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It would be Robert Aldrich, wouldn't it, who scans the national anthem for apocalyptic lines in a denunciation of governmental mendacity. "War on war," Shaw would say, thus the railroaded Air Force general (Burt Lancaster) escaping from prison to seize a missile silo. Either doomsday or a public admission from the President (Charles Durning) about the shame and guilt of Vietnam, to the chagrin of accomplices (Paul Winfield, Burt Young) more concerned about extortion loot. "You mean we broke out of death row to end up in a gas chamber?" A corrupted system calls for a psychotic act of protest, cf. Attack, nuclear warheads ensure a captive audience for the tirade against the administration's "treacherous doctrine." Security forces are moved around the base by the commander (Richard Widmark) while the head of state learns about the military complex's soiled hands. "Didn't anybody ever express the opinion that such posture was not only immoral, but homicidal?" Nothing less than a forced purge for Aldrich, furious and mournful in the face of sanctioned slaughter and deceit. Divided nations and divided frames, a screen split two, three, four ways in muscular montage. (Bavarian landscapes doubling for Montana add a streak of Brechtian reflexivity.) "The beginning of the end of mankind, in graphic black and white." A cabinet of wizened pros ponders the matter in the Oval Office, gradually the role of sacrificial ram dawns on the "expendable" ruler. Mustard and cherry phones plus green chemicals amid metallic grays, the silence of the Secretary of Defense (Melvyn Douglas) sealed in a despairing aerial shot. "You care about the news?" "Never between wars." The coda contrasts an averted Armageddon with the atomic release of Kiss Me Deadly, and asks which is more painful. With Richard Jaeckel, Roscoe Lee Browne, Joseph Cotten, William Marshall, Leif Erickson, Gerald S. O'Loughlin, Charles Aidman, Charles McGraw, Simon Scott, and William Smith.
--- Fernando F. Croce |