Coming Attraction: Nuclear War Movie Series

     Aside from my continuing inability to update this blog with any kind of regularity, things are progressing smoothly in my little corner of the blogosphere. One of my more odd interests I've held in my life is nuclear war movies. There's something about an end of the world scenario that almost actually happened in real life that's somewhat interesting to me. One of the most terrifying aspects of the Cold War was the near-constant threat of nuclear annihilation. I didn't live through this period of history, but it's not hard to imagine how scary it must have been to live in a world on the brink of nuclear war. Because nuclear war never actually happened between the U.S. and Soviet Union, filmmakers have attempted to recreate their own spins on the scenario for years. They have also tried to make different statements regarding nuclear war, politics and other such topics in their films. Now that I've seen a few of these nuclear war films, I would like to take a series of posts to talk about whether or not they're any good. Over the course of the next several posts, I will talk about the following films:

1. Special Bulletin (1983)
2. Countdown to Looking Glass (1984)
3. Fail Safe (2000)
4. Dr. Strangelove (1964)
5. The Day After (1983)
6. Threads (1984)

     I chose these particular films because they all have something unique to say about nuclear war and the shortcomings of man when dealing with complete and utter destruction. Starting within the next day or two, I'll be talking about one movie per post and trying my best to articulate whether these movies are worth watching. I'm not trying to say that I like nuclear war or think its a good way to go about asserting dominance in the world, but it's still a subject worth examining in film and looking at different ways that the scenario of armed nuclear conflict could have theoretically played out. Perhaps by the time I've finished with this series, it might be a little bit clearer as to why I find nuclear war movies so interesting. Stay tuned for the first post regarding Special Bulletin in the next day or two. I apologize for the short post today, but this series will more than make up for my continued lack of updates. Take care everyone!