Friday, August 27, 2010

Some Light Viewing

I've been watching By Dawn's Early Light, the longboxes of which I've seen from time to time in some Wal-Marts but had always passed by. I guess I need to go looking again now.

I never thought about it, in spite of its considerable cast list, until I saw a reference to it from a British animated film about nuclear war called When The Wind Blows. I have occasional discussions about nuclear strategy and deterrence with one of my coworkers. I grew up in the Cold War, so the thought of nuclear war was always a possibility.

Two comments on By Dawn's Early Light:
1. Rebecca DeMornay isn't just a random hot actress and does a credible role in this film.
2. I'm singularly unforgiving of a lot of films that portray the military. I may not be completely qualified to comment on this since I'm not an Air Force officer and have no immediate experience in nuclear weapons, but this movie feels generally authentic to me. Whoever made this movie had done their homework to a degree I don't normally associate with Hollywood (although this is a HBO Original Film and never went to the big screen.) Then again, I could be wrong.

Granted, the last film about nuclear war that I saw was Threads, which absolutely unsettled the living shit out of me. This is almost as depressing in some ways, but brings up thoughts of professional ethics and morality in a context I normally don't bring up in coffee table discussion. Then again, not much of what I discuss is coffee table discussion anymore.

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