Ladybug Ladybug

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.

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)

The children, especially the girls, give outstanding performances. Really gives you a sense of the paranoia and dread of the time. Apparently you'll have to keep watching the skies [and TV Guide] for its rare appearances on the small screen, as it has not been released on video. Great movie -- wish it was available!

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.

we got sent home from school one day during the Cuban missile crisis.

I was very clueless about the whole missile thing and everything else at that point in my life, so I was VERY blasé about it. I cant remember what I did that day but I recollect looking back, sending all those kids home was the stooopidest thing the school officials could have done, for numerous reasons.

it exemplified the rampant unpreparedness at that time. and in a deeper sense, we as a race was unprepared for what the atomic scientists had dropped in our lap.

you have to remember to make the distinction between *based* on a true story (follows the recorded facts) and *inspired* by a true story (speculative fiction on other possible outcomes).

but this movie has enough realism and a very important message. still relevant today; the news services are talking about the north Korean press's veiled threats about nuclear attack on united states if the Americans should carry out a preemptive attack on them. and they are on the verge of testing a missile capable of carrying out the threat.

sometimes Hollywood directors and producers create outstanding drama, this is one of them. I always liked Nancy Marshand in 'Lou Grant'.