The War Game

For the Doctor Who serial, see The War Games.

The War Game
Directed by	Peter Watkins
Written by	Peter Watkins
Starring	Michael Aspel Peter Graham
Distributed by	BBC
Release date	1 November 1965
Running time	48 min.
Country	UK
Language	English

The War Game is a 1965 television drama documentary depicting the effects of nuclear war on Britain. Written, directed, and produced by Peter Watkins for the BBC's The Wednesday Play anthology series, it caused dismay within the BBC and in government but was withdrawn from transmission on 6 August 1965 (the twentieth anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing). The corporation publicly stated that "the effect of the film has been judged by the BBC to be too horrifying for the medium of broadcasting". The film was not completedly suppressed, it had limited distribution and won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 1966. but it remained unshown in full on British television until 1985.

Synopsis

Made in black-and-white with a running time of just under 50 minutes, The War Game depicts the prelude to and the immediate weeks of the aftermath to a Soviet nuclear attack against Britain. A Chinese invasion of South Vietnam starts the war; tensions escalate when the U.S. authorises tactical nuclear warfare against the Chinese. Although the Soviet and East German forces threaten to invade West Berlin if the U.S. does not withdraw that decision, the U.S. does not acquiesce to Communist demands and occupies West Berlin; two U.S. Army divisions attempt to fight their way into Berlin, but the Russian and East German forces defeat them in battle. The U.S. President launches a pre-emptive, NATO tactical nuclear attack. A limited nuclear war erupts between the West and the East; missiles strike Britain.

The chaos of the prelude to the attack, as city residents are forcibly evacuated to the country, leads to the story's centre in Rochester, Kent, which is struck by an off-target missile aimed at Gatwick airport. Key targets in Kent are RAF Manston and the Maidstone barracks, which are mentioned in scenes showing immediate effects of the attack. The results of that missile's explosion are the instant blinding of those who see the explosion, the resultant firestorm caused by the heat wave, and the blast front; later, the collapse of society, because of radiation sickness, psychological damage, and destroyed infrastructure; the British Army burns corpses, while police shoot looters during food riots.

Style

The story is told in the style of a news magazine programme. It features several different strands that alternate throughout, including a documentary-style chronology of the main events, featuring reportage-like images of the war, the nuclear strikes, and their effects on civilians; brief contemporary interviews, in which passers-by are interviewed about their knowledge of nuclear war issues; optimistic commentary from public figures that clashes with the other images in the film; and fictional interviews with key figures as the war unfolds.

The film also features an 'out-of-universe' voice-over narration that describes the events depicted as things that would happen during a nuclear war. The narration reminds the viewing audience that the civil defence policies of 1965 have not realistically prepared for such events, and that perhaps no adequate preparation is ever possible; it emphasizes that the government and the public have wrongly thought of nuclear war as a survivable ordeal like the Blitz, when it is more likely to resemble the devastating firebombing of Japanese and German cities in World War II, but on a much larger scale.

The film contains this quotation from the Stephen Vincent Benét poem "Song for Three Soldiers":

"Oh, where are you coming from, soldier, gaunt soldier,

With weapons beyond any reach of my mind,

With weapons so deadly the world must grow older

And die in its tracks, if it does not turn kind?"

Production and exhibition

Peter Watkins had been recruited to the BBC in 1963 by the head of the documentary department, Huw Wheldon, who had been impressed by Watkins' early nonprofessional work—particularly his 1961 short film The Forgotten Faces, which established his technique of mixing drama and documentary. Offered his choice of projects, Watkins immediately proposed a film about the effects of nuclear war. Wheldon was reluctant, possibly because an earlier BBC project on nuclear weapons had been cancelled due to Winston Churchill's disapproval in 1954. Watkins instead proceeded with his second choice, which became Culloden. After the critical success of Culloden, Watkins threatened to resign if he could not direct his nuclear war film. Wheldon approved the project but, still cautious about the subject matter, asked for input from higher officials of the BBC, who in turn contacted the Home Office and the Ministry of Defence.

The finished film included some edits suggested by Wheldon, but still caused controversy within the BBC, especially for its depiction of the police shooting civilians (in one case, to control rioters; in another, to provide mercy to untreatable burn victims). Watkins insisted that these scenes were realistic and refused to cut them. When Wheldon's superiors decided to delay the broadcast in order to consult the government, holding a closed screening for Cabinet representatives, Watkins resigned. After undisclosed communications with the Home Office, the BBC announced in November 1965 that the film would not be shown. The BBC is officially free from government interference, and stated (as it still does) that the decision was an independent one. Watkins himself now claims to have documentation otherwise.

Controversy over the unseen film continued to arise in the press, and in February 1966 the BBC arranged several small screenings for politicians and reporters, in an attempt to show why the film's content was too extreme for the public. Many of those invited to the screenings agreed with the BBC's decision and denounced the film in newspapers and in Parliament, but Watkins gained equally strong support from others, notably critic Kenneth Tynan, who said The War Game might be "the most important film ever made." It quickly became a cause célèbre for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND). Watkins led a letter-writing campaign asking the BBC to allow a limited theatrical release, a compromise which was approved in March 1966. The CND arranged many of the early screenings in the UK, and the film was widely seen on U.S. college campuses in 1966 and 1967. It also represented the UK in the 1966 Venice Film Festival.

The BBC had licensed the film to the British Film Institute for non-broadcast use, and for many years it was only available through the French distributor, Dorlane Films. The BFI released it on DVD in the UK in 2003, and it was also later released in North America by New Yorker Films on 25 July 2006. As the BBC retains all rights, Watkins has never received any income from theatrical or video releases of The War Game.

Influence

In the 1980s The War Game was followed by such similarly-themed films as The Day After (US ABC,TV film, 1983) and Threads (BBC, 1984), the latter of which particularly evoked Peter Watkins' style and delivery. The War Game itself finally saw television broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC2 on 31 July 1985, as part of a special season of programming entitled After the Bomb (which was also Watkins' original working title for The War Game). After the Bomb commemorated the 40th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The broadcast was preceded by an introduction from British journalist Ludovic Kennedy.

Awards and recognition

The film won the Academy Award for Documentary Feature.

In a list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes drawn up by the British Film Institute in 2000, voted for by industry professionals, The War Game was placed 27th. The War Game was also voted 74th in Channel Four's 100 Greatest Scary Moments.

See also

• List of nuclear holocaust fiction
• Nuclear weapons and the United Kingdom
• Nuclear weapons in popular culture
• Threads, a 1984 British docudrama about nuclear war

References

• Murphy, Patrick. "The War Game—The Controversy". Film International, May 2003. [1]

External links

• Notes on 'The War Game' from Peter Watkin's website
• The War Game at IMDb
• The War Game at AllMovie
• Encyclopedia of Television
• British Film Institute Screen Online UK only