Damion Gregory hosts this commentary on the 1984 social shocker set in Sheffield. Phaotas YT channel here.... / phaota and his Tumblr here.... www.tumblr.com...
Mick Jackson and Barry Hines, the respective directing and writing talents behind Threads, did humanity an invaluable favor by showing the real, myriad visceral horrors of nuclear war and the absolute absence of hope for civilization's short-term recovery in the aftermath of such an apocalypse. I can only wish that the powers that be are too terrified of the prospects of nuclear exchange to let things escalate to a point like that which played out in Threads, but, being a hard-core realist - or maybe the word is pessimist? - I do fear this faith in the reason and sanity of world leaders is nothing more than fantasy and, one day, the balloon will inevitably go up.
I lived on that housing estate in Sheffield in the early to mid 80s when they were demolishing the houses, I think we came out of school once and we were aware there was a film crew filming nearby but we had no idea for what or why. Now I realise, they were filming some scenes for Threads. It was either Feb or March 1984.
I remember reading Nikita Khrushchev saying the living would envy the dead after nuclear war, but Threads is what really made you understand this to be true in your gut.
This movie, along with When The Wind Blows, The Day After and Barefoot Gen got me like "I've seen enough nuclear war depictions, I must advocate for nuclear abolishment!"
Grew up in Newark-upon-Trent Surrounded by the RAF VBG V-FORCE. Vulcan bombers "parked up" and" practising the QRA 3 minute scramble exercises🚨🚨🚨!! Literally out of my families back garden, out of RAF Syston, 1 mile away across the farm fields. !!!?? ENOUGH SAID Except.... HOOOOWWWWLLL 🛫🛫🛫✈️✈️✈️ SO..... This film taught me how not to worry?! and live my life in PEACE . THANK YOU.. I have 2 questions about the film ? 1. IS it JIMMY sat next to Jane in the final scene??! 2. The "wallpaper" scene, when Ruth and Jimmy are Hugging ??!! If the film is paused.!!! There is the most horrific macabre Shot, image????!!! 😳😱🤯🥶 Of the "upcoming" "future" ???!!! In that entire room shot ???!!! Was the room set up in that "image" as a metaphor deliberately?? Or Is it, purely a coincidence?! what I can "see" when I look at that paused wallpaper paper, hugging scene shot ???!!!!!! I SEE ....... "*BENEATH THE MUSHROOM CLOUD*" 😳 ?? I see - *The FLASH - the single white harsh light blub. *The shockWave blast - wallpaper strips being blown out across the floor. The Mushroom cloud- The pattern left from the stripped wallpaper ???!!😮 ♣️ 🫂🌫 Then look in the window-🪟 It shows the FINAL HARVEST 🌫 scene shot 😮 ( Nuclear winter) Thats what I see 🤔😲😳😱😱 A vision of whats to come ???!!!! Can you see it too ??!! Love to have the answers ?! Plus at 30.40 + The answer to another of my questions ?! I thought?? How did they get the film, ( especially the Local Emergency war bunker scenes), identical with / to the WHITE PAPERS..😮???!!! now I know! - They both attended one of the government's 80's emergency nuclear war plans exercises- such as *BlackRock Or *StarteX From stage *N+1+ ( the Aftermath) QED A Guild to Armageddon) 'Peeps peeps the Russians r a cumin .... peeps' 🤔😳😂😂 What a pair of GENIUSES Thank you for "just" THREADS What an incredible interview In an urban society, everything connects. Each person's needs are fed by the skills of many others. Our lives are woven together in a fabric. But the connections that make society strong also make it vuln er a b l e.... THR E A D S PS This is one of the most important interviews in history IT NEEDS DOCUMENTING Pps.. May sense and sensibly Lead and prevail ( oh yes.. The shopping center scene, when the car mounts the pavement and crashes into the wall !!! Oh, that 2 seconds noise in the background .. That mixture of a Groan+moan, 'OHUWG' The sound of true Terror, insanity. Truly terrifying
There is a short sound effect/alarm that is played 3 or 4 times throughout this film. This sound has stuck with me for so long. I wanted to look it up, the sound itself, who made it, where did it come from. but I haven't been able to find much info about it. you can hear it playing in the background of this commentary. 43:30
Thats the horror, many adults too traumatised to even speak and even if they did, what would they talk about?Life is a day to day struggle that revolves around working for rations, the simplification of human experience would render much of the dictionary obsolete. Why have words for or conversations about things that no longer exist. And any discussion or nostalgia for pre war life would be too painful to contemplate. Television broadcasts would end. Radio would survive, but probably not as a medium for entertainment. Efforts at language education are seen in the film. The VHS the children are watching is a recording of the BBC educational kids programme called “words and pictures”. The mismatch between the age of the kids and the learning material is striking. So is the mismatch between reality and the subject, are there even any cats left? This is just my opinion based on some linguistic concepts I’ve studied. Hallidays SFL, some of Sapir and whorfs work and Orwell’s concept of newspeak. He postulated that a narrowing of vocabulary would cause a narrowing of the scope of human thought/feeling/experience. I think it’s interesting to think that the reverse could be the cause of the loss of language in Threads.
