The War Game

‘Bunker Mentality’, ‘Protect and Survive’ and ‘The Haunted Generation’ in FT379 reminded me of my own teenage experience of dystopia in the early Seventies. As a 14-year-old adolescent, I recall being herded into the school’s film theatre to watch The War Game during a particular school week near the end of a spring term. The film had been hired (as happened from time to time) by my school, a direct grant school in Bolton, Lancashire. No age-related guidance was in force as no doubt this was classed as a private viewing, even though the BBC had decided not to show the film on air due to its distressing nature and content. The opportunity thus presented itself for teaching staff to skip a lesson or two by cramming their class into the school film theatre, irrespective of the content of the film.

With scant consideration as to whether the film was ‘suitable’, we were piled in to watch. Unsuspecting, unwarned and relatively naïve, I found The War Game to be shocking, profoundly scary and very distressing, as did many others in my year group, although I recall no follow-up discussion. Counselling was, at the time, something only done in the Town Hall.

Not wishing to miss the opportunity for a quick skive, other teachers later in the week

jumped on the bandwagon and rescheduled their class venue to the film theatre, thus forcing the entire class to re-watch this stark, grim, panic-inducing horror twice more, as if seeing it once wasn’t bad enough.

I have to say I was in shock for a good few months after watching this faux-documentary horror story. My innocence was well and truly shattered and I felt a gut-wrenching panic every time the local factory siren set off its banshee wail at lunchtime. I couldn’t work out why no one was doing anything about the situation – adults, parents, teachers other kids seemed starkly oblivious to the film’s bleak projection of the likely future. It coloured my whole summer and indeed for many years following I was very gloomy about the future prospects for Britain, and indeed the whole of humanity. I endured a lengthy feeling of complete detachment, as I felt as though I was the only person who could see what the future held. Certainly I adopted a much more short-term ‘live for the minute’ attitude, which in retrospect definitely did impact on my studies – and my whole career and life choices. The expectation of the school was that you were to be independent, tough and resilient, so I never mentioned my abject fear and sub-surface near-panic to my parents (teachers would have been the last people you would have confided anything in), or even that I had been forcefed the film once, let alone three times.

In terms of the haunted generation stuff, the wacky weird or slightly scary TV output was not even a pale shadow of that cast by the themes, threads and stark reality of The War Game.

In today’s litigious age, I often wonder how such psychologically reckless action by teachers would be viewed. I can’t imagine staff in secondary schools herding their Year 8s into a showing of an unexpurgated version of, say, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre or suchlike for numerous iterations of viewings with impunity.

I never discussed with my parents my deep-rooted fear and chronic mental disturbance resulting from watching the film. The confidence they had in that the school in providing a progressive caring and supportive environment was left untarnished. However, as a fully paid up member of the haunted – nay traumatised – generation, I held other views. I have often wondered if I should be calling Saul Goodman to seek appropriate redress for what would now undoubtedly pass as a prima facie case of child abuse. David E Berry

Sheffield, South Yorkshire