Now that the threat of nuclear annihilation is on everyone’s mind again (why do you suppose that is), let’s have some fun and take a look at my favorite movies from the Cold War.
I had to leave out the hundreds of spy movies made during that time period because there are simply too many of them. If I had to pick one I’d say From Russia With Love (James Bond).
I also left out most of the post-apocalypse genre like the Mad Max films even though I love them.
I didn’t include A Gathering of Eagles or Bombers B-52 because I’ve never seen either one in its entirety.
Strategic Air Command (1955)
Real-life bomber pilot and Brigadier General Jimmy Stewart stars in this propaganda film about a baseball player called back to active duty in the titular Strategic Air Command. I include this movie mostly because it features some great footage of the B-36 and B-47. Otherwise the plot is about what you’d expect from a movie made in 1955. If you watch closely you’ll spot Harry Morgan as the B-36 flight engineer.
Red Dawn (1984)
Those dastardly Russians and their Cuban allies invade the United States. Fortunately Patrick Swayze, Charlie Sheen and C. Thomas Howell are there to fight them off. Wolverines! Never mind securing strategic ports or major infrastructure, the Soviets waste an elite airborne division on some podunk town in rural Colorado. I thought the only character with any nuance was the Cuban Colonel played by Ron O’Neill, who has second thoughts about the whole business. Still it’s a fun movie if you willfully suspend disbelief.
Notable quotes:
“It was five against one. I got four!”
“I thought there were a billion Chinese?” “There were.”
War Games (1983)
I never really liked this movie because I felt the entire premise was faulty. I include it here because a lot of other people did like it.
During a surprise drill Air Force missile launch officers refuse to launch their missiles, resulting in a supercomputer being put in charge of nuclear forces. Hilarity ensues when the computer mistakes a simulation for the real thing.
Notable quote: "A strange game, the only winning move is not to play."
K-19: The Widowmaker (2002)
Harrison Ford stars in this somewhat factual movie about the Soviet Union’s first nuclear powered missile submarine. Any good submarine movie needs to have at least one “Something’s wrong with the boat and we’re all gonna die!” scene. In this case it’s roughly half the movie.
The real K-19 was never called “The Widowmaker”. After the incident it was nicknamed “Hiroshima”.
Note to self: never ever join the Russian Navy.
The Day After (1983)
This made-for-TV movie scared the crap out of everybody back in 1983. The people of Lawrence Kansas deal with the aftermath of a nuclear war. Post apocalypse Kansas is almost as bleak and depressing as today’s Kansas, except everyone mercifully dies in the movie.
By Dawn’s Early Light (1990)
This made-for-HBO movie stars Powers Boothe as the aircraft commander of a B-52 during a limited nuclear war with the Soviets. Most of the movie deals with a breakdown in command-control with the acting President wanting to escalate the war and the real President (who was initially believed killed) trying to end it. Overall it’s rather cheesy but I thought the depiction of nuclear command-control procedures was pretty spot on. James Earl Jones as the SAC commander on the EC-135 “Looking Glass” is probably the best part of the movie.
Favorite scene: The B-52 killing a MiG with a nuclear BIF (Bomb in Face).
The Bedford Incident (1965)
Destroyer Captain Richard Widmark of the USS Bedford chases a Russian submarine across the North Atlantic. Things get a little out of hand. Think of it as a modern day version of Moby Dick, with Widmark as Captain Ahab and journalist Sidney Poitier as Ishmael.
"I won’t fire first, but If he fires one, I'll fire one."
”Roger, fire one sir!”
”Doh!”
Crimson Tide (1995)
This movie actually takes place after the end of the Cold War, but I’m including it anyway because it’s good. Gene Hackman stars as the Captain of the ballistic missile submarine USS Alabama during a nuclear crisis after the breakup of the Soviet Union. A civil war has broken out in Russia and an ultra-nationalist leader is threatening to attack the US with nuclear weapons. The USS Alabama has received conflicting orders. Do they launch a preemptive strike or try to get clarification?
I have no idea how plausible the movie is but it’s certainly dramatic.
The French aircraft carrier Foch was used in the movie after the US Navy refused to cooperate in the production. The Navy didn’t like the fact that the script featured a mutiny. They’re funny about that sort of thing.
