Call me a sucker for stuff like this, but I really ilked 1982's The Atomic Cafe. It's a roughly 90-minute film constructed entirely of bits and pieces of government films from various sources, news footage, and a soundtrack chock full of period pieces which further illustrate the tone of the picture.

We start the film with the infamous Trinity bomb test in New Mexico, and quickly move on to the August 1945 "Fatman" and "Little Boy" drops in Japan. From there, through the use of all these stock sources, we get a glimpse into the progression of the United States' nuclear program as seen (or should have been seen) from the public perspective.....

We'll start things off with a cold war suspense film about a destroyer and its captain in the hunt for a mysterious unidentified submarine somewhere in the general vicinity of Greenland.

Sydney Poitier stars as reporter Ben Munceford, sent to the ship to observe and interview captain Eric Finlander (played by Richard Widmark) on what should be a routine patrol mission. Of course things aren't that simple, and during the cold war, it's made clear there isn't much simple about anything at all.

We're given a good hard look at the state of cold-war politics as it relates to the military here. The captain and his crew on the perpetual hunt, but never able to pull the trigger; The German ex-U-boat commander who's experience is asked for but ultimately ignored as he longs for the "good old days" of naval warfare. The aging navy doctor relegated to roles he doesn't feel fit to play....

And ultimately, its that tension, confusion and misinterpretation that ends the film in a final and explosive fashion.

The film follows a pretty basic plot, ship trails unidentified sub, assuming its Soviet. Along the way various events ensue, such as getting stuck in the icebergs, compartments flooding, and sabotage insinuated, or at least blamed on the increasing complexity of their military hardware. Despite its episodic and ultimately predictable (to a point) nature, the movie manages to maintain a certain amount of tension, both relating to the hunt for the Soviet sub and the tension between crewmembers.

Of course, like a lot of mid-60s cold war movies (think Fail-Safe-ish), the end comes swiftly and without much reflection (you're left to do that on your own) I suppose to portray how the impending World War III would be fought.

So, if you're in the mood for an always-tense cold war suspense-fest, then The Bedford Incident is right up your alley. 1965, Black and White, 102 minutes.



Technorati Tags: movies, war, cold war, reviews, the bedford incident

Since I'm on a "Cold War" run to start off the site, lets look at 1995's "Trinity and Beyond: The Atomic Bomb Movie."

"Trinity" is a documentary that explores the creation and development of nuclear weapons technology, primarily in the US military, but with a little bit of Soviet action thrown in as counterpoint.

Being a documentary, action is non-existant. That's not the point. The big draw of this film is the absolutely stunning film of the seemingly endless nuclear tests conducted in the South Pacific, in atmosphere (which I never knew were conducted) and underground. It's absolutely incredible to believe that something so infinitely destructive could at the same time be so, well, beautiful. You will find yourself feeling guilty at marvelling at the slow-motion footage of these detonations, only to realize their intended purpose. The different stages of the explosions, how they progress from initial detonation, to shock wave, thermal expansion and beyond are visible in nearly every one.

It starts off detailing how they came up with the "benchmark" for nuclear weapons strength, the kiloton. In essence, they put 1000 tons of TNT up on a test stand and set it off. I felt honestly scared for these guys manually carting box after box of TNT up onto the stand and tapping it firmly into place with their hammers. shudder

The absolute devastation of the bombs are shown in detail, both at their first two actual uses in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and at the various test islands and atolls. Literally wiping them clean of pretty much everything.

There's a bit of a look at the 50s-60s cold-war hysteria that went on, and when you look at this footage and what was being developed, its easy to see why the entire country was so nervous.

I'd recommend this to anyone interested in the history of nuclear weapons, and to anyone who scoffs at the seriousness and destructive power of the atom. I'd put it in the "must see at some point" category.



Technorati Tags: war movies, documentary, trinity and beyond, atomic bomb, nuclear weapons, reviews

TNT's "The Company" is a four-part miniseries which focuses on events within the CIA during the Cold War, from sometime in the mid-fifties up until the early nineties and the fall of the Soviet empire.  It is based on Robert Litell's book of the same name.

In all honesty I was expecting a bit more from this.  Granted this was only the first half, but I really wanted more.  More what?  I'm not sure, exactly, but whatever it is it needed more of it.

The story so far has focused on a pair of CIA operatives (Chris O'Donnell and Alfred Molina) in the Soviet sector of East Berlin in the mid fifties.  During their "routine" business they've uncovered a Soviet mole within the ranks of the British intelligence service, MI-6.  The bad part is the mole is in a position which compromises security within the CIA as well.

During all of this, we also get to see a KGB agent in the making, Yevgeny Tsipin (Rory Cochrane) who just happens to be a Yale classmate of McCauliffe (O'Donnell.)  Nothing much has come of this relationship yet, except that Yevgeny has ties to the MI-6 mole in his operations.  I suspect this relationship will be revealed in upcoming episodes.

In the process of "outing" the mole, the Berlin pair are dealing with a ballet dancer and her former German scientist friend.  That situation turns out for the worse in the end, I'm afraid, and provides most of the plot for these two episodes.

The problem so far is that there's just far too many talking heads.  Sure there's a little code breaking and "numbers station" action, and yeah a couple of minor shootouts and even a couple classical spy meetings replete with code phrases and such....

... but during a lot of it you feel like twiddling your thumbs and going, "um, what's next?"

Judging from the previews of what's to come, I'm not sure how the events of these episodes will play into the latter half of the series.  As they've got to develop the entire Bay of Pigs scenario, AND get through the eighties up to the fall of the Berlin Wall....