Beautifully uncompromising a film that literally shows the truth and it hurts like a real punch to the face a true punch cracks bones hits flesh and breaks noses this is uncomfortable painful but it’s true uncompromising truth
“The Day After” was optimistic? Must have watched a different “The Day After” than I did. Young people in a triage with gray hair falling out. A soldier walking down a road with a radioactive blanket over his head trying to get to his loved ones that are probably dead. A woman making up a bed in denial while missiles are on the way, screaming as her husband drags her into the basement. A farmer shot dead by squatters on his property. A doctor standing in the ruins of his home at the end, his dead wife probably buried under his feet in the rubble. I agree that “Threads” is more soul-wrenchingly brutal and terrifying, but let’s be fair. “The Day After” has merit and is not an action movie with heroics and a happy ending. I have seen both films multiple times, and just because one is bleaker than the other does not mean the latter isn’t considerably pessimistic.
I think the "optimistic" definition comes from the fact that in Day After humanity immediately starts the reconstruction process and society starts to recover at an alarming rate. I mean, in that film people reconstructed their lives faster than the citizens of Berlin after the city was turned into bollocks in circa 1945.
I wouldn't say The Day After was optimistic but having watched it years later, the ending gave some hope that things would be rebuilt. That was my impression of it. Threads was just unremitting bleakness and grimness and with no hope shown. It just got worse and worse and then ending abruptly with a scene of horror.
Watched on PBS alone one night as a teen I was glued to the screen and afraid to go to the bathroom after as I was shaken.
Mick Jackson and Barry Hines, the respective directing and writing talents behind Threads, did humanity an invaluable favor by showing the real, myriad visceral horrors of nuclear war and the absolute absence of hope for civilization's short-term recovery in the aftermath of such an apocalypse. I can only wish that the powers that be are too terrified of the prospects of nuclear exchange to let things escalate to a point like that which played out in Threads, but, being a hard-core realist - or maybe the word is pessimist? - I do fear this faith in the reason and sanity of world leaders is nothing more than fantasy and, one day, the balloon will inevitably go up.
I lived on that housing estate in Sheffield in the early to mid 80s when they were demolishing the houses, I think we came out of school once and we were aware there was a film crew filming nearby but we had no idea for what or why. Now I realise, they were filming some scenes for Threads. It was either Feb or March 1984.
I remember reading Nikita Khrushchev saying the living would envy the dead after nuclear war, but Threads is what really made you understand this to be true in your gut.
Thank you so much for this Threads is my most favourite movie.
Yes I know ...
Ant p uk teacher retired
This movie, along with When The Wind Blows, The Day After and Barefoot Gen got me like "I've seen enough nuclear war depictions, I must advocate for nuclear abolishment!"
Grew up in Newark-upon-Trent
Surrounded by the RAF VBG V-FORCE.
Vulcan bombers "parked up" and" practising the
QRA 3 minute scramble exercises🚨🚨🚨!!
Literally out of my families back garden, out of RAF Syston, 1 mile away across the farm fields. !!!??
ENOUGH SAID
Except....
HOOOOWWWWLLL
🛫🛫🛫✈️✈️✈️
SO.....
This film taught me how not to worry?!
and live my life in PEACE .
THANK YOU..
I have 2 questions about the film ?
1. IS it JIMMY sat next to Jane in the final scene??!
2. The "wallpaper" scene, when Ruth and Jimmy are Hugging ??!!
If the film is paused.!!!
There is the most horrific macabre Shot, image????!!! 😳😱🤯🥶
Of the "upcoming" "future" ???!!!
In that entire room shot ???!!!
Was the room set up in that "image" as a metaphor deliberately??
Or
Is it, purely a coincidence?!
what I can "see" when I look at that paused wallpaper paper, hugging scene shot ???!!!!!!
I SEE .......
"*BENEATH THE MUSHROOM CLOUD*" 😳 ??
