"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones." -Albert Einstein
[The Day After, 1983]
This American television film deals with the tragedy of nuclear weapon.
This American television film deals with the tragedy of nuclear weapon.
- Genre: Science fiction Postapocalyptic
- Distributed by: ABC Metro Glodwyn Mayer
- Directed by: Nicholas Meyer
- Written by: Edward Hume
- Release date: November 20, 1983
- Running Time: 126 min
The film postulates a fictional war between NATO(North Atlantic Treaty Organization) forces and the Warsaw Pact(1955-1951) that rapidly escalates into a full-scale nuclear exchange between the United States and the Soviet Union. However, the action itself focuses on the residents of Lawrence, Kansas, and Kansas City, Missouri, as well as several family farms situated next to nuclear missile silos.
The film also had a big influence on policymakers. For example, U.S. president Ronald Reagan(Feb. 6. 1911 - June. 5. 2004) watched the film several days befeore its screening, on November 5, 1983. He wrote in his diary that the film was "very effective and left me greatly depressed." and that it changed his mind on the prevailing policy on a "nuclear war". The film also had impact outside the U.S. In 1987, during the era of Mikhail Gorbachev's glasnost and
perestroika reforms, the film was shown on Soviet television. Four years earlier, Georgia Rep. Elliott Levitas and 91 co-sponsors introduced a resolution in the U.S. House of Representatives "[expressing] the sense of the Congress that the American Broadcasting Company, the Department of State, and the U.S. Information Agency should work to have the television movie 'The Day After' aired to the Soviet public."
The film also had a big influence on policymakers. For example, U.S. president Ronald Reagan(Feb. 6. 1911 - June. 5. 2004) watched the film several days befeore its screening, on November 5, 1983. He wrote in his diary that the film was "very effective and left me greatly depressed." and that it changed his mind on the prevailing policy on a "nuclear war". The film also had impact outside the U.S. In 1987, during the era of Mikhail Gorbachev's glasnost and
perestroika reforms, the film was shown on Soviet television. Four years earlier, Georgia Rep. Elliott Levitas and 91 co-sponsors introduced a resolution in the U.S. House of Representatives "[expressing] the sense of the Congress that the American Broadcasting Company, the Department of State, and the U.S. Information Agency should work to have the television movie 'The Day After' aired to the Soviet public."