Ladybug Ladybug

I'd like to echo what an earlier reviewer noted: that Ladybug, Ladybug is the sort of movie that can stay with you for a very long time. The one and only time that I saw the movie was likely around 1970, when I was seven years old. I watched quite a few movies on TV when I was that age -- by myself -- and without any kind of preparation or explanation I remember being engrossed by the film.

While I remember the plot,which has already been well-described so far, it's particular images that still stick with me. Someone mentioned refrigerators, and that perhaps is the one moment in the film that terrified me the most. I remember the system of warning lights in the school, a single moment of the teacher leading the kids down a dirt road and, again, the old fridge at the end of the movie.

What is also memorable, from the perspective of a small child, is the sense of unease and dread that permeated the entire film. It also played a small role in shaping my attitudes towards war and conflict at a very early age. Is this reading too much into a childhood memory of a film? Probably, but writing my one and only IMDb entry on a film that I saw once 40 years ago is evidence of its quiet power.

Hard to find anyone who has actually seen this movie. Doesn't deserve to be hidden away, it has a wonderful sense of unease and imminent danger as a small school receives a nuclear alert warning and while the principal tries to verify it he decides to evacuate the school. This involves the teachers walking the students back to their homes. The uncertainty remains throughout till the shattering climax. Among several movies of the period with a nuclear threat element(eg. Dr. Strangelove, Failsafe, Lord of the Flies)

Surely this packed a hell of a punch in its theatrical release. It remains quite penetrating today, if chiefly as a Cold War time capsule, and a fast-fading memory of a gentler, though increasingly tumultuous America in the early stages of multi-directional change.

LADYBUG, LADYBUG is a deftly machinated picture, and clearly a vest-pocket project born of much heart and personal investment(rarely are films of this type made as big boxoffice prospectives). The largely no-name cast does a spectacular job, the children especially so...they are all in top form, with a few in particular providing some of the finest juvenile dramatic performances of that decade. With a methodically weak pulse, LADYBUG imagines the anxiety and dread of a single day when the students and faculty of a public grade school are erroneously led to believe that a nuclear missile attack may be expeditiously imminent. A group of students are chaperoned home on-foot by a teacher...it's a tense walk, and all the while they do their best to keep each other calm, each straining to maintain an abstemious bravado and composure. Particular focus is placed on a girl and boy just entering puberty, and the awkward apprehension of their nascent mutual attraction...those first pangs of romantic/sexual interest in (generally) the opposite sex which are so confusing, so exciting, and so soon forgotten. The denouement is bitterly heartbreaking, and alleged to have foothold in a true-life tragedy.

Uniquely horrifying in a plaintive, almost fragile way, it enjoins in sotto-voce the eternal, immutable call for peace on Earth...a call, as yet, unheeded.

8.5/10...a film to preserve for posterity, as much for its stinging hindsight as its urgent cautionary gravity.

Some years ago, HBO or one of the other pay movie channels was running rarely seen independent films on a fairly regular basis. They had a higher opinion of their viewers then. Anyway, that's where I saw Ladybug, Ladybug, but I saw it only once. I wish I had taped it. It's an extremely well done film in all regards, and I liked the fact that it was filmed in black & white, which added a kind of stark atmosphere, especially in the bright sunlight. To tell the truth, I barely remember the story now, so I've enjoyed reading the other comments from those who have seen it. What I do recall is the favorable impression this little film left me with, and the way I felt after seeing it. I'd love to see it again, and other little-seen films of this and earlier eras, but there is so much garbage being churned out by the film industry today, there's no room on the airwaves, cable, or in the DVD/VHS production studios for good things like Ladybug, Ladybug. More's the pity, there are so many great films that could be shown, it's everyone's loss!

When the nuclear alarm goes off in a secluded countryside grade and high school, all the children are sent home because the alarm supposedly indicates that a bomb attack is eminent within an hour of time. All through the journey home, and even long after that for certain children, it remains unclear whether the alarm is real or not. However, an atmosphere of fear and paranoia gradually builds itself up amongst them towards a nearly unbearable level. As you can derive from the obviously low-budgeted production values as well as from the obscurity status, "Ladybug, Ladybug" is a truly slow and uneventful film. Nothing really happens, and yet so many things happen simultaneously! The film is a hauntingly beautiful yet modest portrayal of a generation that had to life with the constant treat of nuclear war. The strong impact comes from the conversations held between the children. They are aware of a potentially devastating war hanging over their heads, yet they're so full of plans and dreams for the future! This is one of them films that might upset or even frustrate you slightly at first, since there's really nothing happening on the surface, but it will have a long and thought-provoking effect afterwards. This is probably also the reason why "Ladybug, Ladybug" is completely unknown out there in movie world. Nothing going on and no familiar names in the production are reasons enough for a well-intended and socially engaging film gem to instantly disappear into oblivion. Shame.