4. The War Game (1965)
Written and directed for the BBC by Peter Watkins on the 20th anniversary of the Hiroshima bomb, The War Game was deemed too terrifying for broadcast on television and remained banned from TV for 20 years until 1985. It is easy to see how this decision was made. The War Game is a horrifying film. The style is like that of a news magazine/docudrama. It follows the political events that lead up to the war - China invades South Vietnam, the US authorities agree on a missile strike on China, the Soviets and East Germany threaten to invade West Germany in response. The US will not capitulate to Soviet demands, there is a scuffle in Germany between East and West - West are defeated. Nuclear war kicks off. Human interest wise, the story is set in Rochester and we see the inhabitants being evacuated into the country. People who witness the explosion are blinded, radiation sickness sets in, families are wiped out. People are psychologically destroyed, police shoot looters and pile up dead bodies on fiery pyres as society collapses. At the heart of The War Game is Watkin's derision of UK civil defence procedures in 1965 - that politicians and civilians thought a nuclear war would be like the Blitz - horrible but survivable. Watkin's intent was to inject a drop of reality into the proceedings. The result in 1965 was too shocking to comprehend but increasing realism through the 1970s and 1980s would see it recognised as the masterpiece it is.