This movie is virtually unknown in Europe and I can see why. The problem is in incredible naivety about how the nuclear war could look like. Behavior of main characters is not only stupid, it is actually suicidal - as for example in the German movie The Cloud (2006).I'm stunned into disbelief how many Americans do consider this movie to be "realistic" or "better than The Day After or Threads". Actually it is absolutely unreal emotional soap opera written by someone who was not only lazy to get basic information about nuclear warfare, but even didn't bother to get some information from survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.I have expected that Americans as expected participants in the nuclear exchange have been trained in basic survival skills. OK, so there is light from the blast, let's crouch behind the couch! And let's go outside for walks and forming orderly line for bottled water. People dying by radiation poisoning look like they have an influenza. Wow. So let's sit, use our last batteries for playing sad music and be sad in general. What's that? Sort of romantic family movie about dying?Because the nuclear exchange / terrorism still cannot be ruled out, let's sum up what to do in case of nuclear attack that kinda missed your residence. (If you have been hit directly without warning, you will probably evaporate, will be killed by pressure wave, will burn in the fires or suffocate. So any attempt to survive is basically based on assumption you will need to face only secondary effects.) First you need to try to grab as much water from the water duct as immediately possible because this is likely the very last clean source of water. Then you need to hide in the cellar with protection of at last half of the meter of soil or you need to put as much mass of anything between outside and yourselves. You need to stay at least 14 days inside and that means you cannot even bring out the dead or take a leak. The clean water should be used for drinking only, water outside cannot be used, especially rain water. After 14 days you can spent about 1 hour outside for burials, taking waste outside and searching for food. Keep outside activity for bare minimum and avoid physically intensive tasks at that point. If you do not have gas mask, then use the wet cloth as the minimum breathing protection. The cloths used for going outside must be kept isolated near the exit if you cannot wash it.This kinda might help to survive. Never ever go immediately outside even for church or children's play, otherwise you will see the real effects of radiation poisoning that is way way way worse than shown in this soap opera. If you plan to behave as people in this "realistic" movie, please save yourselves from the suffering and use your gun to shorten your suffering.In the end you might survive. Do not expect the remains of your culture to be so nice a clean as in this soap opera, you will end up in pretty messy dark ages. After that you may try to survive the real long term effect as radioactive poisoning of soil, failure of agriculture and general harshness of life. It will be bad but not as bad as this crappy uninformed movie.

"Testament" is a lovely little film that stands out among other productions of the time that dealt with the after effects of nuclear war. What it stresses more than anything is the *human* element: the toll taken on peoples' lives, the loved ones that they're forced to watch pass away before their eyes, and the desperation, anger, frustration, and inhumanity that are experienced. The story (authored by Carol Amen, and written for the screen by John Sacret Young) personalizes things by concentrating on a particular family, the Wetherlys, and how the matriarch, Carol (Jane Alexander) struggles to be strong for the sake of her children, how she so often manages to say just the right thing to them, and the ways that she shows compassion. Instead of showing us lots of spectacle, devastation, and going into the politics of the situation, Young and the director, Lynne Littman, sensitively handle the whole thing and give us characters that are relatable and sympathetic.The Wetherlys are among those in a tight knit small community that must face the reality of nuclear explosions on the continental U.S. and the fallout that slowly kills many of them. And they're very much an ordinary, loving family leading regular lives. We see Carol directing a school play, the patriarch,Tom (William Devane) interacting with his son Brad (Rossie Harris), the daughter Mary Liz (Roxana Zal) practicing her piano, etc. Together with youngest child Scottie (Lukas Haas, in his film debut), they find their lives forever changed when the unthinkable happens.The cast is wonderful all the way down the line. Alexander offers a rock solid presence as a warm, caring mother doing her best to carry on; she gives the film a solid foundation. Familiar faces in smaller roles include Lilia Skala as Fania, Leon Ames and Lurene Tuttle as the Abharts, Rebecca De Mornay and Kevin Costner as the Pitkins, and Mako as service station proprietor Mike.Now, "Testament" isn't always subtle about the way that it tugs at the heartstrings, but it's still powerfully affecting and impossible to forget. It doesn't offer any false hope and is right up front about the harsh realities that its characters must face...right to the end.Well worth a viewing overall, and an interesting contrast to telefilms like 'The Day After' and 'Threads'.Eight out of 10.

One of the things that makes "Testament" so interesting is simply the fact that one expects a movie about the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust to be exciting. But "Testament" isn't exciting. Instead it starts out routinely ordinary. We simply meet the Wetherly family. Mom, dad and 3 kids. They have all the love and all the problems of any family. There's nothing extraordinary about them. And they live in the extremely un-extraordinary small town of Hamlin, California. Everything is un-extraordinary until one day the TV goes out. When it finally comes back on, it's carrying news of a massive nuclear attack on large portions of the United States. Aside from a very bright light coming through the front window of their home, nothing much happens in Hamlin - except for the aftermath.There's no one to turn to for help, there's hardly anyone left to be in contact with. The bright light, of course, told us that while Hamlin wasn't destroyed, there must be radiation. Can anything be safely eaten? Can the water be safe to drink? Have the people been hopelessly exposed? We watch, as things slowly begin to fall apart in Hamlin.A lot of this revolves around the children. So many children. Children who had a whole lifetime ahead of them and were busy practicing a school play, when the unimaginable happened. The school play goes ahead, to try to maintain some sense of normalcy, but nothing is normal anymore. People get sick, people begin to die, and there's just no hope. None at all.It's the sense of absolute and utter hopelessness that permeates this movie and that finally makes it both so sombre and so powerful. It's not at all "exciting" in the normal sense of the word, but it's gripping. You can't let it go once it starts. I actually watched this back in 1983 when it was released. Today, it's a bit of a curiosity. But in 1983 the Cold War was still going on, the Soviet Union still existed, and Gorbachev hadn't come to power to bring a sense that, to paraphrase Margaret Thatcher, "we can work with him." In the pre-Gorbachev era, the Soviet Union was mighty threatening, and this movie would have at least been unsettling in its believability. Even today, with the Soviet Union long dead, "Testament" has power. (8/10)

I first saw this film back in '83 and I think for people who didn't grow up during the Cold War era this could be looked at as just another disaster film of the angry alien or global warming melting glaciers variety. The difference is, this could have really happened. People get up, leave for work on a normal day and then, in the middle of Sesame Street, the world just ends.Testament focuses on the lives of one family in a small California town surviving this fate. The tag line on the film stressed it was a 'realistic account' of how things might be after a nuclear war. No explosions or Mad Max violence, just regular people deciding 'What now?' The first half of the film deals with this pretty well and the family members are sympathetic and likable. The problem that I have, have always had with Testament, is act 2.After a few weeks of living with the shock of what has happened the family begins confronting their grief and the realization that the television isn't going to be coming back nor will the Red Cross be dropping by with coffee and blankets. They are on their own. Forever. Oh, and radioactive fallout has started making everyone sick.So what does our leading lady do? As the mother of her 3 kids plus several newly orphaned neighbour children does she load up the Volvo wagon with her family and supplies and head to Canada? No. She does not.Instead she goes to increasingly futile town meetings and talent shows. Her narrative is concerned with how people in the future will remember how they (the town) lived, not about surviving for another day. She rattles around her house as people start dying around her and the filmmaker wants us to see this as noble.The message of Testment isn't 'The human spirit overcoming terrible odds' or 'Strength of family will get you through' or even 'Modern science will doom us all.' No. The message here seems to be 'Die with dignity.' And that, it would seem, includes those dependant on you.Given the option I would rather be Mad Max.