...And thus this TV movie.
The terrorists' demands and MO don't seem all that far-fetched, given the climate of opinion of the time. This was a time when the nastiest terror cells operating in the First World tended to be intellectual political-theoretical types, committed to the Radicalisation of the Masses (the Bader-Meinhoff Gang, the Red Army Faction, the Symbionese Liberation Army, the Weathermen...) rather than people who actually had something resembling a real grievance.
And so a group of people have decided to dramatise the danger of nuclear weapons; if they are not allowed to strike a symbolic, internationally-acknowledged blow against the nuclear-war-machine, they will strike a REAL blow that will, they hope, bring the realities home to the masses.
And so the stage is set for tragedy.
"Special Bulletin" is, intentionally, made to look as much like real television news coverage as possible -- unlike most TV movies, it is shot on video rather than film (In fact, i wouldn't be at all surprised if the image wasn't intentionally slightly degraded to emphasise that it WAS tape, not film). While a lot of people may not actually be able to describe what the differences between a film image and a video image are, they are perceptible to almost anyone, and the mind, consciously or otherwise, identifies the video image with "real TV" and the film image with "movies".
Another thing that helps to create the rather scary level of verisimilitude in this film is the fact that it is paced like real TV; its rhythm is keyed to commercial breaks, and this enhances the realism of the revreation of the staccato, punchy nature of television news coverage, both when Something Is Happening and in those long stretches when you have had nothing actually new in hours, but you can't just let the story go, if only because the Competition might get a ratings jump on you if something new happens and they're able to go live with it faster than you. (We saw both of these aspects in the recent coverage of the DC-area sniper story.)
((This film is so tied to its commercials that, when a local science-fiction club decided to use it as a program item, they wound up adding one award-winning or blooper-reel commercial at each break, because without the spots it just didn't work.))
Aside from the video imagery and the pacing, there is the fact that the production makes use of realistic sound effects, especially the the flat, popping sound that real gunshots have when recorded, and the familiar sound of voices just off-mike, discernible but muffled.
One mistake, i feel, that was made was the use of a video-generated special effects shot for the climactic moment of the film; maybe that's what such a blast WOULD look like on video, but it doesn't match my memories of footage of actual open-air atomic test shots.
But the aftermath footage is chilling...
(I have read complaints that the electro-magnetic pulse effects of the blast should render TV equipment that close to Ground Zero in operative; i don't know -- this is a very small burst, and remote-news equipment is built pretty tough...)
And the visuals and account of the after-effects that we hear as a follow-up story are at once frightening, heart-breaking, accurate and a pointed reminder of just how insufficient anything we could realistically expec to be able to do to take care of casualties and destroyed cities from anything other than an isolated incident would be...
Grim, scary, still a valid cuationary tale (though the potential nuclear terrorists might have different motives and might strike without warning, the results would be the same...) and brilliantly done.
Deserves a DVD release, perhaps with historical material about the Cold War and the terrorists of the day...
The whole "movie" is done to try and not be a movie at all. In the spirit of H.G. Wells and "War of the Worlds" this 'movie' attempts to seem like an actual news broadcast. You watch as a normal news day turns into a national crisis. A group of anti-nuclear activists has assembled a make-shift atomic device of comparable yield to the ones that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Thier demands are US nuclear disarmament, in the hopes that if they forced the US to make the first move, the USSR would follow suit by disarming in turn. The plot isn't very plausible, even by 80's standards, but the film is interesting and enjoyable to watch. The special effects in the movie aren't bad, considering the era and the very very very low budget the film must have had. It's interesting to see the news personel changing attitudes, as they slowly begin to grasp the reality of the situation and begin to have a sort of epiphany that the news they report isn't just pictures and facts that don't effect them, it's real.
This isn't really something to watch if you're looking for a great movie, but it was enjoyable, especially to anyone who has an interest in nuclear weapons and the politics there of (or the 80's for that matter) and anyone who likes an out of the ordinary, creative film.
Also may work as a good practical joke, to put in the VCR on New years eve without telling anyone and wait to see if they can tell that something isnt right LOL. Probably wouldn't work, being the clothing and reporting style is CLEARLY not 2002, but hey.
