The War Game Trailer | Romek Marber

The War Game is a British docudrama film that depicts a nuclear attack and its aftermath. Written, directed and produced by Peter Watkins for the BBC, the film caused dismay within the BBC and also within government, and was subsequently withdrawn before the provisional screening date, due to have been 6 October 1965. The corporation said that “the effect of the film has been judged by the BBC to be too horrifying for the medium of broadcasting. It will, however, be shown to invited audiences…”

The film eventually premiered at the National Film Theatre in London, on 13 April 1966, where it ran until 3 May. It was then shown abroad at several film festivals, including at the Venice Film Festival where it won the Special Prize. In Hollywood, it won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 1967. The film was eventually televised in Britain on 31 July 1985, during the week before the fortieth anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing, the day before a repeat screening of Threads, a 1984 television drama film, jointly produced by the BBC, depicting an apocalyptic nuclear attack and its effects on Sheffield. In 2000 The War Game was placed 27th in a list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes drawn up by the British Film Institute (BFI) and voted on by industry professionals.

The War Game poster for Peter Watkins’s 1966 film

Lithographic plate for promotional print

The War Game TrailerEditor2023-04-05T14:38:36+01:00

The War Game Trailer

Romek Marber’s work on the design of animated film titles began in 1964. Though movies always had some kind of initial titling to carry the film’s name and credits the 1960s saw the emergence of a fresh approach. Here, the art of visual storytelling in small segments of time was raised to the status of an art where the mood, context and key plot elements were encapsulated. In this emerging genre Romek’s commissions included a powerful animated trailer for Peter Watkins’s uncompromising 1966 docudrama The War Game, about a nuclear attack, that was considered so powerful and horrifying as to be banned from public broadcast until its first re-screening in 1985 by the BBC. Nevertheless, in 1967 the film was honoured in Hollywood, winning the Academy Award for Best Documentary (Feature). Though the techniques Romek used to create these film titles may now seem elementary (in comparison to current digital techniques) their inventiveness and directness delivered a significant visual shock to a nation unaccustomed to such strong graphic images. His trailer for The War Game followed film titles he had designed for Columbia Pictures, for Alexander Singer’s 1964 dark psychodrama Psyche 59 which stand alongside the titles of other designers, such as Saul Bass, who transported their talents into this new genre of graphic storytelling. Romek’s title designs for Mira Hamermesh’s 1967 Passport similarly utilised the graphic qualities of handwriting and high contrast black and white portraits to create a haunting atmosphere of migration during wartime.

Bruce Brown
Emeritus Professor and friend

The War Game trailer 1964. Kindly digitised by Brighton University for the Romek Marber Graphics retrospective exhibition.

The War Game trailer 1964. Kindly digitised by Brighton University for the Romek Marber Graphics exhibition.

Alternate unseen The War Game trailer design by Romek Marber. Kindly digitised by Brighton University.

Alternate unseen The War Game trailer design by Romek Marber. Kindly digitised by Brighton University.

The War Game stills