TESTAMENT

US, 1983, 90 minutes, Colour.
Jane Alexander, William Devale, Ross Harris, Roxanna Zal, Lilia Skala.
Directed by Lynne Littman.

Testament is one of several nuclear films produced in 1983. The Day After, made for television, showed middle America going about its ordinary way of life with threats of nuclear war from Europe. The bombs fall, missiles are sent in retaliation. There is devastation in the Kansas and Oklahoma countrysides. The population has to cope with the post-nuclear age - the day after. Mike Nicholls directed Meryl Streep and Cher, with Kurt Russell, in Oscar-nominated performances in Silkwood, a portrait of the anti-nuclear campaigner, mysteriously killed in 1974, Karen Silkwood. These two films were high-powered in their execution and impact.

Testament is a short, low-budget, much gentler feature. It is based on a story, The Last Testament, by Carol Ahmen. The film portrays a small town in California, Hamelin, going about its ordinary work and suddenly being confronted with the fact that the bombs have been dropped. There is very little information; the town has not been directly hit. However, they gradually succumb to radiation poison. The pace of the film is slow; the incidents portrayed are episodic - the effect is very much like that of the slow infiltration of poison. The population gradually dies. They show courage and fortitude - and are offered, it seems, as an image for middle America to cope with dignity when such a strike happens. Jane Alexander won an Oscar nomination for her leading role. She is supported by a fine cast including such veterans as Lilia Skala and Leon Ames. The director worked in television and this is her first cinema feature.

1. The impact of the film? Its intention for American audiences in the 80s? Universal message?

2. The impact of watching people in a nuclear and post-nuclear experience? Audiences identifying with the characters, the way of life? The cumulative effect of the episodes? The permeation of the audience's sensibility with what was happening parallel to the insidious infiltration of the radiation poison?

3. The film's attention to detail in portraying California, the small town, suburban homes, people at work, school, church? A pleasant group in middle America? The effect on their lives -and their coping with fortitude? Their not going to panic? The importance of the score and its mood corresponding to the gradual move towards death of the characters?

4. The political ambiguity of the setting? The inhabitants of the town not knowing what had happened? Their guesses about hostilities, terrorism etc? Accidents? The point being made that nuclear radiation is deadly no matter what the origin?

5. The aftermath - the testament for the world? The comparison of the portrayal of aftermath with such films as The Day After? The emphasis here rather on lack of communication, isolation, ignorance, radiation poison, decay, dying? The emotional response to this treatment?

6. The meaning of the title: bequeathing something to others? A testament as a covenant binding together? The original story: Last Testament? The importance of memories, pride, the home movies and their being used throughout the film?

7. The validity of the anti-nuclear message of the film? For affluent Americans? For others? (Accusations that the film was classy soap opera?) The pleasing family, the style of life, the subsequent behaviour - a fable for what audiences?

8. The structure of the film: the prologue indicating characters and situations? The initial sequences with the very ordinary way of life? The news of the blast, the visualising of the light from the blast? The glimpses of people in decay? The Journal entries - and the episodes presented very much like the episodes in a journal - a testament?

9. The details of the opening: the ordinary Californian way of life, its familiarity, the mother with her care and worry about husband and children, the father and his job, his bike-riding and urging'his son on, his son and the antipathy towards his father, the small son and his awkwardness at the table, spilling things, the daughter and her piano-pi aying, prospects of school, discussions about the Pied Piper of Hamelin, the play rehearsals, jokes, the teacher, the old radio ham on the top of the hill, the Japanese garage-owner and his Downs Syndrome son? A quick and effective detailing of a way of life?

10. The middle-class lifestyle of the inhabitants: homes, jobs, wealth, activities? All suddenly to change?

11. Tensions within the family - Carol's concern during the night, her wanting to talk with her husband? Her worry about her children's future e.g. in five years' time the draft? The irony: what future?

12. The situation of the bombs falling: watching TV, the interruption to transmission, the information given, the television going dead, the bright light? The immediate deprivations: electricity? The questions for eating packaged and canned food, avoiding contaminated material? The impact of the ordinary deprivations? The decisions that had to be made?

13. Worry, no communications, little information? The dramatic impact of the father not coming back - and the irony of his changed messages on the telephone answerer? Carol playing his final answer towards the end of the film? Questions of food, lining up for petrol? The changed patterns of life? The meeting at the church and the anxieties? The comparatively little looting? People deciding to stay or go away - the young couple finally going? The prospect of healthier climates in Canada?

14. The impact of radiation illness: the meetings, the doctor giving his opinion and admitting ignorance? Order and concern in the town? The question of pregnancies and birth? People getting ill slowly? The family and their coping, the long contemplating scenes of the characters, the indication of slow illness? The youngest boy and his death? His friend ultimately dying? The mother sewing the shroud for her daughter? The greater number dying? Being collected and burled? The infiltration of the disease - appearance, hair falling out?

15. The behaviour of the survivors - stoic, decent fortitude? The fat boy (previous indication of his unreliability) and his looting? The priest and his coping - and the dramatic impulsive kiss of Carol? Using things at home, the town looking more squalid? Brad as moving in to take his father's place? His successful riding the bike up the hill compared with his father? His relationship with his mother, caring for his brother and sister? His friendship with Harold, calling him by name, working the radio? The piano teacher and her helping the daughter until she died? The Japanese station-owner and his death? The family taking in his son? The human and humorous touch with the Downs Syndrome boy and prejudices against the disabled as well as Asians? Humans united in distress?

16. Carol's writing in her journal - and the importance of the voice-over commentary for particular incidents?

17. The suicide attempt, getting into the car - and their inability to kill themselves?

18. Carol's final insistence on survival, courage and endurance, human pride - the re-screening of the happy memories in the home movies? A realisation of what was lost? A testament to help people as they died? Nobility in dying as a testament for the subsequent world?