jmvscotland

How much did this movie infuriate me - let me count the ways?

The main annoyance was, of course, the main character, Mila. I'll be generous and say strong-willed but what I really mean is loud, odious, dishonest, self-serving, inconsiderate and just totally unlikeable. Perhaps it's a part of the Swedish character to be tolerant of others' behavior. If so, that appears to be with the attitude of many of those around Mila. If she did any one of the things to me that she did to harm those around her with lies, theft, cheating and selfishness, I certainly wouldn't give her the time of day, let alone any second, third and fifth chances that the other characters here gave her.

In Alfred Hitchcock's words "It's only a movie". But perhaps it was Flutra Cela's good acting in the part of Mila that made her so very unlikeable.

Whatever. Are we, the audience, supposed to come away from this movie thinking that young women in Sweden are spoiled, arrogant, opinionated and dishonest bi*ches? If so, the movie's producers succeeded.

No more than 5 out of 10 from me.

What a fascinating subject alien visitation is.

I found this documentary movie very interesting but only for about the first hour. After that, it veered away from what should have remained its main focus and drifted off into a mind based fantasy game, expecting us to believe that a group of strange but like-minded alien hopefuls can sit around in a knitting circle and summon aliens at will to put on a spectacular light show for them without ever reaching out to communicate. I see that other reviewers here have said much the same thing about this documentary being in two parts, the first interesting and pretty involving, the second, the OFFS, give me a break.

I would have liked the second half, with its concentration on mind travelling and out of body, out of mind, collective thought stuff to be believable to me but I just don't think I can stay that drunk for that long.

Here are a few questions for anyone who might read this review. First, even now, in this age when everyone has a camera of pretty good quality right there at his or her fingertips, are recordings of alleged alien spacecraft always shaky, out of focus and so unclear that viewing video is like looking through a tulle curtain? Why are there never any professional photographers or cinematographers around at the moment an alien spacecraft pops out of the clouds?

Another question based on the first half of this documentary. Why are just about all such videos recorded in the good old US of A. Look at the credits to the videos. Almost all of them were recorded in the USA. So, why are Americans the favoured ones when it comes to alien visitation. It can't be America's sitcoms that they come to see.

Now, of course I understand the rating here of only 6.1 for a documentary about a matter that should interest everyone. I am quite sure that the USA's military and successive governments, and those of many other countries, have deliberately sought to keep the truth of alien visitations suppressed, locked away from the masses so as not to cause panic. And THAT is what should have remained the point of this documentary rather than drifting off into fantasy land.

Very poor - 5 out of 10 from me.

My ex wife and I were on holiday in the UK in 1984 at the time this excellent TV movie was released. We were staying in a B&B and watched "Threads" one evening. The effect on both of us was profound, terrifying, horrifying, especially in 1984 when what's depicted in this movie was a very distinct possibility. I do like to think that a nuclear war is much less likely to happen in these arguably more peaceful times but that's probably delusional, as is so much else these days.

I'm now very nearly 70 years of age; I was seven at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis, living happily enough with my family in Melbourne, Australia. As a seven year old, of course I had no idea just how close the whole world came to what's depicted here in "Threads". I also don't recall noticing anyone around me who was especially jittery at that time. Maybe it was acceptance on the part of more mature Australians or, more likely, a failure on the part of most to realize how immediate and terrible the threat of nuclear war actually was at that time.

I think I've seen a couple of other movies about the prospect of nuclear war as it stood in the 1980s. "The Day After" from 1983 and from the USA is no doubt the best known of these and, while it wasn't terrible, it didn't have anything like the impact or the horror as shown in "Threads".

The conclusion that must be reached by anyone who's seen either "Threads" or "The Day After" is that it'd be far, far worse to survive a nuclear weapons attack than to be killed outright. The survivors would have been or would be the truly unfortunate. Jimmy's friend Bob put it very well when he said something like "If the bomb drops, I wanna be pissed outta me mind and straight underneath it".

"Threads" really is the last word in this genre although I'm sure there are plans to make more nuclear holocaust movies using modern technology so I won't dismiss the possibility that Threads' title won't last forever.

8 out of 10 from me.

JMVSCOTLAND.