Threads [DVD]

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O'Connor, John J. (12 January 1985). "TV: Years After Nuclear Holocaust". The New York Times. p.42 . Retrieved 11 October 2023.

Threads the scariest TV show ever made? - BBC Culture Was Threads the scariest TV show ever made? - BBC Culture

Toy, Sam (1 January 2000). "Threads". Empire. Archived from the original on 10 April 2019 . Retrieved 28 April 2019. Threads is one of the most fantastic slices of British television ever transmitted, but it's also one that will bring you to your knees and leave your soul battered and bruised for days afterwards. As tensions escalated between the US and the USSR, so speculation fomented that nuclear war was not so much a far-off nightmare, as an imminent possibility. Historians now compare those days of 1983 to the Cuban Missile Crisis two decades earlier as one of the most perilous episodes of the Cold War. And it's this sharp, sudden detachment from reality which makes watching Threads such a numbing experience. Again and again, Ruth, the innocent citizen that represents us all, is bludgeoned by the harsh realities around her. Every inch of Threads is infected with a crushing sense of helplessness and it's this that upsets the most. However, much as Ruth continues to stagger onwards, you can't help but keep watching. To say it blunts your soul would be an understatement; I genuinely think that Threads rewires something deep inside of you to cope. Our intention in making Threads was to step aside from the politics and – I hope convincingly – show the actual effects on either side should our best endeavours to prevent nuclear war fail.I was pregnant with my second child at the time and Threads shook me to the core,” says Perrine. “I was literally nauseated by the final scene of the film.” Threads served up a bleakly British depiction of our impending nuclear doom". The A.V. Club. 10 October 2017. Archived from the original on 5 August 2020 . Retrieved 13 May 2020. Threads, filmed in Sheffield (my home city) in 1984 presents a warts and all view of the horrors of nuclear war and its aftermath. Galgana, Michele "Izzy" (29 January 2018). "Blu-ray Review: THREADS Still Destroys". ScreenAnarchy. Archived from the original on 4 March 2018 . Retrieved 4 March 2018. And, now, after undergoing a 2K restoration from the original 16mm prints, Threads has been remastered for DVD by Simply Media in a two-disc release. Whereas previous DVD releases have, in terms of features, been as stark as the content within Threads, this new release is everything that fans have been waiting for. Comprising interviews, cast and crew commentaries along with original Radio Times articles and letters, it's an exhaustive run through the film's history.

Curious British Telly: Threads: Remastered DVD Review

years on from the nuclear blasts and Britain is still struggling to rebuild any semblance of organised society. Ruth and her daughter, Jane, tend the land under the intense ultraviolet rays generated by the damaged atmosphere, but the journey for Ruth is finally at an end as she collapses to the floor and dies. Despite only being in her 30s at this point, the hardships of radiation, the harsh elements and intense mental stress have aged her by several decades leaving her with pale skin, cataracts and lifeless, straw like hair.

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As the nuclear exchanges escalate, Mrs Kemp frantically arranges a government endorsed makeshift shelter comprised of old doors and mattresses - unlikely to withstand a strong gale let alone a nuclear blast. However, what's even more terrifying is when she suddenly realises that she's missing her son, Michael, who is cowering in his beloved aviary. The resulting maternal anguish is a disturbing sight and captures the true horror of the situation as megaton after megaton of nuclear energy pounds Britain. Threads was a 1984 BBC2 drama/documentary which tried to predict what would happen to Britain if nuclear war broke out and follows the path taken by Ruth Kemp and her family. It's a show which is regularly feted as one of the most bleak, disturbing and realistic pieces of drama to ever air not just on British TV, but in the history of the entire planet's televisual output. And, no matter how many times I watch it, the unflinching honesty of Threads leaves me feeling incredibly disconsolate, but completely engrossed. The film was nominated for seven BAFTA awards in 1985. It won for Best Single Drama, Best Design, Best Film Cameraman and Best Film Editor. Its other nominations were for Best Costume Design, Best Make-Up, and Best Film Sound. [39] See also [ edit ] Unfortunately, Threads is not a film that feels of its time either. It’s more relevant than ever. With the threat of nuclear war still present in our lives, it’s likely to never feel out of touch or old-fashioned. I personally consider it to be one of the most affecting films I’ve ever seen, the kind that will linger with you for days afterwards. I can only imagine how younger viewers must have felt when it originally aired. Dirty, cold, homeless and hungry, Ruth finds herself on the moors where a dead sheep is the only available source of sustenance. Despite appearing to offer some brief salvation and the chance to satisfy her aching stomach, Ruth knows, deep down, that the sheep has died from radiation poisoning and munching down on it is only going to cause her severe health problems in the future. Such is her predicament, though, there's no point planning for an uncertain future and she has to force down the raw, contaminated meat.

