World War III (1982)

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Siskoid
World War III is a 1982 3-hour TV Cold War epic that creates the circumstances for a covert Soviet attack on Alaska that may well lead to world war. Lots of familiar faces in this, and three real threads to follow, all of them about men who are seen as failures of a sort and will either prove themselves or won't. The ground battle in Alaska is led by David Soul, as a Colonel who was always too much of a maverick to make general. The U.S. President is actually a kinged VP not expected to even get his party's nomination in the next elections; he's played by Rock Hudson. And in the U.S.S.R., the KGB really controls the situation and the Glastnostian Secretary is handed the situation to him. There's a lot happening, but the movie need not have been this long. There's a LOT of air in most talking scenes, and the action feels repetitive and interminable at times. And they do want us to know who these characters are as people, so the first half features a lot of character-building. Past the halfway point, however, things get more interesting. The tactics, politics and ethics of the situation are well thought-out and give no easy answers. The threads' various endings are a bit wonky though, especially the Alaskan bit that is suddenly overcome by pretentious scripting and direction. Still, better and more balanced than I would have imagined based on the subject matter and the medium. 6 years 3 months ago