| Paramount Pictures | Release Date: November 4, 1983 | CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION | ||
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Positive:
13
Mixed:
6
Negative:
0
|
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Critic Reviews
Alexander's performance makes the film possible to watch without unbearable heartbreak, because she is brave and decent in the face of the horror. And the last scene, in which she expresses such small optimism as is still possible, is one of the most powerful movie scenes I've ever seen.
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Lynne Littman's unforgettable, uncompromising and understated Testament is quite simply the most powerful anti-nuclear dramatic film ever made and stars Jane Alexander, superb as a woman trying to hold her family together in the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust. [10 Aug 1986, p.4]
A haunting, emotionally devastating movie. [04 Nov 1983, p.C21]
What makes Lynn Littman's film so devastating -- beyond, that is, the power of Jane Alexander's brilliant performance as the surviving mother -- is its icy control and its complete disavowal of sentimentality and sensationalism. It's a small monument to the principle of understatement. [02 Dec 1983, p.B1]
The charge that this film has the humble patina of a “TV movie”—an insult levied by critics and others at the time—is in fact perfectly apt. It explains the smallness of this production; it isn’t a stretch to say that the lack of crash-bang disaster theatrics might have something to do with the film’s budget. As it happens, Testament is all the better for this smallness. And, for me, all the more devastating.
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Testament makes nuclear war a disaster that must never happen, not by showing its massive devastation, but by depicting humanity's capacity to love. [29 Nov 1983]
That Testament doesn't wallow in cheap sentimentality or grisly detail is a testament to the talents of first-time feature film director Lynne Littman, her superb cast and screenwriter John Young. [20 Jan 1984, p.4C]
Testament does manage to convey in its surprisingly quiet and non-theatrical way the very point that its creators surely wanted to make: that human stupidity can destroy the world, but it cannot erase human dignity. [08 Nov 1983]
Testament is determinedly apolitical and wholly unsensational. It is propaganda in the best sense, a cry for life. And it is no fun at all. [09 Nov 1983, p.B6]
Save for some sentimental scenes, it's a powerful film, with a powerful performance by Alexander. [04 Nov 1983, p.E]
Littman avoids excess, just as she does throughout this gripping, moving, terribly unpleasant--and yet valuable--motion pictures. [25 Nov 1983, p.5E]
While TESTAMENT is less sensational than the similar TV movie, "The Day After," first-time director Lynne Littman lays on the sentiment and symbolism a little thickly, and some may find the pre-disaster sequences slow going. The acting is undeniably strong, particularly Alexander's heartfelt performance.
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Testament deserves some credit for its message; it's too bad that its delivery is strictly third class. [04 Nov 1983, p.48]
It calls attention not to the fate of the earth, but to the numbing effect of bad, manipulative art. [14 Nov 1983, p.98]
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