Testament (1983)

Directed by

Lynne Littman

Genre

drama film, disaster film, post-apocalyptic film

Country

United States

Runtime

1h 30m

Rated

PG

Rating

6.4 of 10 from 141 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

The film follows a mother in a small California town after a nuclear attack destroys the outside world. She tries to hold her family together as their community slowly falls apart from radiation sickness and loss.

subduedsomberslow-pacedintimatebleakquietly devastatingcharacter-drivenmelancholic

What happens

Testament is a 1983 American post-apocalyptic drama film co-produced and directed by Lynne Littman, written by John Sacret Young, and starring Jane Alexander, William Devane, Leon Ames, Ross Harris, Lukas Haas, Roxana Zal, Kevin Costner, and Rebecca De Mornay. Based on Carol Amen's 1981 short story "The Last Testament", the film focuses on the disintegration of a small suburban community in the San Francisco Bay Area after nuclear war destroys outside civilization. It was one of the first films, along with The Day After and Threads, that portrayed life after a nuclear war, mostly in response to an increase in hostility between the United States and the Soviet Union. Originally produced for the PBS series American Playhouse, it was given a theatrical release instead by Paramount Pictures on November 4, 1983 (although PBS did subsequently air it a year later). Alexander was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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