As James Hale readily concedes, after the premiere of The War Game Resoundtracked, it probably looks quite arrogant to take an Oscar-winning film and decide it could be improved. And yet when he and Noson bandmate Mark Foley first saw Peter Watkins’ 1965 film, they felt compelled to respond creatively – and its lack of a soundtrack presented an opportunity.
I first learned of The War Game via the chapter on nuclear threat and paranoia in Jon Savage’s book 1966: The Year The Decade Exploded. A fictional documentary that sometimes seems speculative but was based on hard evidence from Dresden, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the film imagines tensions between the West and the Soviet Union reaching a climax, resulting in a nuclear strike on the UK. It conveys not only the immediate visceral terror and panic of the attack but also the apocalyptic longer-term fallout, whether for health (horrific burns, asphyxiation by toxic gases, melting eyeballs) or physical and social infrastructure (collapsed buildings, food riots, anarchy, lawlessness). Throughout, both the authorities and ordinary people are shown to be woefully and fatally underprepared.
The implication that the public might be kept wilfully unaware of nuclear war’s true consequences was substantiated when The War Game was banned by BBC censors as “too horrifying”. This decision was most likely taken under political pressure from Harold Wilson, who was understandably concerned it might turn the electorate against Britain’s nuclear ambitions. (This evening, Mark Foley mentions archive footage of The War Game receiving an Academy Award in 1967, in which Ronald Reagan – who would take the world back to the brink of nuclear destruction two decades later – is seen in the audience.)
Watkins promptly quit the UK in disgust, never to return. His uncompromising film was finally televised in 1985 – the day before a repeat airing of the even more notorious Threads, which had evidently been influenced by The War Game – and its reputation has grown ever since.
Noson’s bespoke soundtrack, Foley tells us, was more than 18 months in the making, and drew inspiration from the approach that Mogwai took for Douglas Gordon and Philippe Parreno’s 2006 documentary Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait. It complements the film perfectly, heightening the tension and intensity, especially when the missile strikes come and chaos reigns. The RP accents of the actors, audible above the music, mean that the overall result is perhaps inevitably reminiscent of Public Service Broadcasting’s early work. But, while PSB went on to celebrate extremes of human endeavour and achievement on later albums such as The Race For Space and The Last Flight, this is an infinitely darker, bleaker vision of technological ‘advancement’.
Aspects of The War Game – those clipped accents, the black-and-white footage – feel dated. And yet the fake documentary is a very contemporary format, and the film’s subject matter is no less relevant today than it was in the 1960s. Indeed, it may be even more so; Noson point out that the Doomsday Clock is now closer to midnight than ever before, and an audience member ventures that the film’s scenes of panic and devastation are echoed in the images that have come out of Gaza over the last three years.
What, asks Chapter’s Claire Vaughan, should be the take-home message? Can The War Game be considered a cautionary tale that could bring about change? Foley acknowledges that it’s hard to react with anything other than abject horror, especially if you’re a parent already anxious for the future. What’s more, the sheer scale of the issue is daunting and understandably induces feelings of impotence. Greenham Common and other anti-nuclear protests made a significant impact, but required enormous personal commitment and sacrifice.
And yet, while resistance may feel futile, it is urgently necessary. Foley hopes that at very least we go away shaken and stirred by what we’ve seen and heard. That much is certain – as is the fact that, should this performance be repeated (and it should), we’ll be encouraging everyone we know to witness it.
Noson: The War Game Resoundtracked, Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff, Sat 19 Sept
words BEN WOOLHEAD photos CLAIRE VAUGHAN
