SPECIAL BULLETIN
US, 1983, 105 minutes, Colour.
Ed Flanders, Christopher Allport, Kathryn Walker, Roxanne Hart, Rosalind Cash, David Rasche.
Directed by Ed Zwick.
Special Bulletin is an arresting, Emmy Award winning telemovie. It was produced in the early '80s, the time when film and television was responding most vividly to the nuclear threat. Films from the time include The Day After, seen all over the world on television, and such films as Silkwood, Testament and the Australian One Night Stand.
This film is designed as a docu-drama - anyone turning on the television set in the middle of the film could well believe, given the style of the film-making, that it was an actual bulletin (with echoes of the style that Orson Welles used in his dramatisation of H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds - seen in the telemovie, The Night That Panicked America).
The film has a group of nuclear scientists reacting against the US and wanting to demand that nuclear weapons be dismantled and destroyed. They become terrorists, hijacking a ship in the harbour of Charleston, South Carolina. The television teams are on the spot, relaying their reports to the anchors in Washington, DC. Various reporters in Washington and other centres also come in as in any current affairs program, especially of an emergency. Experts also discuss the hijackers. They also abduct a television photographer so that they can put their point of view to the American public - which means that the audiences see the hijackers and their interactions.
The film builds up its tension, audiences believing that the bomb would not go off. But it was made in 1983 and Charleston, South Carolina is destroyed, as are many of the media personnel at the wharf.
The film highlights the nuclear threat - and brings it home with some power to the television audience. Ed Flanders and Roxanne Hart are strong as two of the television reporters. David Clennon and David Rasher are strong as the main two scientists. There are recognisable faces in the cast - including Michael Madsen who appears for a brief few seconds. Direction is by Edward Zwick, who was to go on to make the telemovie Having It All and feature movies About Last Night, Glory and Legends of the Fall.
1. The impact of the telemovie in its time? The early '80s? The nuclear background? Impact for Americans? Non-Americans? Emmy Awards?
2. The atmosphere of the '70s and the early '80s, nuclear fear - stockpiles, the possibility of Failsafe being extended? The facts of the number of nuclear weapons? The politics of the Cold War - especially in the early Reagan years? The background of several decades of nuclear confrontation?
3. The title indicating the style of the film? Sustaining the action of the film and the performances as if it were a current affairs program? The reporters and their authenticity, their style? Live action, interruptions, briefings? Editing and improvisations?
4. The plausibility of the situation? American nuclear terrorists? Their choice of the city of Charleston? The group and their components, the variety of motivations for their being on the boat? The scientists, the protesters? The background of the criminals that the scientists met in jail? The reporters and their following the story, the FBI and investigations, the Pentagon and its decisions and reporters at the Pentagon, the people of Charleston? The plausibility of such a hijacking and terrorist activity? The emotional impact of the potential destruction of Charleston?
5. The introduction to the situation: Charleston harbour, the wharf, the boats, the shooting, the taking of hostages? Steven Leavitt and the live cable being taken into the boat? The camera and its ability to show the people and their activities within the confined space of the boat?
6. The background of the scientists, their expertise, their disillusionment, their obsessions? Motivations? Dangerous psychological profiles? Bruce and Dave and their friendship, their decision to give a deadline for the nuclear explosion? The briefings and the Pentagon and the FBI finding out more about the characters? The research of the television station? The explanation, idealists, idealist terrorists? The eventual clash between Bruce and Dave? The TV biographies of the other members of the group and their reasons for being there? Diana Silverman and her protests? The men whom they met in jail? The paranoia?
7. John Woodley in New York, the anchorman, sense of urgency, coordinating the broadcast? Susan Myles as the co-anchor? Their handling the situation together - their personal tensions and media rivalries? The impact of what happened in Charleston and their having to communicate this to the American public?
8. Megan Barclay in Charleston, personality and style as reporter, giving information, being interrupted, in the danger zone, following the danger, the impact of the explosion, her death?
9. The potential of the nuclear weapon, the information given, Dave and the plutonium? The psychological warfare between Dave and Bruce and the media? The threats?
10. The contacts in Washington, DC, Liz Richardson and her reports? Morton Sanders and the background of the White House?
11. The passing of time, the psychological warfare with the hijackers? The danger for the hostages? The psychological profiles and the negotiations? The repercussions for the country? The vivid pictures of the evacuation of Charleston? The churches and prayer, the extortion calls, psychoanalysis? The role of media hype?
12. The stances about the issue - that it might be a hoax, the need for evacuation, the Pentagon and its assessment of the various scenarios, the role of the president?
13. The explosion, the repercussions for the people on the wharf, for the people of Charleston, the destruction of the city? The comparisons with Hiroshima? The film ending, leaving the audience to supply their emotional and intellectual response to the events? Apprehension about the repercussions, the consequences for the United States?
14. The film as particularly of the '80s, reminding audiences of the dramas of the time, with an apocalyptic and end of the world tone?
