Talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk

Rating: 3/10 (1 May 2005)

I was beginning third grade when the events in this story took place. We were scared to death of the possibility of WWIII and Nuclear War, because it would have killed millions in one fell swoop, we were told-- as the movie here TALKS ABOUT. I also lived in Pittsburgh at the time, and we were told that Pittsburgh would be high on the nuke target list, given its then-prolific steel industry. In school, we were practicing what we would do if The Attack came. Neighbors were building fallout shelters. There was a heck of a lot going on for this scared eight-year-old to take in, none of which is reflected in this movie. The Washington bigwigs talk about this scenario then that scenario, none of which ever materialized, but some of us already know the situation first-hand or have studied it in school, so the writing comes off as flabby and over-expository. And we already know the outcome. WWIII didn't happen, Kennedy was assassinated the following year, the Beatles were on Ed Sullivan the year after that, LBJ got us involved in Vietnam, giving rise to the hippie movement-- and the Radical 60s were born. There's a great movie about the pivotal moment in we Baby Boomers' lives, but this wasn't that movie. I'm not a fan of critiquing a movie for what I think it should have been, but this flick's fatal flaw is that it chooses to ignore the reality of the time.