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Students, residents gather to view “The Day After”

By Ryan McGeeney

Friday, November 21, 2008

Twenty-five years to the day after its initial television broadcast, Armageddon returned to Lawrence.

About 135 people attended the anniversary screening of “The Day After,” a two-hour made-for-television drama depicting the aftermath of a massive nuclear exchange between America and Russia. The film, shot primarily in Lawrence, features many of the city’s most recognizable landmarks, as well as a number of local actors who lived in the area at that time.

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Photo by Ryan McGeeney

Bob Swan, left, and his grandson Trey, 10, look over some news clippings from 1983, when "The Day After" originally aired on ABC. The film, shot primarily in Lawrence, enjoyed a 25th-anniversary screening Thursday night at Liberty Hall. The Swans were among about 135 people to attend the showing.

Bob Swan, Lawrence resident, said he still remembered watching Jason Robards, the actor who portrayed a KU Medical Center surgeon who survived the initial blasts, stagger down Ninth Street as film crews shot a scene that took place only hours after the nuclear strikes.

“I watched it with friends and my eight-year-old daughter,” said Swan, who brought a collection of news clippings from the era related to the film’s release. “My daughter asked if we were going to have a war in Lawrence.”

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PHOTO COURTESY OF SPENCER RESEARCH LIBRARY

Lawrence residents peer over the tent city erected along the banks of the Kansas River during the 1982 filming of "The Day After", which portrays the aftermath of nuclear strike in the American midwest. The film, shot primarily in Lawrence, was the second-highest television program of all time, behind the MASH series finale.

Swan said that the film moved him so much that he decided to become involved with organizations dedicated to improving relations with Russia, the country that characters in “The Day After” believe engages the United States in the nuclear exchange.

The showing was organized by Kyle Harvey, a doctoral student in modern history studying at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. Harvey said that his interest in the film stemmed from dual fascination with politics and movies, and how they are historically intertwined.

“The most interesting movies, to me, are the controversial ones,” said Harvey, who began organizing the showing in August. “And ‘The Day After’ was one of the biggest controversies, even before it was shown.”

Harvey is currently constructing an oral history of the film’s production and said he has 15 to 20 interviews lined up in the area.

“I’m trying to piece together the story of how the town remembers the film,” Harvey said. “It was a giant movie, seen by 100 million people, shot in a small town.”

Michele Johnson, Lawrence resident, whose late mother, Pat Schurer, was an extra in the film, said she had attended the showing in order to gain some perspective on her mother’s stories about the shooting.

“She said she had had a great time, just standing in line to get the scars and the blood applied,” Johnson said.

Johnson, who was a student at Kansas State University when the film was originally released, and now has two children attending the University, said that while some details have changed, the film reminded her that the danger discussed in the movie is still present.

“It still makes you think about what could happen very easily,” Johnson said. “It’s still very real. It’s not like they’ve made nuclear weapons disappear, they just have different controls on them.”

Allison Watkins, Branson, Mo., senior, said she remembered watching the original broadcast as a child with her mother.

“It scared the crap out of me, as it would anyone, especially when you’re five,” Watkins said.

Several individuals directly involved with the creation of the film attended the screening, and climbed up on stage after the film’s conclusion to answer questions from the audience.

Nicholas Meyer, the director, said it was important to understand how the subject matter transcended the commercial consideration of television at that time.

Meyer said the initial version of the film, originally conceived as a three-hour movie to be shown on two consecutive evenings in order to cost 60 minutes worth of advertising, contained about an hour’s worth of padding.

“I told the producers, ‘I don’t see anybody tuning in for night two of Armageddon, so why don’t you just let me shoot it the best way I know how?’” Meyer shared with the audience. He said, ultimately, it was a moot point — most of the project’s commercial sponsors had dropped out once word of the film’s subject matter got out.

Robert Papazian, the movie’s producer, recalled an event toward the end of the editing process.

“While we were in post-production, we got a message from ABC to send a copy of the movie to the White House,” Papazian said.

He told the audience that he later learned that President Ronald Reagan, after viewing it, sent the copy to Mikhail Gorbachev, then the leader of the Soviet Union. Whether the movie had a direct effect on either man couldn’t really be known, Papazian said, but noted that the two did sign the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty in 1987.

When an audience member asked Meyer if he had considered re-releasing the DVD version of the movie to include extra footage, commentary or other special features, Meyer was direct in his refusal.

“The short answer is no,” Meyer said. “The longer answer is, I’d prefer not. And the reason is that catastrophe is so horrible, most people would rather do anything than think about it. So I’m not inclined to include more material that would just be a diversion from the real subject matter.”

— — Edited by Brieun Scott

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