Product: Special Bulletin (TV-Movie) [VHS] (1983)
Rating: 5.0
It's not a story about terrorism; the media is the message
I'm very surprised that none of the reviews I read here mentioned the real point of this excellent movie, which was to show how the news media, in particular, a national TV network, is not just a passive observer anymore, like they used to be before The Future happened. Technology has made the news so live and direct, and small cameras can get so close, that the reporters become merged into the events they're reporting on. They become part of the story and even change the outcome. The line between reporter and reported becomes blurry as the medium becomes the message.That's the ONLY thing the film is about. Nuclear terrorism was just a skeleton to build that on. This film, made in '83, probably had its genesis in events (recent then) like Cronkite crying in '63, Rather vs. Nixon, Nixon's media enemies list, Cronkite declaring the 'Nam war lost and LBJ realizing that if he had lost Cronkite, he'd lost America, and the time The Washington Post reported that LBJ wanted to replace J. Edgar Hoover. This p1ssed JBJ off so much that he called a press conference and appointed Hoover head of the FBI for life, and told his aide "Call Ben Bradlee and tell him FxUxCxK you." [except LBJ used the real word because he wasn't writing a review at the shamefully censored Amazon.][Spoiler Warning]We see this merging of medium and message at it's extreme when the terrorists kidnap the reporter and his cameraman, and also have a small TV tuned to that station. There is now an information feedback loop. That loop--presented as inappropriate and pathological--is specifically what Special Bulletin is about.This information loop sucks the news anchor John Woodley into the story he's reporting, and it puts the terrorists in a position to argue with him about their siege and about the network's coverage of it. They mock him, and the broadcast story which they are the subject of. We see how easy it is for these volatile scientists who are in need of sleep and under tremendous stress to be emotionally affected by Woodley and his coverage of their story.We also see the fusion of media and message when the girl reporter experiences the nuclear blast while on air. There are little fires in the room and the windows are blown in, and she wanders in a daze covered in soot. She asks into the camera, to no one in particular, "Are we going to die now? Is the radiation happening?"This film is of the same high quality as Kubrick's work. It should be shown in all journalism schools--and probably is.If you liked this review, please vote it up.-- faye kane, idiot savant. Google me, then oogle me.