Twilight's Last Gleaming

Walter Wagers' novel "Viper Three" is the basis for this solidly entertaining movie about Lawrence Dell (Burt Lancaster), a renegade former Air Force general who's broken out of prison. In the company of three other men - Willis Powell (Paul Winfield), Augie Garvas (Burt Young), and Hoxey (William Smith) - he manages to infiltrate an ICBM silo near Montana. His intention is to threaten to start WWIII if the U.S.A. does NOT come clean regarding the "real" reasons that they started the Vietnam war.

Many conversations between the P.O.T.U.S. (Charles Durning) and his top aides follow, as well as a couple of attempts to subdue Dell and his comrades. These are spearheaded by Martin MacKenzie (Richard Widmark), a Commanding General who is a thorn in the side from Dells' past.

Durning, as a highly principled President, and Winfield, as a smart, savvy man who actually has to educate the somewhat naive Dell on the reality of what they're facing, are the MVPs in this incredible array of top notch actors. Although this viewer was a little dismayed to see big bad Bill Smith removed from the story awfully early, he was thoroughly impressed to see so much talent in one place. And that extends to the character actors in small parts. (Keep your eyes peeled for a young John Ratzenberger.)

Jerry Goldsmiths' majestic score is perfect accompaniment for a compelling narrative that provides some food for thought. After all, the desire for a government that is actually open and honest with its citizens is something many of us - not just Americans - would dearly like to see. Director Robert Aldrich handles everything in style; this is a very well directed film, especially in a few genuinely tense sequences. The only real criticism that this viewer would level at "Twilight's Last Gleaming" is that it does go on an awfully long time.

Interestingly, this was filmed on location in Germany.

Seven out of 10.

Despite the thick-ear dialogue, lack-lustre performances from most of the cast, (Charles Durning being the notable exception), and the frankly ridiculous premiss of a renegade general taking over a nuclear missile silo and holding the US government to ransom, Aldrich's dip into the Cold War paranoia genre is surprisingly good, working both as a highly suspenseful thriller, (Aldrich makes great use of split screens), and as a reasonably serious picture on American foreign policy. It's also funny enough to work as political satire and I'm not sure that Aldrich took it all that seriously. It may not be in the same class as either "Seven Days in May" or "Fail Safe" and television dramas such as "The West Wing" and "House of Cards" are much closer to the mark on what goes on in the Oval Office than anything here but it's also far from negligible and if it's hardly Aldrich's best film it's still well worth seeing.

Twilight's Last Gleaming is a rather far fetched and fanciful tale about a rogue general taking over a missile silo, isolating it from remote control at the Pentagon and White House and having 9 Titan missiles with atomic warheads at your command. Burt Lancaster who was railroaded into a murder conviction to silence him escapes with Paul Winfield, Burt Young, and William Smith and they take over the missile silo and issue demands.

The film is fascinating in one respect how this crisis is isolated from the knowledge of the public. The deliberations over the Cuban Missile Crisis had nothing on this and even that went public. The closest real happening in our history was when Grover Cleveland went missing for about 5 weeks to have cancer surgery and that never came out in his lifetime. Of course it worked out far better for Grover than it did for this president.

Charles Durning plays the fictional president David Stevens and what Lancaster demands of him is not just the usual money extortion. He wants a document read from a National Security Council meeting from the Vietnam war years which would have a calamitous impact on a lot of people and our national credibility involving our very reasons for being in Vietnam. Durning did not even know the existence of it as his presidency is way in the future. But sly old time Defense Secretary Melvyn Douglas knows and as it works in these cases his reputation and national security seem to blend in.

Another sly man from the past is Air Force General Richard Widmark who was once Lancaster's superior. Other members of the cabinet include Secretary Of State Joseph Cotten and Attorney General William Marshall.

Despite Oscar winners and big box office names like Widmark and Cotten, walking away with the acting honors here is Charles Durning as the president who is thrust into a crisis involving the distant past for him. His scenes with military aide Gerald O'Loughlin have some real feel and poignancy for both men.

Twilight's Last Gleaming though far fetched is well worth a look.

In the 1960's three "nuclear" movies stand out: Dr. Strangelove, Fail Safe, and the much under rated Bedford Incident. All tried in their own ways to raise awareness of the implications of both the Cold War, the mind set of Nuclear Warriors and their political masters, and the dangers implicit in the possession of nuclear weapons. While Twilights Last Gleaming is not as good as these three, it is an excellent well crafted film that not only explores the mind set of the military and politicians, but also how a power structure will protect itself, particularly from that most dangerous of threats: the truth. Its also explores ONE of the reasons that once in Vietnam, the US found it so hard to get out. If you enjoy this one, check out another Burt Lancaster movie, CONTROL. Again, an excellent treatment of a nuclear subject.

And If it says Richard Widmark on the cast, you know he's going to play a top general, and even more ridiculously than in "The Swarm". Here, Burt Lancaster--playing the mad-dove equivalent of his mad-hawk general from "Seven Days in May"--hijacks a nuclear missile silo, demanding the President (Charles Durning, uncannily resembling the present-day Bill Clinton) as hostage, and threatens to launch it if the government doesn't release the secret memo of why we went to Vietnam.

The whole "Ironic patriotism" is laid on a little too thickly, as if the German filmmakers were trying a little too hard to make an American Picture, but the real problem is director Robert Aldrich: The ex-Baby Jane director didn't quite survive the 70's ("The Longest Yard", "The Choirboys"), the Aldrich touch was never elegant or subtle, and the opening "heist" scenes of hijacking the silo are spoiled by turning Lancaster's partners-in-crime into foul-mouthed cliche' thugs. Also, for almost half the film, Aldrich tries to borrow Brian dePalma's trick of split-screening parallel plots and phone conversations, but doesn't seem to understand how dePalma used them for "suspense"--Here, he just lets things play out like we're watching the movie on dual security cameras, or a film-school editing assignment of "How would you intercut these two scenes to make it more exciting.?"

Stil, worth a watch if it comes your way.