The War Game

The War Game is a documentary about nuclear war and a small Kentish town. It was commissioned by the BBC and promptly banned by the BBC after a first screening. It was, the BBC explained, too effective.

BBC spokesmen said they feared that the terrors of the deadpan, we're-here-on-the-scene reporting would send the public into the streets screaming as did the 1938 War of the Worlds broadcast. Charged Director Peter Watkins, "The BBC was really afraid that the truth about the effects of nuclear war would result in a massive protest to ban the bomb."

The film has already been seen by about 100,000 Englishmen in small cinemas throughout Britain. It was premiered at Lincoln Center last fall, and is now being distributed throughout the U.S. It is a stomach-