Harrowing Post-Apocalyptic Drama ‘Testament’ Comes to Criterion: Jane Alexander and Director Lynne Littman on Their 1983 Classic

In the early 1980s, Lynne Littman was a documentary filmmaker with an Oscar under her belt who was perfectly happy working in public television, despite everyone around her thinking she should ratchet up her ambitions. “It was considered almost vicious, or evil, or stupid,” Littman said of her lack of interest in capitalizing on her Academy Award win. “After you get the Oscar, you’re supposed to go for broke. But I liked what I was doing, so I just kept doing documentaries.”

Eventually, however, a short story caught Littman’s eye, and she couldn’t let it go. Carol Amen’s 1981 story “The Last Testament” tells a quiet yet devastating tale of the impact of a nuclear war on a small town. Littman had no interest in making a fiction feature film — but she wanted to make this fiction feature film, no matter what. “The story was given to me, and it just took my breath away.”

Littman acquired the rights from Amen, and the result was the 1983 film “Testament,” a low-budget indie made for PBS’ “American Playhouse” series that secured a theatrical release and garnered rave reviews — not to mention a Best Actress Academy Award nomination for Jane Alexander, whose heartbreaking performance as a mother losing her family, member by member, forms the heart of the film. “Testament,” which depicts the aftermath of a nuclear attack without spectacle, is an astonishing feat: intimate and minimalist in its approach but epic and overwhelming in its emotional effects.

Now considered a classic, “Testament” has deservedly entered the Criterion Collection and is newly available on Blu-ray with numerous extra features, including some of Littman’s earlier documentaries. That documentary background is one reason why Littman was clearly the right person to make “Testament,” even though many other filmmakers had circled the story before she landed the option. “We were shooting in a house that was like the house, in a town that was like the town. We weren’t pretending — a hundred lights didn’t go up.”

The fact that Littman was approaching the drama from a documentary perspective didn’t mean a lack of visual design; however, she and cinematographer Steven Poster were extremely careful to give the movie a look that would serve the feeling Littman was trying to evoke in the audience. “I said to Steve, ‘This will be unbearable unless we make it more beautiful as the story gets uglier,” Littman said. “The story was about the beautiful life we have, and you have to come away with the horror of the loss of it. I didn’t want to put horror into it; I wanted the horror to come out of it.”

For Alexander, the day-to-day reality Littman wanted to convey was part of the appeal of “Testament.” “We don’t see the missiles flying in this,” she told IndieWire. “It’s so contained, within the area the characters have and the time that they have left. So what do we do as a family? We try to be as loving as possible. I was very moved by that.” Alexander said that Littman’s documentary approach was helpful for the actors, who were encouraged to simply be themselves — especially the young performers (including a pre-“Witness” Lukas Haas) playing her children.

“The best lesson I learned was to hire kids who were the characters,” Littman said. “You don’t ask them to become someone else.” Littman shot the home-movie footage that plays throughout the movie first, so that Alexander and the other actors could get to know each other as a family. The result is an intimacy and familiarity between the actors that really drives home the tragedy in the movie’s second half, as do early convincing scenes of marital happiness between Alexander and William Devane as her husband.

‘Testament’©Paramount/Courtesy Everett Collection

Devane is as terrific in the movie as everyone else, though he wasn’t easy for Littman as a first-time director, challenging her regularly for reasons she couldn’t completely understand. “He is the only one I had a crisis with,” Littman said. “He was quite arrogant, and I said, ‘Mr. Devane, you probably know more about making movies than I ever will. But I know more about this story than you ever will.’ He didn’t have many more days to shoot, but he was a little nicer after that.” Alexander’s take is that Devane was upset that he wouldn’t get to stick around with the rest of the family since his character disappears from the narrative early on.

“I think he was jealous,” Alexander said. “I think he fell in love with the cast and wanted to stay on and be a part of it.” Alexander said that working with a woman director — the only time she ever did so on a feature — made the experience particularly pleasurable, since Littman was attentive to physical details that made it easy to stay in character. “She made the sheets, the towels, the furniture, the little items in the kitchen and bedroom, all precious. She was aware of all the small details a woman adds to her house.”

Despite the grim subject matter, Alexander and Littman both felt the mood on the set was joyous. “It was a very sweet, congenial set,” Littman said. “You come away with tragedy from this movie, but what you’re watching is actually ordinary, daily lives functioning. We were not grim at all.”

Alexander said part of the joy came from knowing she was making something special. “I knew right off the bat that the elements were right,” Alexander said. “Carol Amen’s story was incredible, as was John Sacret Young’s script. I knew Lynne and her documentary work and felt very comfortable with her. And things kept going right. I don’t want to sound mystical, but when that happens, you know something is going right.”

Alexander thought that the timeless aspect of Littman’s approach — focusing on the people and not the politics or spectacle — meant “Testament” would “have legs forever,” though she’s dismayed by just how much danger we’re all still in from nuclear weapons. “We don’t have any more regulations,” Alexander said. “Anybody can run tests in the atmosphere, which is just…it’s annihilation.”

As for Littman and her view of her film’s longevity, she said that, unlike Alexander, she was completely unaware that with “Testament” she was making a movie for the ages. “I didn’t have a clue,” Littman said. “I was scared to death.” She said that Alexander’s ability to project calmness in life, just as she did as a character, was a big help. “The way she dealt with me was completely a gift. We were lucky.”

“Testament” is available on Blu-ray from Criterion starting March 17.