Dr. Strangelove is a classic from the early part of the Cold War, so is the original Manchurian Candidate. There's probably copies of old US Government films out there, like Duck and Cover or old bomb test footage.
For the Reagan era, two that come to mind are Red Dawn and Rocky 4, but there's a whole lot more. There are a lot of 80s-era music videos with Cold War/nuclear footage or themes, too, like Two Tribes, by Frankie Goes to Hollywood and Can't Happen Here by Rainbow.
For nuclear war, either leading up to, during, or aftermath, I can think of a bunch. The Day After, Testament, and Threads are all mostly set in the aftermath. The Day After probably has more useable footage, as it actually shows a detonation and has some panoramic views of a destroyed Kansas City and school gymnasiums full of radiation victims. (The best nuclear detonation footage has got to be Terminator 2: Judgment Day, however.) There was also an HBO movie, Dawn's Early Light, that had a lot of footage of airplanes, missile silos/bunkers, and the like, but it might be hard to find.
If you'd be more specific about what you're looking for, I could come up with more. I grew up on this kind of stuff.
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Date: 2009-10-15 03:38 am (UTC)For the Reagan era, two that come to mind are Red Dawn and Rocky 4, but there's a whole lot more. There are a lot of 80s-era music videos with Cold War/nuclear footage or themes, too, like Two Tribes, by Frankie Goes to Hollywood and Can't Happen Here by Rainbow.
For nuclear war, either leading up to, during, or aftermath, I can think of a bunch. The Day After, Testament, and Threads are all mostly set in the aftermath. The Day After probably has more useable footage, as it actually shows a detonation and has some panoramic views of a destroyed Kansas City and school gymnasiums full of radiation victims. (The best nuclear detonation footage has got to be Terminator 2: Judgment Day, however.) There was also an HBO movie, Dawn's Early Light, that had a lot of footage of airplanes, missile silos/bunkers, and the like, but it might be hard to find.
If you'd be more specific about what you're looking for, I could come up with more. I grew up on this kind of stuff.