Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9196 in VHS
• Released on: 2001-03-05
• Rating: Exempt
• Formats: Black & White, Colour, PAL
• Number of tapes: 1
• Running time: 90 minutes

Synopsis
A selection of public information videos about the potential facts of nuclear war. It advises the viewer on how to behave and what to do should the alarm sound, the effects and what to do in the aftermath.

Customer Reviews

If it wasn't so serious, it would be funny!
Protect and Survive is one of those interesting pieces of british history - the advice given ranges from hilarious to downright silly with special effects straight from the bargain basement (simulate a fire - hold a picture in the background and put some twig flames infront of it)

Okay, if we were on a war footing (which was a possibility at the time of making), it would have been slightly more use. Having those running all day would have driven me to drink.

Most chilling part was the "Dr Who" style music at the end of each short!

The Civil Defence recruiting film next was predictable, but interesting. You could see though that in 1951 the country was unprepared and a bunch of tin hats running around after the blast, while a nice idea, was never really going to happen.

The final film "Sound an alarm" was probably the best out of the three on the video. Far more chilling than the other two, but still quite inaccurate (even for the time!).

The air attack warning sounds like...this is the sound....
Think its all over? Y2K been and gone, Cold War long over? Think again- the issues raised by this public info film are as relevant today as before- even more so perhaps when today the greatest threat is from rogue nations and terrorists who would be using 'dirty' bombs, which would create massive amounts of fallout. Truly, the film is chilling and slightly 'stiff upper lip' about the facts of nuclear holocaust- but the down to earth attack of the narrator is meant to seem just that: calm, collected and business like, as there is no need to act like savages just because half the population of the world just snuffed it. Great for those interested in the British approach to the Threat and also for those survivalists/ amateur doomsayers out there- we've come a long way from marching through the streets with signs saying 'the end is nigh'; nowadays all you do is watch films like this, or just the ten o'clock news.

A typically British View of the End of the World
This 90 minute video takes you back to the days when the threat of nuclear apocalypse was all too real. What is most fascinating about the three films on this tape (Protect & Survive, The Waking Point, Sound An Alarm) is that - despite their official sources - they offer little or no reassurance regarding life after a nuclear attack. Sound An Alarm, the most pro-government film here shows the UKWMO staff working flat out to save lives following an attack, but there are flashes of despair in this film with entire sections of the UK being shown to be uninhabitable and the staff collapsing under the strain. Similarly The Waking Point suggests that Civil Defence is a waste of time as it shows streams of terrified civilians trying to cram into shelters as war breaks out. Although it is a recruiting film, it is so clearly mired in the Second World War that - even at the time - it is hard to believe that anyone could have believed Civil Defence could have made a difference against the bomb. As for Protect & Survive, the thought of actually seeing these films broadcast for real is plain terrifying. What I found fascinating about these films is that - to varying degrees - they all show the hopelessness of civil defence. In stark contrast to American civil defence films of the same era, these films are surprisingly downbeat. In Sound An Alarm the UKWMO staff emerge from their shelter looking shell-shocked and crumpled; in the American films the survivors emerge from the blast with ties fully knotted and not a hair out of place. Typically American, they always know exactly what to do. In the British counterparts what is frightening is that even if the people know what to do, they know that ultimately doing it is futile.

Thoroughly recommended viewing for those of you out there who want to relive the paranoia, terror and feeling of helplessness of the Cold War era.