I see -
*The FLASH -
the single white harsh light blub.
*The shockWave blast - wallpaper strips being blown out across the floor.
The Mushroom cloud-
The pattern left from the stripped wallpaper ???!!😮
♣️
🫂🌫
Then look in the window-🪟
It shows the
FINAL HARVEST 🌫 scene shot 😮
( Nuclear winter)
Thats what I see 🤔😲😳😱😱
A vision of whats to come ???!!!!
Can you see it too ??!!
Love to have the answers ?!
Plus at 30.40 +
The answer to another of my questions ?!
I thought??
How did they get the film, ( especially the Local Emergency war bunker scenes), identical with / to the
WHITE PAPERS..😮???!!!
now I know! -
They both attended one of the government's 80's emergency nuclear war plans
exercises- such as
*BlackRock
Or
*StarteX
From stage
*N+1+ ( the Aftermath)
QED A Guild to Armageddon)
'Peeps peeps the Russians r a cumin .... peeps' 🤔😳😂😂
What a pair of GENIUSES
Thank you for "just" THREADS
What an incredible interview
In an urban society, everything connects.
Each person's needs are fed by the skills of many others.
Our lives are woven together in a fabric.
But
the connections
that make society strong
also make
it
vuln er a b l e....
THR E A D S
PS
This is one of the most important interviews in history
IT NEEDS DOCUMENTING
Pps..
May sense and sensibly
Lead and prevail
( oh yes..
The shopping center scene, when the car mounts the pavement and crashes into the wall !!!
Oh, that 2 seconds noise in the background ..
That mixture of a
Groan+moan,
'OHUWG'
The sound of true Terror, insanity.
Truly terrifying
There is a short sound effect/alarm that is played 3 or 4 times throughout this film. This sound has stuck with me for so long. I wanted to look it up, the sound itself, who made it, where did it come from. but I haven't been able to find much info about it. you can hear it playing in the background of this commentary. 43:30
Next anti-nuke movie to traumatize you should be "Grave of the Fireflies". It's on RUclips
I think you’re thinking of Bare Foot Gen. the anime about Hiroshima
I think it’s a great movie but question how in one generation they seem to lose language. ???
Thats the horror, many adults too traumatised to even speak and even if they did, what would they talk about?Life is a day to day struggle that revolves around working for rations, the simplification of human experience would render much of the dictionary obsolete. Why have words for or conversations about things that no longer exist. And any discussion or nostalgia for pre war life would be too painful to contemplate. Television broadcasts would end. Radio would survive, but probably not as a medium for entertainment. Efforts at language education are seen in the film. The VHS the children are watching is a recording of the BBC educational kids programme called “words and pictures”. The mismatch between the age of the kids and the learning material is striking. So is the mismatch between reality and the subject, are there even any cats left? This is just my opinion based on some linguistic concepts I’ve studied. Hallidays SFL, some of Sapir and whorfs work and Orwell’s concept of newspeak. He postulated that a narrowing of vocabulary would cause a narrowing of the scope of human thought/feeling/experience. I think it’s interesting to think that the reverse could be the cause of the loss of language in Threads.
Beautifully uncompromising a film that literally shows the truth and it hurts like a real punch to the face a true punch cracks bones hits flesh and breaks noses this is uncomfortable painful but it’s true uncompromising truth
“The Day After” was optimistic? Must have watched a different “The Day After” than I did. Young people in a triage with gray hair falling out. A soldier walking down a road with a radioactive blanket over his head trying to get to his loved ones that are probably dead. A woman making up a bed in denial while missiles are on the way, screaming as her husband drags her into the basement. A farmer shot dead by squatters on his property. A doctor standing in the ruins of his home at the end, his dead wife probably buried under his feet in the rubble. I agree that “Threads” is more soul-wrenchingly brutal and terrifying, but let’s be fair. “The Day After” has merit and is not an action movie with heroics and a happy ending. I have seen both films multiple times, and just because one is bleaker than the other does not mean the latter isn’t considerably pessimistic.
I think the "optimistic" definition comes from the fact that in Day After humanity immediately starts the reconstruction process and society starts to recover at an alarming rate. I mean, in that film people reconstructed their lives faster than the citizens of Berlin after the city was turned into bollocks in circa 1945.
I wouldn't say The Day After was optimistic but having watched it years later, the ending gave some hope that things would be rebuilt. That was my impression of it. Threads was just unremitting bleakness and grimness and with no hope shown. It just got worse and worse and then ending abruptly with a scene of horror.