Threads (Remastered) : British Broadcasting 1984 - Threads (Remastered) : British Broadcasting

Threads works on the viewer with a peculiar power: one finds oneself horrified, fascinated, numbed, provoked, unsettled, made restless. Its power may be the effect of its oscillation between form and content being so heavily weighted toward the pole of content—in this case, that threat of nuclear destruction which cannot help but feel 'real'--so that we are unable to relax into Threads as 'just' a movie. Agreed. My partner and I are both in our 50s. I watched as a kid the first time round, she had never seen it.

On 9 April 2018, Simply Media released a Special Edition DVD in the UK, featuring a different 2K scan, restored and remastered from the original BBC 16mm CRI prints, which Severin did not have access to. This also featured all the original music, for the first time on home video in the UK. Whereas the previous releases had no extra features, the Special Edition included commentaries and associated documentaries. This is a world in which the living envy the dead. In which hospitals, divested of the means to exercise proper care, carry out amputations on patients without anaesthetic. In which Ruth – having given birth to a daughter – is forced to trade her body for rats as a form of sustenance. Where children of the survivors of the apocalypse roam the land, mute due to there being no education system of which to speak. a b "Discover the post-apocalyptic nightmare of this landmark social drama". Archived from the original on 21 October 2020 . Retrieved 13 May 2020.

DVD - Threads DVD - Threads

No matter how you slice it, films about this subject matter are going to be difficult to watch. Threads is indeed that, from the first frame onwards. Knowing what’s going to happen doesn’t soften the blow either – it only makes the inevitable nail-bitingly dreadful. Watching individual people be subjected to one of the most horrible things imaginable and then following whomever is left makes for a very downer of an experience, but an important one. Told in almost documentarian way, even with narration, it feels like a piece of history – like it actually happened, which makes it that much more potent. The performances from everybody involved feel genuine, and there isn’t a moment where you feel any sense of irony about it all. This is serious business, and the film doesn’t have any other purpose than to scare you. It was created as a warning to those who watch it. Completely uncategorisable due to its kaleidoscopic range, Threads is a masterpiece of British television . Like all the very best art, Threads challenges conventions, induces extreme emotions and delivers a truly unique experience. And, as long as nuclear weapons remain a reality, Threads will never lose any of its explosive power.

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Hutchinson, Garrie (27 June 1985). "Threads: A Devastating Piece Of TV". The Age. Archived from the original on 15 November 2020 . Retrieved 25 May 2020. Few who have seen Threads forget its impact. Toni Perrine, professor of film at Grand Valley State University, Michigan, recalls watching it shortly after it debuted on television in the US in 1985 (prefaced, unusually, by a personal introduction by TBS founder Ted Turner). Clark, Kenneth R. (11 January 1985). " 'Threads': Nightmare After the Holocaust". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on 27 February 2015 . Retrieved 14 October 2013. Threads Review (Severin Films Blu-ray)". Cultsploitation. 15 February 2018. Archived from the original on 19 September 2020 . Retrieved 26 February 2018. With Jane now an orphan, she struggles to survive in an uncertain landscape of ruined cities and harsh living. Forced into stealing food with similarly displaced youngsters, one particular food theft has tragic consequences as one of the young men is shot dead whilst the other rapes Jane in a desolate barn as they fight over food. It's made all the more disturbing by the fractured, damaged dialect which has arisen as language falls by the wayside in a broken society.