Released during the presidency of that lovable rouge, the rootin'-tootin'-bonzo-starrin'-we-start-bombin'-in-five-minutes Ronnie Reagan, "World War III" is a fascinating time piece. A revisit to this 1982 paranoid cold war thriller creates a sense of nostalgia for the clarity of the 'enemy'. Back then, M.A.D. was the umbrella under which the world shivered, and humanity lived by the beat of the advancing Doomsday Clock.
Although relentlessly outdated, this Eighties TV film is a raw depiction of death in the most brutal, chilly way. A small National Guard force battles a crack Soviet company whose goal is to take out an Alaskan pumping station and thus cripple the critical oil pipeline. Their action is ordered by high ranking KGB officials in retaliation for a US grain embargo.
The Pres, Rock Hudson, stares down the Soviet Premier, Brian Keith, in a poker game played with nuclear chips. The Premier does not really hold the government's reigns, and the tense situation escalates into war as depicted in a trite montage of smiling faces and pretty sunsets; Cut To Black. BOOOOMMMM!!! (Inferred)
"World War III" is packed with your favorite marginal Eighties stars on their way down the career ladder. It's the post "Don't Give Up on Us" David Soul, late of "Starsky and Hutch," as the Colonel in command of the American forces defending their homeland. A foxy-in-uniform Cathy Lee Crosby is an intelligence officer, and the Colonel's former flame. (She went from this to guest commentator on TV Wrestling in 1986.)
A red blooded film, "World War III" saves the jingoism by portraying both sides as insane: US uses food as a weapon; starving Russians respond.
This work pulls no punches yet labors within the venerable TV Miniseries framework. The 7 Star rating reflects the work as such. "World War III" is a passable time-waster for those who remember the Eighties and wish to take a trip down memory lane. (And maybe cheered when the US took Olympic Gold in 1980 by miraculously defeating the Russkies.)
Although relentlessly outdated, this Eighties TV film is a raw depiction of death in the most brutal, chilly way. A small National Guard force battles a crack Soviet company whose goal is to take out an Alaskan pumping station and thus cripple the critical oil pipeline. Their action is ordered by high ranking KGB officials in retaliation for a US grain embargo.
The Pres, Rock Hudson, stares down the Soviet Premier, Brian Keith, in a poker game played with nuclear chips. The Premier does not really hold the government's reigns, and the tense situation escalates into war as depicted in a trite montage of smiling faces and pretty sunsets; Cut To Black. BOOOOMMMM!!! (Inferred)
"World War III" is packed with your favorite marginal Eighties stars on their way down the career ladder. It's the post "Don't Give Up on Us" David Soul, late of "Starsky and Hutch," as the Colonel in command of the American forces defending their homeland. A foxy-in-uniform Cathy Lee Crosby is an intelligence officer, and the Colonel's former flame. (She went from this to guest commentator on TV Wrestling in 1986.)
A red blooded film, "World War III" saves the jingoism by portraying both sides as insane: US uses food as a weapon; starving Russians respond.
This work pulls no punches yet labors within the venerable TV Miniseries framework. The 7 Star rating reflects the work as such. "World War III" is a passable time-waster for those who remember the Eighties and wish to take a trip down memory lane. (And maybe cheered when the US took Olympic Gold in 1980 by miraculously defeating the Russkies.)