On the brink of madness

Rating: Null/10 (13 January 2001)

The film shows how easily human events can get out of control. The theme of the story is that we must not abandon our own judgment in the heat of crisis. The hawks and doves who, only a few years later, would fight a civil war in the US over the mess of Viet Nam are shown here tuning up. Political, diplomatic, and public fields of conflict are portrayed with restrained but excellent performances.
We make our problems and we have to be able to solve them or else we will destroy ourselves. Fortunately, at least for the moment, the terrible crisis which the movie portrays has passed, and the film points out that we all share the same little boat, our planet, in the midst of a vast sea.