On the Beach (1959)
Okay, hide all the sharp objects in the house and lock up the liquor cabinet before watching this heart-wrencher of a movie. The nuclear war is over. Everybody is dead, except Australia, and they know it’s only a matter of time before the fallout gets to them. Great cast featuring Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner and Fred Astaire.
Mmmmmmm……...Ava Gardner………sorry, where was I?
A very powerful movie but very depressing. The living will envy the dead and so will you after watching it. Hey, you didn’t think the apocalypse was going to be fun did you?
Top Gun (1986)
Cheesy but entertaining US Navy recruiting film that very loosely deals with the Cold War. Starring Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer in case you’ve spent the last 30 years in a bunker. It depicts a fictional encounter with “MiG-28s” somewhere in the Indian Ocean. I don’t know if the movie ever even states which country the MiGs belong to. They’re purely there as a plot device.
When they tried to use real tactics they found that the jets were so far apart you couldn’t even see them. That’s why the dogfight scenes all look like they take place at rock-throwing range. No F-14 crew would ever want to let a MiG get that close. They’d shoot it from beyond visual range with a radar guided missile.
Note that there is no such thing as a MiG-28. MiGs are always odd numbered.
You knew Goose was done for the moment his wife and kid showed up.
The entire movie is highly quotable.
Here are a few of my favorites:
“Thanks Maverick, I really enjoyed that.”
“What was the name of that truck driving school again?”
“That was some of the best flying I've seen to date - right up to the part where you got killed.”
For a good laugh, check out the SNL sketch featuring Val Kilmer as an airline pilot.
The Hunt for Red October (1990)
Russian Captain Sean (I won’t do a Russian accent) Connery attempts to defect to the West along with his highly advanced nuclear submarine. Based on the novel that made Tom Clancy famous. Alec Baldwin plays CIA analyst Jack Ryan who is tasked with helping the Russians to defect.
Face it, you knew Sam Neill’s character was going to die the moment he started talking about what he was going to do after they got to America. In any military movie, the guy who talks about what he’s doing to do after the war is a goner for certain.
This one is full of notable quotes:
“Hey, Ryan, be careful what you shoot at. Most things in here don't react too well to bullets.”
”This business will get out of control! It will get out of control and we'll be lucky to live through it!”
“You arrogant ass! You've killed us!”
Fail Safe (1964)
A computer error causes a group of US bombers to receive the “go code” to attack Russia. The President, played by Henry Fonda, frantically tries to call them back. A very young Larry Hagman plays the President’s interpreter as he communicates with the Russians and tries to avert a full scale war. Walter Matthau plays an adviser to the President who seems to have been based on Henry Kissinger.
You can see some footage of B-58 Hustlers standing in for the “Vindicator” bombers. Other Cold War icons like the F-104, F-101 and F-102 also show up as stock footage. Mirage III’s stand in for the Soviet interceptors.
Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
Not only the greatest Cold War movie, but one of the greatest movies of all time. Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece has a similar plot to Fail Safe, but is played as black comedy.
Insane General Jack D. Ripper (Sterling Hayden) has ordered his B-52 wing to attack the Soviet Union and only he knows the code to recall them. Should the President (Peter Sellers) try to stop the war or should he follow the advice of General Buck Turgidson (George C. Scott) and order a full attack?
Sellers also plays an RAF exchange officer and the titular Doctor Strangelove. He was also to have played my namesake Major T. J. "King" Kong but the role went to Slim Pickens after Sellers suffered and injury. John Wayne and Dan Blocker (Bonanza) were also offered the part of Major Kong but turned it down. I can’t imagine anyone but Slim Pickens playing the part.
Kubrick got the interior of the B-52 pretty darn close considering that the Air Force wouldn’t let him get near one. B-52s were still classified in 1964. He based the entire set on a single photograph.
Kubrick used George C. Scott’s over-the-top “practice” takes in the actual movie, which torqued Scott off to no end. Scott thought he was making a serious movie and probably wouldn’t have signed on for a comedy.
Everything about this movie is damn near perfect. The script, the lighting and especially the soundtrack.
If I had to nitpick I’d say the final bomb run seems to take up the last 20 minutes of the movie and they must have tried about eight different ways to open the bomb doors. In reality there were only two. But hey, dramatic license.
The entire movie is eminently quotable. Trust me, I’ve seen it enough times to have the thing memorized. If you haven’t seen it, go rent it, now — while there’s still time.
If you need me I’ll be in the back yard digging a bomb shelter.