Movie Reviews - Testament

It's been over twenty five years since I watched Testament (1983) so when I picked it up recently on DVD I had forgot just how truly awful this movie is, not awful bad, awful dreadful. Testament is actually a great film and you will find yourself deeply moved by its simple story. The story of a loving mother (Jane Alexander) and her efforts to keep her family together and alive after a nuclear war. In the film her small community is downwind of a large city that was hit with the bomb. The father leaves for work the morning of the attack and never returns and the mother is left to care for her family alone. Their small town was "lucky" in that they didn't experience the immediate effects of a nuclear detonation. But very soon the residents discover that they weren't as fortunate as they thought. Now instead of a quick death they all face a slow one through radiation poisoning and starvation. This is the apocalypse in all its horrible reality without Hollywood gloss. No explosions, no exciting action, no dramatic finale, no big hero or villain, just normal people, people slowly dying and knowing that there's nothing that they can do about it but try to survive another day. This is a difficult movie to watch but it does pull off an amazing feat. This is a film that somehow manages to be both beautiful and ugly at the same time, something you wouldn't think possible. No, Testament is not a "fun" movie, but it is a movie that should be seen.