SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

Horrible, fascist and poorly acted

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

I did not even know this movie existed when I watched it last night and I was not expecting much;it was a revelation ;apart from Jane Alexander and William Devane -whose part is short-the actors are not known abroad,but it's not a problem.In Stanley Kramer's "on the beach"(1959),the all-stars cast was not necessarily a good thing."Testament' ,dedicated to the director's family,is an "on the beach" in miniature,more intimate and as devastating;almost devoid of special effects ,without the usual cardboard characters (Alexander and Devane are a happy couple,their marriage is not on the rocks ,like in the disaster movies )The policeman's return from a city where no one is alive anymore reminds me of the submarine crew in a deserted San Francisco in Kramer's classic.We do not know anything about the political context although one Alexander's remark puzzles me:late at night, sleepless in her bed ,she tells her husband "their son would be called up " (when he was eighteen),which is all the more amazing since the draft was abolished in 1972;is there a war going on?or about to break?Except for the very early scenes ,particularly when Devane and his son go cycling in the country ,all the scenes are deeply depressing ,and the movie is as pessimistic as desperate as it can be ;people do not die on the screen,but the young husband carrying her dead baby girl,Alexander rocking her dying youngest child in his blood-stained sheets , and later sewing a shroud for her daughter are strong moments ;the same ,searching for the teddy bear and screaming to the priest beginning his prayers that she doesn't care about God ;or cursing ,à la Charlton Heston in "planet in the apes" (1968),all those who did "that",down on her knees in the graveyard.A great actress's performance.A movie which might leave the viewer brooding all along ;only the scene when mom and her son dances to the Beatles' "all my loving" ,the imaginary return of the husband near the grave ,and the home movies (which recall those of "the last man on earth "(1964) based on Matheson's "the omega man")preserve him from despair.Anti - Hollywoodian to the core ,with a terrific use of the "pied piper" ominous tale ,it is really a sleeper which should be hailed as a sci-fi classic,at a time when the genre is swamped with special effects.

The true mark of an exceptional film. That almost 30 years years later you can vividly remember the way you felt watching it on the big screen. I saw it with my father. He was not a man who cried. He cried during this movie and gripped my hand. I was 25 at the time. I've had the DVD for quite some time and have only been able to watch it two other times, it's that emotional to watch. I hope that movies like Testament and The Day After had some affect on those in whose hands the decision to turn the key rests. Growing up practicing "duck and cover" in school, this movie was terrifying. Something I don't think those born after 1975 could understand. Jane Alexander gave the performance of a lifetime in this movie. Testament is not a film to entertain but to educate. Young Lucas Haas with his utterly innocent angelic looks was perfectly cast as the innocent victim of insanity. There are few films that are so difficult to watch yet so important to watch. Schlinder's List comes to mind. Don't avoid this film because it is uncomfortable to watch, it's worth it.

This film is one of three made in fairly close succession about the possible consequences of worldwide nuclear war, and certainly the most well-realized of them. The other two range from cheesy America TV movie hype in "The Day After" to extremely dark British horror with "Threads". The latter of the two has something to offer where the first has little, but of the three it is "Testament" that tells the balanced, down-to-earth experience that the majority of us would be only too likely to experience.There's no mushroom cloud here, no special effects. Just a flash of light in the distance, and an ever-building sense of dread. The characters are written like true, believable people in other similar 1980s dramas. I cannot stress enough how real this movie feels. If you go in looking for action or thrills, this is not for you. This is a tragedy, a drama, a film of real humanity. It would survive unhindered without the horrific elements that provide the backbone of the script, because it is not interdependent on them. The characters don't exist simply to fill out the plot points. They have depth. And that's where "Testament" draws its power. This is not a disaster film, populated by varying degrees of cannon fodder. This is a true "what-if". What if my small town, the one where I've grown up and spent the bulk of my life, became the victim of nuclear fallout? I saw my childhood in this film. The young character of Scottie (played by Lukas Haas) reminds me of myself, his mother (Jane Alexander) of my own. I saw all too many hints of those I grew up with, my neighbors, my siblings in the scenes of "Testament".This film broke my heart, and if you let it, it just might do the same to you. It's the face behind killing, the human factor, the cost of collateral damage. But, most of all, it's a warm yet intensely painful story of a mother faced with the unavoidable and imminent death of her loved ones. "Testament" is a dirge, a march to the end through all the purity and life of our fading memories. It holds you close like a dying friend, hoping that an embrace will keep the soul from escaping. This is life at its most precarious.

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 pass...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.