Are there any bleaker films out there?
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Threads
danieloneill — 13 years ago(March 04, 2013 04:35 PM)
I mean, most of the earth's population dies and there is little hope for survival for the rest. I can't think of a more depressing film. Schindler's List maybe.
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OliverBagshaw — 13 years ago(March 08, 2013 04:38 PM)
I'd agree with The Road, albeit maybe not as bleak as Threads. What about When The Wind Blows - the couple in the film are the only ones to survive fallout and they stay naively optimistic until the end. They may not be bleaker but they were bleak nonetheless.
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HikerBoy57 — 13 years ago(March 15, 2013 01:52 PM)
Schindler's List is bleak, but has an uplifting ending (Schindler's self-sacrifice, the end of the war, etc.), while Threads ends starkly with no hope in sight. I'd say this film takes the cake.
The war is not meant to be won it is meant to be
continuous
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OliverBagshaw — 12 years ago(April 05, 2013 06:49 PM)
Another to add to the list of bleakest films: Studio Ghibli's Grave of the Fireflies - the film follows a brother and sister during WW2 in Japan. If anyone has seen this film on this board, I think we can agree that it is depressing.
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lordrosemount — 10 years ago(February 29, 2016 02:42 PM)
I watched that in connection with my IR degree at St Andrews. I agree it is depressing, but Threads pips it for me because the thing about 'Fireflies' is that we know that, however badly the characters suffered, there's a world out there of people who got on with their lives, and ultimately Japan will recover and thrive. With Threads, the scenarios the characters are experiencing are being played out, as far as we can tell, all over the world, and all humanity is bound for oblivion.
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plutomani — 12 years ago(May 19, 2013 06:16 AM)
Like one of the earlier posters I was thinking about Letters from a Dead Man as a likely candidate. The thing that stands out to me in that movie is how utterly filthy everything is presented: Absolutely nothing is left but a radioactive wasteland of ruined concrete bunkers, rust, decay, sickness, orphans, suicides and depression. And it all takes place in a sickly yellowish atmosphere no-one survives in without massive protection. The world (and mankind with it) seems to be utterly doomed.
Threads have much of the same bleak outlook, but while it seemed like the UK was going to hell I never really got the impression the entire world was in the same situation. In LFADM the protagonist openly speculate that the human race faces extinction.
On the other hand, one of the strongest aspects of Threads is to show how society collapse, while in LFADM everything is in chaos from the beginning. -
swaroberts — 12 years ago(May 29, 2013 03:54 PM)
The War Game, made by the BBC in 1965 was deemed by the directors to be too bleak to air and so didn't get shown on TV until 1985. It shows the real effects of nuclear war and is much bleaker than Threads and also has very disturbing imagery such as a young boy who's eyes are melted by the flash.
Bearing in mind that bombs are much more destructive now 50 years later it makes you think that if there was a war now there really probably wouldn't be any survivors at all after a few years. -
steven-87 — 12 years ago(August 19, 2013 02:20 AM)
In terms of the final outcome and all its repercussions, then "Fail Safe" would be (and, of course, covers the same ground) but "Threads" shows this in detail and, as such, is bleaker on a one-to-one level.
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