Stometer Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Fluentiama Perfect cast and a good story

Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

Scotty Burke It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

Jonathan C What happens if, one day, you are watching Sesame Street with your kids and suddenly a news announcer breaks in and says that your country is under nuclear attack. The answer to the question is provided by Testament, an incredibly sad movie about a family in rural California whose town is not hit by the bombs but has to survive after the society around them has been basically destroyed.This movie is understated but potent. We never see any of the explosions, save one bright light right as the family is watching the news broadcast. The dad of the family is off on business in San Francisco, and we wonder what has happened to him when he does not return (although not really). The mom of the family, Carol Weatherly, played masterfully by Jane Alexander, has to find a way to survive with her three kids and one other that she picks up whose parents were away and probably killed in the attack. The town rallies to try to come up with a plan of action, but everyone is stymied by the knowledge that radiation is probably going to kill everyone and there is really no good place to go to. For the most part, people in the movie die a slow and agonizing death.Needless to say, this is not a cheerful popcorn-chewer. It is, however, a rather gripping and moving drama about what surviving a catastrophe might look like, and how people might act when placed in an impossible situation. The struggle is really to retain your humanity in the face of knowing that you are doomed, and, in fact, not just you, but everyone. The movie has sometimes been criticized because the family seems ive--they seem to want to stay in their home and simply wait for a certain demise. I don't think this is a fair criticism; some people from the town try to flee, but it seems sensible to me that there would be others, like the Weatherlys, who would see that any attempt at traveling to safety would face long odds and that trying to live out the rest of their days in their home would be sensible decision.This decision, however, does not save the family from despair, and this perhaps is the saddest part of this extremely sad movie. I am not completely certain that a spark of joyfulness is impossible in this situation, but I am willing to accept that for some people it would be. In that case, Testament is a brilliant nightmare, a reasonably accurate picture of the slow death, physically and spiritually, of a family and a small town.

sylvia-matusikova-nr Nuclear war. U.S.A. as the only one and biggest world's warmonger should have been already corrected, but no.Even today, they threaten with the use of nuclear weapons, the do not have enough of blood, maybe they will never have.They do not know how to live in peace. They lived in war and from for such a long time that they've forgotten how to live in peace.Warmongers like Victoria Nuland, John McCain and others which make money from death should be stopped, not by Russia, but by their own citizens.Not Russia is the threat. "Cold war". No. It is your own greed and your own feeling of superiority

gatsby601 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 ' 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 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 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.

bruinsj Firstly, I agree wholeheartedly with every previous glowing review of this film. So, I won't gush regarding the obvious greatness of Testament.However, one thing really irked me, well actually two things...First; why didn't the mother get away...people are leaving, driving away to areas beyond the radiation & the nuclear fallout, I recall Northern Canada being mentioned, what have you. So, very quickly the effects of the radiation become apparent on others, and soon after they begin to affect her own family; her son dies. So, why on earth does she stay and watch everyone die? I enjoyed the film very much, but I felt myself being angry the entire time with the mother....like your watching your children die, clearly the radiation levels where you are are unacceptable, but you stay; why??? I mean how could a mother do that? It's not like they didn't have a car or gasoline, or that there was any explanation given within the confines of the film as to why she couldn't have simply driven away to escape the fallout, just did not make any sense to me. Secondly, what happened?, weeks ...where is the president, where is the military, what cities where hit, by whom?, even if the worst case scenario, there's always some info that gets out, so i also suffered from a complete lack of understanding regarding their situation, simply put...What happened?...throw me a small bone at least. So, my two complaints, but for what it was and the story it aimed to tell, it still did a spectacular job indeed.