Dirty War is the most recent in that very limited list of films that try to examine "What Ifs" in a serious manner. In the past, we've had The War Game (which was banned for many years), and much later Threads. And there was also, The Day After.
Dirty War is in that tradition, with a dramatised examination of the build up to the detonation of a dirty bomb in central London (in this instance Liverpool Street Station in the City). I've got to say that I found it quite engrossing and well dramatised. I think the one part of the system that it didn't answer, was the accessibility of the radioactive elements inside the bomb - in particular, the gamma radiation. In this instance, the radioactive parts were transported in via oil drums from Turkey via Bulgaria. But where did the parts originate?
It's interesting that the authorities were shown as having very limited resources, and the government minister dramatised did get quite a bad rap. I'd guess that this aspect of things was quite carefully researched.
I'm not sure that the death toll given at the end of the film was quite high enough. Surely it'd be fair to say that the cumulative impact of the what happened would mean eventual casualties would easily reach into the hundreds of thousands, if not millions.
Posted by adambowie at September 26, 2004 11:03 PM