agmtw logo
search
Threads (1984)

Threads (1984)

The viscerally chilling Threads is the kind of film you only watch once

The Very Best

8.5

Movie

Australia, United Kingdom
English, Russian
Drama, Horror, Science Fiction, War
1984
MICK JACKSON
Ashley Barker, Brian Grellis, David Brierly
117 min

TLDR

Not a recommendation as such, because Threads is absolutely not for the faint of heart. Proceed with caution.

What it's about

A part-kitchen sink drama, part-documentary-style look at the potential impact of nuclear war on the residents of a northern English town.

The take

Named for all the connections that form a functioning society, Threads is a harrowing look at what might happen when those ties are rent apart by nuclear war. This British TV movie — released during the Cold War — so violently seized on the nuclear anxieties of the time that its premiere was dubbed “the night the country didn’t sleep.” Depressingly, it hasn’t lost that initial resonance, and so it remains a panic attack-inducing watch.

Threads begins in the kitchen-sink vein of a Ken Loach movie. In the northern industrial town of Sheffield, a young couple from different social classes (Reece Dinsdale and Karen Meagher) discover they’re about to be parents — but looming above their small-scale drama are the clouds of war, as televisions and radios blare out the details of escalating tensions between the US and the USSR. And then, it happens: the town is strategically bombed, and Threads unfurls into an unrelenting nightmare. In the documentary-like approach that follows, it spares no graphic or emotional detail, charting both the personal devastation caused by the bomb and the annihilating impact of the nuclear holocaust on all the vital infrastructure we take for granted. In short, one of the bleakest, most terrifying movies ever made.

What stands out

Threads’ multigenerational timeline, harrowing visuals, and two-pronged focus — taking in the personal and the social consequences of nuclear war — can leave no viewer undisturbed by the bleak picture it paints. Its unrelenting brutality can’t be shrugged off, especially when you know it was made in consultation with experts on the subject (and, remarkably, on a low budget). For all the dread it unleashes, then, Threads makes for an extremely potent anti-war film.

Comments

Add a comment

Your name

Your comment

UP NEXT 

UP NEXT 

UP NEXT 

The Guilty (2018)

A minimalist, razor-sharp thriller that will have you gasping for air.

9.0

His Three Daughters (2024)

Three sisters deal with life and death in this moving family portrait

8.9

Cold War (2018)

A quiet Polish masterpiece with ravishing music and dazzling visuals

9.2

Beanpole (2019)

A brilliantly acted drama set in post-war Leningrad

7.4

Fair Play (2023)

You can't go wrong with the thrill of losing money, power, and love, all in one film

7.5

The American (2023)

Talia Ryder is kept on her toes in this harrowing drama based on the real life prima ballerina

7.0

Orlando (1992)

A queer magic realist period drama based on the feminist classic

8.8

No Way Out (1987)

A neo-noir thriller that carries its Old Hollywood look like a badge of honor

7.8

The Dead Zone (1983)

A characteristically unsettling Stephen King adaptation given a poignant edge by Christopher Walken

7.6

The Earth Is Blue as an Orange (2020)

Art as a lifeline in a war zone

7.8

Curated by humans, not algorithms.

agmtw logo

© 2024 agoodmovietowatch, all rights reserved.