I'm going to reserve a final rating until I've seen the last two offerings, but I certainly hope its a little more interesting than this.  I hope the book is, at least.  I imagine its a situation of "how much relevant stuff can we cram into four hours of television."

Technorati Tags: war movie review, the company, 2007, parts 1 and 2, cold war, cia, central intelligence agency, kgb, chris o'donnell, alfred moilna, michael keaton

[Note, I should mention I was off on the number of hours this miniseries runs in my review of parts 1 and 2...]

Ahhhh, now that's more like it!  Parts three and four of TNT's miniseries, "The Company" did not disappoint, although I'm not exactly sure how the stories relate (well, mostly) to the ones from the previous two episodes.

Part Three revolves around the Hungarian Revolution against Communist rule in 1956.  The story follows our hero, Jack McCauliffe (Chris O'Donnell), as he goes in to presumably help the local resistance conquer the Soviet menace.  Of course, the CIA being what it is, decides that making any kind of overt assistance would be tantamount to starting world war three, and only sends out false messages.  This eventually results in the decimation of the ressistance, but not before Jack and his Hungarian counterpart Elizabet (Natascha McElhone) flee to safety, and in the end her daughter is returned to her.

By itself this was a really excellent hour of television.  The historical accuracy of it probably lends a lot to artistic license, but it really put you in the middle of the fight, especially at the end when Jack and the band of rebels are holed up in a building getting shelled by Soviet tanks.  The question though is, "So?"  How does any of this relate to what happened last week?

Oh yeah, we did get a brief glimpse at Yevgeny (Rory Cochrane) trying to find out about his flame back in Russia, and a couple other glimpses into "The Mole" storyline from last week... but really those were just "oh yeah, remember that?" moments.

Hour Four puts Jack at the heart of the spectacularly failed Bay of Pigs invasion of 1961, but not before a lot of hemming and hawing on the part of the rest of the US government.  Interestingly intertwined toward the beginning was the CIA's work with the US Mafia....  But that never happened, did it?

The invasion scene was as equally well produced as Part Three's battle scenes.  While parts were obviously done in CG, it was complete enough that it really didn't matter.  The entire sequence was just 100% kicking-ass.

More importantly I think, these two hours define the role of the CIA in world politics of the era, that is the "behind the scenes" manipulation and failures that took place as a result of the Truman Doctrine's interpretation and execution.

There were also a few jabs (at least I took it that way) at the current administration's actions.  Particularly the bits about "failing" the people of Cuba, and another quip about getting involved militarily in a place we're not wanted....

But I'm still confused as to how any of this relates to the overall story arch.  Someone fill me in if I missed anything key here.  Maybe next week will close it up, and as such I'll refrain from giving a final star count until then....

All I have to say is, what a let down.  After last week I thought things were really going to pick up with The Company, and I was sorely disappointed.

Somehow we jumped straight from Cuba in the early 60's to post-Vietnam '75 and '76.  Yeah lets just ignore that entire 10-15 year period.  Because we know the CIA didn't have anything to do with or in Vietnam.  cough Laos cough Air America *coughcough*

Anyway....

So they're still trying to figure out who the "new" mole is.  And of course they find out, and of course its someone you least expect.  But to get there really didn't go anywhere.  If that makes any kind of sense at all.

Not until the very end did we come back to the Yevgeny (Rory Cochrane) /McCaullife connection.  And even that was just hit on and then seemingly brushed aside.

In the end the Berlin wall comes down, the Soviet Union falls, and somehow we're led to believe that the CIA might've had some involvement with securing Yeltsin's position in the new Russia.  Er, ok.

There were a couple of jabs at America which may have been valid put in context, but screamed more about making a statement on the current state of affairs.  The whole "arrogant imperialist" bit....  and then there's the "tobacco is bad m'kay" thing going on with Angleton (Michael Keaton) that just screamed of being preachy.

The final scene gave a little bit of closure and meaning to the whole experience, though.  With McCauliffe (Chris O'Donnell) and Harvey (Alfred Molina) talking about whether or not they made any difference.  That at least made you think a little.  Just a little.

In the end I can't say I was all that impressed with the entire thing.  The last hour left you feeling somewhat like that last 45 minutes of "The Return of the King," where Sauron was defeated and we had to spend the time watching all the reunions and tearful farewells.  While it might make for good reading it makes for tedious film.

As for the performances, I really can't fault anybody there.  O'Donnell was his usually adequate self, Molina's character really just had bit parts here and there.  Keaton was great as usual but his character suffered more from writing I think than anything.  Must've been difficult to play a dull, boring, bureaucrat....

With any luck The Company will fade off into oblivion and TNT won't shove it down our throats anymore.

Technorati Tags: the company, 2007, tnt, mini series, cia, cold war, chris o'donnell, michael keaton, alfred moilna, spy game

Ah, submarine movies. (Deep Breath).  If you've followed the site for any length of time you probably know I've developed a soft-spot for the sub-genre (no pun intended!) and 1990's adaptation of the Tom Clancy novel The Hunt For Red October is no exception.

In case you haven't actually seen "Red October", or read it, the plot goes something like this:  A Soviet sub commander, Marko Ramius (Sean Connery) takes a brand-new, experimental submarine on a mission to defect to the US with some of his officers.  As you can imagine this doesn't sit well with the rest of the Soviet Navy, and causes a fair amount of confusion on the US side of things.

That's where the venerable character of CIA analyst Jack Ryan (Alec Baldwin) comes in.  The resident expert on Ramius, he's dispatched to the submarine USS Dallas to actually meet with Ramius, prove his intention to defect, and bring him and the submarine home safely.  Natch, right?