MovieChat Forums > Ladybug Ladybug (1963) Discussion > Is it me, or is the whole premise a bit ...

Is it me, or is the whole premise a bit off the wall?

posted 10 years ago by djrosenblatt
10 replies | jump to latest

I was 8 or 9 when this film came out and, as someone who lived thru that period, the premise of the film strikes me as more than a bit silly. Sending the kids home in response to a nuclear attack alert? I don't think so!

Aside from the fact that civil defense drills at my elementary and middle schools never involved the suggestion that we would be sent home -- let alone being asked to assemble outside -- it just defies common sense. How many kids would be coming home to an empty (and possibly locked) house, and have no idea what to do? (In fact, given that scenario, a school district might have to hope that the alert was real, lest it face innumerable lawsuits by enraged parents!) And, if real, how many kids would be caught outside when the blast hit? School districts in rural areas can cover an awful lot of territory -- can teachers really hope to walk all their charges home in a reasonable time?

Granted, maybe this should just be chalked up to artistic liberty. But if anyone thinks this can be justified as a realistic scenario, I'd like to know your reasons. Maybe you know something I don't.

Badgers? We don't need no stinkin' badgers! But if you could show us something in a nice possum...

[–] bhoover247 10 years ago

Sending kids home at the threat of a nuclear attack is not half as crazy as civilized societies dropping nuclear bombs on each other because of political differences.

[–] theunopeneddoor-697-442391 9 years ago

That was the plan in California at the time if nuclear bomb was ever dropped.

Joseph Chastainme
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[–] riftsrunner-1 9 years ago

Rural communities would be very unlikely to be targeted during an attack, so sending children home would not be an unthinkable option if there were an imminent missle attack. They could speculate that if far enough away from a targeted location, that there would be little danger sending students home to be with their families as opposed to keeping scared children (who would be wanting their parents) in a location that is poorly equipped to ride out the aftermath of a nuclear attack (which a school would be unless there was a shelter nearby). Not that they would be much better off at a rural home without a fallout shelter, but at least if they are going to die, they would be dying in the company of family as opposed to strangers

[–] DeepFriedJello 9 years ago

I agree. Go home with your family, and hopefully they won't be alone. Most moms didn't work in those days, especially rural.

[–] Pacer88 (233) 5 years ago

The biggest problem I had with this movie is the principal sending the kids home without knowing if a parent would be home or not. I just don't believe that would happen, even in the '60s.

[–] Owlwise (1536) 4 years ago

At the time it could be more than reasonably assumed that at least one parent or adult would be at home.

[–] olds1999 9 years ago

The big flaw in the movie,is that no one turned on a radio,or TV to listen for a news broadcast. There was an Emergency Broadcast System back in those days. And every radio had a symbol on the dial,to show the station that would be broadcasting the news alerts.

[–] bobn425 9 years ago

it is absurd that nobody turned on a radio or tv news broadcast
I was in high school during the missile crisis and we were
glued to the tv from the moment jfk made his urgent broadcast
to the nation.

this movie is ridiculous with this long slow walk home
and the kids in the fallout shelter. Do yourself a favor and go to
IMDB and type in the search box
the twilight zone "The Shelter" and you can watch for free
a tv episode that shows 60's nuclear war paranoia in
a far more realistic and frightening way.

[–] 9 years ago

[deleted]

[–] djrosenblatt 9 years ago

Some schools did have food and shelter. I remember discovering a basement room in the suburban middle school I attended in the sixties. It was stocked with large canisters of food and water with the civil defense logo on them.

How long it all would have lasted in a real crisis is anyone's guess. I really can't recall how much of it there was.

As far as I know, this could have been a nationwide phenomenon -- that is, an edict from the federal government that all schools be similarly prepared and stocked.

Badgers? We don't need no stinkin' badgers! But if you could show us something in a nice possum…