The ordinary people of Sheffield, England, witness the lead-up, action of, and follow-up to nuclear war in 1984’s devastating but important THREADS, now on 4k UHD & Blu-ray from Severin.
Who wants to feel depressed? Ready to ruin your day, week, month, and year is Severin’s new 4k UHD release of the infamous BBC telefilm Threads, directed by Mick Jackson, and written by Barry Hines. Threads, unleashed to the unready public in 1984, is the sort of film one sits and soberly watches, then sits and festers in for some time, reflecting on the power of the storytelling and the utter nihilism of a ground-level, near documentary film of the rise of, action with, and fallout from nuclear war.
Theat documentary filmmaking is one reason why this film persists in the public consciousness, where the shot of the masked traffic warden instantly reverberates with memory and feeling. Threads is set solely in Sheffield, the 4th largest city in England, with enough around it to be a target for enemies. Within, we see the story threads of the title, how these lives intersect and connect regarding the threat and action of a nuclear apocalypse. Ruth, played by Karen Meagher, is the main audience surrogate. She’s newly pregnant, putting further sadness on bringing a baby into their world. As she and her boyfriend prepared for a home and marriage, the powers that toe the line of destruction. Outside of Ruth and Jimmy, played by Reece Dinsdale, there are their families, a government employee trying to plan, and others who come and go.
It’s sad. So fuckin’ sad, and infuriating and disgusting. In how easily hot-headed people with buttons can ruin everything for everyone because they don’t get their way, can’t back down, and just can’t get the hell over themselves. I appreciate not just keeping to the event, but stretching out in either direction. I don’t think I’ve seen something follow up on this end, perhaps the realities of living in this changed world. Survival in a situation no one can ever prepare for correctly.
A feeling of hopelessness sinks into the soul as one watches. As time moves on, with the highly effective typewriter time indications, we only hear of the bigger world, what the leaders and other countries are up to. Like any citizen stuck at the bottom, helpless, watching as the people in power can’t back down from their petty (well, not so with the world at risk) grievances. There may be bureaucrats trying to do their part within Sheffield, but the outside world is never seen. No Thatcher, no Ayatollah, no Reagan talking heads or scenes. We all know it is inching forward, and a sense of dread grows. But it’s the regular people’s eye view that makes it work. There are no big moments, no jumping into war rooms and military and country heads, to race to avoid it by lantern-jawed heroes. Just people stuck dealing with the lead-up and fallout, watching helplessly. The despair, the bleakness, the all-encompassing terror of how much this could happen, and watching the people that it does happen to. The cold unease, the matter-of-fact storytelling. But what makes Threads last, what separates, is the time after. The windswept ash of fallout, the society breaking down and building back just enough to move through but never truly gaining footing as people try ot survive, find order, and find sanity and safety. It’s not Mad Max; it’s a truth of what might occur. It weighs on the viewer, all too real.
Threads never truly feels like a teleplay, but some sort of omniscient documentary from the future. It’s grounded and real, compared to films like 1983’s US-based similar story of The Day After. While that has power, it also screams Made for TV Movie rather than Alternate World Documentary. The Day After keeps at arms’ length, reminding you this is a film; Threads grabs you, pulls you close, grasps your chin, and aims your eyes at the mushroom cloud. That cloud embeds itself in your eyes, and it never leaves.
Threads persist because it’s pointed and powerful. Barry Hines teleplay and Mick Jackson’s direction keep a certain feeling to it, hitting hard and hitting home. I can’t recommend you run out and see it, its that not sort of a movie, but I can tell you that you need to see it. When you’re ready to experience it.
The Packaging.
Severin places Threads and its features over 3 discs. One disc is 4k UHD with the film and commentaries. The second and third discs are Blu-ray. The first Blu-ray is the film, commentaries, and features. The other is a documentary movie and a feature. They fit in comfortably with a flipper inside. Also included is a booklet, which is a reprint of a safety booklet of the era, and a postcard to mail about fighting against nuclear war. The whole thing comes within a thick cardboard case with disturbing imagery that is not the expected traffic warden – although I’m using it as a header, but a negative of a sick person in bed with destruction around them, replicated on the interior slip in the regular 4k case (reverse with a different art on the back). Severin’s previous release also avoided the standard with a burning Sheffield.
The Presentation
Severin presents Threds, scanned for the first time from the 16mm original prints. Threads is something hard to talk about visually, as it’s supposed to be gritty and low-fi; that’s the design. However, no matter the design, it shouldn’t look muddy; it doesn’t. It looks damned good, as best as a film like this can; keeping the fidelity of the design but making it as nice as it can for us. So it does have scratches and artifcacts ut they enhance. The sound is solid, getting right within. In English with English subtitles.
The Features
Severin puts the features across the 3 discs, to a degree. Discs 1 and 2 both contain the film and both commentaries. Disc 1 ends there. Disc 2 continues with more.
The first commentary and the remainder of disc 2 are ported from the 2018 Severin Blu-ray (and likely from other releases; there have been so many, and I had trouble hunting down directly, so please forgive me for errors). Disc 3 is new to this release, along with the 2nd commentary, or at least for this Severin compared to the 2018. So the NEW designation is purely from the old Severin to the new Severin.
The commentaries
1 – Director Mick Jackson, with Kier-La Janisse and David Gregory (archival)
A wonderful discussion, as one expects with Janisse and Gregory. Jackson gives fantastic information on the whos and whats of the film, its history from creation to release, and all the wonderful internal tech, and Janisse and Gregory can speak to the cultural aspects and prod Jackson to talk about certain things or expand.
2 – Actress Karen Meagher (Ruth) and TV Historian Simon Farquhar (new)
A little less going on. Farquhar does the heavy lifting, talking about the impact, Hines’s writing, how the BBC worked, and all that while trying to get more out of Meagher. She can talk about the filming and how that all went down, but is less involved with the bigger picture.
D2
Auditioning for the Apocalypse
Karen Meagher, who plays Ruth, talks about her process of becoming involved with Threads and the effect on her career. (10m)
Shooting the Annihilation
Director of Photography Andrew Dunn gets into giving it the look on film, finding the balance of grit and viewability, under the budget constraints the all the trouble to make Threads (8m)
Destruction Designer
Production designer Christopher Robilliard gets into the details of how they transformed the used Sheffield, making the real town appear a certain way, especially after the events (clue: council estates are about to be demolished). Only 9m, but could go longer.
Stephen Thrower
A totally fantastic 30-minute look at the major impacts of Threads and its brethren. 40 years out, and the impact is palpable.
Trailer
US trailer for the movie
Disc 3
Survivors: The Spectre of Threads
Full on feature looking at the making of and the future effects of Threads through the same way the movie did: via eyes on the ground: the people of Sheffield. Since it was filmed on location, the locals were cast in small parts and extras. Lovely hearing their tales, how the film worked with them, and the effects it had on their lives and towns. Wonderfully put together and well-done, so many little cool moments.
(1h50m)
Immediate and Real
An interview with Julie McDown, author of Attack Warning Red!, talks about the real ways Britain prepared for the possibilities of a war. (12m)
Booklet
A reproduction of a real pamphlet handed out to citizens to prepare for the nuclear holocaust. Quite the interesting relic.
Closing
Wow. I’ve spent entirely too much time with Threads over the last little while, getting through the disc. And what a disc, with the commentaries and hours upon hours of features. It’s a damned good release of a movie that sticks.