A sizzling, soaring satire that hasn't aged a day.

Rating: 10/10 (3 March 2018)

This film is scintillating, excoriating, scorching...think of any violent word you can and it will describe this film. Forget action movies with their death counts of dozens or thousands of people. The stakes in this film are as high as they can be, with the world on the brink of nuclear war. The mechanics of military command are ruthlessly exposed and somehow I found the procedural details on B-52 bomber horribly enthralling.
Oh, and it's very funny. Peter Sellars plays three roles and nails them all. The sequence of events is wonderfully absurd, except that there was a short talk before the screening I saw and the academic who spoke explained that declassified documents have revealed that the only false thing in the whole film is the disclaimer at the start (demanded by the airforce?) that says it couldn't happen. Alert to the prospect of a strategic strike on Washington that would destroy the only people capable of authorising a nuclear attack, the US government implemented a system just like the one in the film whereby individual generals could launch a nuclear strike.
Similarly, the paranoia rings true - if the US had launched a nuclear attack, of course Soviet intelligence would have had every incentive to deceive those carrying out the attack into believing the order had been rescinded. And the fear of being left behind in any technological race rings true as well.
Also it's hilarious: that music that plays every time the scene is on the B-52 bomber! But poignant and beautiful. The mountains sticking up above the clouds at the beginning are breathtaking and somehow sad and, particularly early on many of the shots of the plane flying are gorgeous. And the war room is such a brilliant set.
So although satire can sometimes be distancing or alienating, with this film be prepared for lots of feelings.