310 KP) rated The War Game in TV
Sep 14, 2019 (Updated Sep 15, 2019)
Time and its own successors have robbed Peter Watkins' famously embargoed docu-drama of some of its power - it does seem to be set in another world, and to the modern viewer the form of the piece occasionally resembles a Monty Python sketch of a particularly black kind. It is 1966, and escalation in Vietnam leads to the outbreak of full-scale nuclear war; millions die, the survivors are left traumatised, and society crumbles in the aftermath.
Not as utterly horrible as Threads (itself inspired by The War Game), but still amazingly bleak, and given extra power by the juxtaposition of firestorms, depictions of radiation sickness, food riots, etc, with absurd contributions drawn from the actual words of 'experts', the government, and so on. Looking at this film you do feel slightly astonished that the world lasted as well as it did; perhaps this film played a small part in that.
Not as utterly horrible as Threads (itself inspired by The War Game), but still amazingly bleak, and given extra power by the juxtaposition of firestorms, depictions of radiation sickness, food riots, etc, with absurd contributions drawn from the actual words of 'experts', the government, and so on. Looking at this film you do feel slightly astonished that the world lasted as well as it did; perhaps this film played a small part in that.
an incredibly interesting concept with a fast paced plot (3 more)
very interesting structure of the book as a book within a book, etc.
a thought provoking commentary on gender, religion, power, war and the future of these things, even with hints towards the dangerous future of chemical/atomic/nuclear weaponry
i am sure that this will be made into a movie (it really is of grand proportions) and i can only hope they do it justice
THANK YOU FOR THIS NOVEL NAOMI ALDERMAN
i cannot encourage anyone to read this book enough. what a concept for a novel!! especially biting from the perspective of a female reader, it reads as a disturbing and compelling gender political satire that sometimes hits a little too close to home. i implore you to read it and reconsider the gender political landscape of our modern society
This one's a bit too close for comfort...
Well, this was a bit of a disconcerting and frankly worrying book. but it's one that made me really think.
Set in present day, it follows Jon Keller, an American Historian, and his fellow guests at a hotel in Switzerland, following a nuclear war. Pretty much every major city in the world has been bombed. The majority of guests have left, trying to get back to their homes even thought the media has advised them against doing so (no aeroplanes, no public transport). Jon and a small group of other guests decide to stay and make the best of it.
Whilst checking water supplies in the roof storage tanks, they find the body of a child, and Jon decides to investigate.
The book is written in Jon's voice as he writes a diary, a history, of his and the other guests survival, and his investigation.
I really liked this. It wasn't sensationalised, it all seemed so reasonable, and in our current worldwide political climate, so plausible - which is what made it really scary. It did have a bit of the "Huis Clos" (a play by Jean Paul Sartre) feeling about it: a feeling of being trapped with the same day coming around again and again, no escape, stuck with the same people that you neither particularly like or trust. And I liked that about it.
By the way, in the advent of a nuclear holocaust, Switzerland would seem to be a pretty civilised place to be 'stuck'.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Viking for the copy of this book to read and review!
Set in present day, it follows Jon Keller, an American Historian, and his fellow guests at a hotel in Switzerland, following a nuclear war. Pretty much every major city in the world has been bombed. The majority of guests have left, trying to get back to their homes even thought the media has advised them against doing so (no aeroplanes, no public transport). Jon and a small group of other guests decide to stay and make the best of it.
Whilst checking water supplies in the roof storage tanks, they find the body of a child, and Jon decides to investigate.
The book is written in Jon's voice as he writes a diary, a history, of his and the other guests survival, and his investigation.
I really liked this. It wasn't sensationalised, it all seemed so reasonable, and in our current worldwide political climate, so plausible - which is what made it really scary. It did have a bit of the "Huis Clos" (a play by Jean Paul Sartre) feeling about it: a feeling of being trapped with the same day coming around again and again, no escape, stuck with the same people that you neither particularly like or trust. And I liked that about it.
By the way, in the advent of a nuclear holocaust, Switzerland would seem to be a pretty civilised place to be 'stuck'.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Viking for the copy of this book to read and review!
JT (287 KP) rated The Book of Eli (2010) in Movies
Mar 10, 2020
A solid effort from the Hughes Brothers as they take on a post apocalyptic style western. Denzel Washington plays Eli a lone traveler who is following a path with a destination only he knows about. In his possession a book, so valuable to the resurrection of the human race that he’ll stop at nothing to protect it.
A story based around religion is not always going to be for everyone but if anything the cast is a shining light in an otherwise scrappy film.
Gary Oldman plays the true archetypal villain, looking like a cowboy but sounding like a biblical reverend, he truly knows how to play the bad guy. Washington gives an equally decent performance but is some way off his best.
The cinematography is stunning and the desolate landscape depicts a true reflection of the aftermath of nuclear war. It’s grainy and gritty but needed to pack more of a punch. The brief action and fight scenes are well choreographed and the twist in tale at the end should be enough raise a few questions in the car park.
A story based around religion is not always going to be for everyone but if anything the cast is a shining light in an otherwise scrappy film.
Gary Oldman plays the true archetypal villain, looking like a cowboy but sounding like a biblical reverend, he truly knows how to play the bad guy. Washington gives an equally decent performance but is some way off his best.
The cinematography is stunning and the desolate landscape depicts a true reflection of the aftermath of nuclear war. It’s grainy and gritty but needed to pack more of a punch. The brief action and fight scenes are well choreographed and the twist in tale at the end should be enough raise a few questions in the car park.