The War Game

This is a BBC documentary about the aftermath of a nuclear attack on Britain. BBC halted transmission of the program because of the distress it was likely to cause viewers. Distressing it is, but it is also a rare, passionate and courageously honest offering from an outstanding director. The docu lays bare the lack of preparation for nuclear attack, the preposterous contingency plans and the dreadful toll the actual war takes on the population. The only thing dated about the program is the fact that the megatonnage of the superpowers has multiplied in the last 20 years. In his dramatizations of the war, Watkins used mainly non-actors and com plemented their roughness with a dazzling range of verité techniques.