Friday, September 28, 2018

Who's to Blame?


For the first four days of the six day chemistry assignment, we were watching The Day After. (They then had a writing assignment about nuclear power.)

It was period 4, the difficult group. I had just been shushing them again, so I stood and moved to a different spot where they could all see me. Glaring at them.

On screen, two characters had emerged from where they were holed up after the nuclear bombs had been dropped. The girl was having an understandable meltdown. The guy was trying to get her to go back inside, trying to explain that the radiation in the air was dangerous.

"What do you think killed all these animals?" he asked.

A boy at the back of the room responded. "White people."



(Go to about 4:54 for the scene in question. I couldn't get it to embed at the proper time code.)

My reaction? I laughed. I mean, he wasn't wrong...

23 comments:

  1. Ah yes, this upbeat movie. I forgot Steve Guttenberg was in this. I agree with the kid about the animals

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    1. I was going to say something to the kiddos about him, but I realized that they were too young to have heard of him. Or Jason Robards.

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    1. I remember when this movie played. Sort of. I couldn't watch it then.

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  3. I would probably have laughed too.

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  4. I can imagine a giggle would have escaped me too. Well timed, and as you said, not wrong!

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  5. This reminds me of watching a quiz show with my Mum in Law. The question was "In the play 'Romeo and Juliet', what causes Romeo's death?" She replied "Juliet". Hehe, if you think about it, that's not wrong either.

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  6. I would've sniped, "Greedy rich people."

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  7. I think it is good to show the students you have a sense of humor :)

    betty

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  8. I remember watching that film on primetime TV with the fam way back when. It was so bleak. :(

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    1. We did not watch it. Until now, I'd never seen it. (Now I've seen it six times.) It so would have traumatized me back then. Not so much now.

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  9. No, he really was right. I didn't realize the mini series was on You Tube. Yes, I am old enough to have seen it when it first aired. I wonder how dated it will seem now.

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    1. The clothes! The cars. The precipitating incident was a flare up between East and West Germany. The nurse was not in scrubs (but that was wrong at the time, for nurses wore scrubs then in real life but not on TV). Very '80s in a lot of ways.

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    2. I've never seen this movie, but you have me interested just to see how dated it is. I can't remember a time before nurses wore scrubs on tv, but I don't really watch a lot of tv/movies. Sounds like a fun way to pass an afternoon … until you've seen it six times.

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    3. It's not fun. It's grim. There's a reason tween-age me didn't go anywhere near it.

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  10. Remember seeing the movie, long ago ... The humorous aside brings in the much-needed lighter moment while watching such a movie!

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    1. Yeah, we definitely needed a breather. It was an intense movie.

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  11. I hated having to watch dark movies at school. I remember having to watch "Coma". Urgh. And another movie where aliens came up through the drain holes in the shower to grab people. I hated showering for an age after that.

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  12. oh my goodness. That is hilarious. And true. *sigh*

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