Director: Peter Watkins
Year: 1965
Country: UK
Language: English
Length: 47 mins
Format: PAL | R2
Colour: Black & White
Aspect Ratio: 1.37: 1
Certificate: 12

Synopsis

"Few films have caused such controversy as Peter Watkins' The War Game. Made for TV in 1965, the film is a drama documentary about a 'limited' nuclear attack on Kent. Blending fiction and fact to create a moving and startling vision of the personal as well as the public consequences of such an attack, Watkins exposes the inadequacy of the nations Civil Defence programme and questions the philosophy of nuclear deterrent. The row about The War Game went all the way to the Prime Minister Harold Wilson himself. It was mainly through cinema release in 1966 that the film gained a loyal and vociferous following. For 20 years The War Game was forcefully suppressed from TV screens anywhere in the world." — Patrick Murphy, from an essay included in the BFI release of The War Game