THE WAR GAME/CULLODEN - Peter Watkins' THE WAR GAME (1965) is a fictional, worst-case-scenario docu-drama about nuclear war and its aftermath in and around a typical English city. It was intended as an hour-long program to air on BBC 1, but it was deemed too intense and violent to broadcast. Itwent to theatrical distribution as a feature film instead. In America it won an Academy Award for best short film and later inspired the powerful 1980sUK nuclear war drama THREADS (highly recommended and available through Diabolik DVD). The film is composed partially of interviews and quotations and partially of acting (as usual, in Watkins films, the actors are mostly non-professionals and thus come as as 'more real'). The film argues that citizens and Civil Defense authorities are poorly prepared for this eventuality and describes possible physical, psychological and social damage in graphic detail. Though nearly forty years old, THE WAR GAME retains its power to shock to this day. CULLODEN is another UK television production from director Peter Watkins. It's a reconstruction of the Battle of Culloden, the last battle to take place on British soil, as if modern television cameras were present. Watkins takes television's antiseptic take on the facts and dates of history and infuses it with real faces (non-professional actors, many of whom had distant relatives who fought in the Battle of Culloden) and, most effectively, graphic depictions of the horrors of war. He shows us that these were not vague, faceless soldiers and dying in the distant fields of history. Rather, people like us took up arms to defend their beliefs and national identity (the Scots) or the imperialism of the Queen (the Brits). The cameras linger on broken bodies and suffering faces and drive home a very powerful point: idealology aside, this is the face of war. This special edition DVD comes with Diabolik DVD's highest recommendation
- NTSC Region 1
- Culloden (1:12:24) Audio Commentary by Dr. John Cook
- The War Game (48:34) Audio Commentary by Patrick Murphy
- 12-page booklet with an essay by Patrick Murphy
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