Customer Reviews

Special Bulletin (TV-Movie) [VHS]

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

...

And thus this TV movie.

The terrorists' demands and MO don't seem all that far-fetched, given the climate of opinion of the time. This was a time when the nastiest terror cells operating in the First World tended to be intellectual political-theoretical types, committed to the Radicalisation of the Masses (the Bader-Meinhoff Gang, the Red Army Faction, the Symbionese Liberation Army, the Weathermen...) rather than people who actually had something resembling a real grievance.

And so a group of people have decided to dramatise the danger of nuclear weapons; if they are not allowed to strike a symbolic, internationally-acknowledged blow against the nuclear-war-machine, they will strike a REAL blow that will, they hope, bring the realities home to the masses.

And so the stage is set for tragedy.

"Special Bulletin" is, intentionally, made to look as much like real television news coverage as possible -- unlike most TV movies, it is shot on video rather than film (In fact, i wouldn't be at all surprised if the image wasn't intentionally slightly degraded to emphasise that it WAS tape, not film). While a lot of people may not actually be able to describe what the differences between a film image and a video image are, they are perceptible to almost anyone, and the mind, consciously or otherwise, identifies the video image with "real TV" and the film image with "movies".

Another thing that helps to create the rather scary level of verisimilitude in this film is the fact that it is paced like real TV; its rhythm is keyed to commercial breaks, and this enhances the realism of the revreation of the staccato, punchy nature of television news coverage, both when Something Is Happening and in those long stretches when you have had nothing actually new in hours, but you can't just let the story go, if only because the Competition might get a ratings jump on you if something new happens and they're able to go live with it faster than you. (We saw both of these aspects in the recent coverage of the DC-area sniper story.)

((This film is so tied to its commercials that, when a local science-fiction club decided to use it as a program item, they wound up adding one award-winning or blooper-reel commercial at each break, because without the spots it just didn't work.))

Aside from the video imagery and the pacing, there is the fact that the production makes use of realistic sound effects, especially the the flat, popping sound that real gunshots have when recorded, and the familiar sound of voices just off-mike, discernible but muffled.

One mistake, i feel, that was made was the use of a video-generated special effects shot for the climactic moment of the film; maybe that's what such a blast WOULD look like on video, but it doesn't match my memories of footage of actual open-air atomic test shots.

But the aftermath footage is chilling...

(I have read complaints that the electro-magnetic pulse effects of the blast should render TV equipment that close to Ground Zero in operative; i don't know -- this is a very small burst, and remote-news equipment is built pretty tough...)

And the visuals and account of the after-effects that we hear as a follow-up story are at once frightening, heart-breaking, accurate and a pointed reminder of just how insufficient anything we could realistically expec to be able to do to take care of casualties and destroyed cities from anything other than an isolated incident would be...

Grim, scary, still a valid cuationary tale (though the potential nuclear terrorists might have different motives and might strike without warning, the results would be the same...) and brilliantly done.

Deserves a DVD release, perhaps with historical material about the Cold War and the terrorists of the day...

The whole "movie" is done to try and not be a movie at all. In the spirit of H.G. Wells and "War of the Worlds" this 'movie' attempts to seem like an actual news broadcast. You watch as a normal news day turns into a national crisis. A group of anti-nuclear activists has assembled a make-shift atomic device of comparable yield to the ones that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Thier demands are US nuclear disarmament, in the hopes that if they forced the US to make the first move, the USSR would follow suit by disarming in turn. The plot isn't very plausible, even by 80's standards, but the film is interesting and enjoyable to watch.

The special effects in the movie aren't bad, considering the era and the very very very low budget the film must have had. It's interesting to see the news personel changing attitudes, as they slowly begin to grasp the reality of the situation and begin to have a sort of epiphany that the news they report isn't just pictures and facts that don't effect them, it's real.

This isn't really something to watch if you're looking for a great movie, but it was enjoyable, especially to anyone who has an interest in nuclear weapons and the politics there of (or the 80's for that matter) and anyone who likes an out of the ordinary, creative film.

Also may work as a good practical joke, to put in the VCR on New years eve without telling anyone and wait to see if they can tell that something isnt right LOL. Probably wouldn't work, being the clothing and reporting style is CLEARLY not 2002, but hey.

This is a fairly unique and highly-praised TV movie designed, like Orson Welles' radio broadcast of WAR OF THE WORLDS, as if it were real coverage of a nuclear terrorist event on the East Coast of the U.S. More realistic than its contemporary, THE DAY AFTER, this film scared the network enough that they kept running disclaimers throughout its presentation stating that it was not an actual news event. If that description and the subsequent Emmies aren't enough to whet your appetite, I'd say this is just that much more scary in the post-9/11 era. Not a well known TV movie, but it seems even less like fiction now with its urban nuclear terrorist threat and non-stop news coverage of the events. Worth seeing.

Special Bulletin is a TV movie about nuclear bomb threat in Charleston S.C. and how on television network responses to crisis, when one of their newcrews becomes in invovled. I really liked this movie, because of the way that the network reacts to the crisis. In the beginning there is concern for the hostages, but as the continues you see graphics and music being developed. And it becomes less about the hostages and more about get the story. Overall its a good movie.

Patterned after a real news network broadcast, The network actually announced during each station break that "This is a fictitious story", etc. But as I remember viewing it for the first time, until the first commercial, seeing the alternate CNN-type network with 'BREAKING NEWS' and reporters scrambling about actually instilled real fear in me which I have not felt before or since during any cinematic experience. Honestly, I have laughed at movies like "The Exorcist". The vastly more popular (but lousy) mid-'80s film "The Last Day" paled in comparison to this film, which seems to have disapeared like a fart in a hurricane, most likely for scaring too many people.
The evolving profile of the terrorist/mastermind is as chilling as any modern, real profile of Al Queda. Remember, this feature was made almost 20 years before the current proliferation of reality-based television. A Very, Very, interesting and ground-breaking film.

A former Pentagon strategic weapons planner, a brilliant nuclear physicist, a social worker from Penn Valley, a poet, and a nut, combine to blackmail the US government. So far so good. Demanding uni-lateral dis-armament, our anti-heroes claim to have a nuclear bomb aboard the tugboat Liberty May... .."..and if our demands are not met, by 4:30 tomorrow afternoon...this bomb will detonate...and we will all know ...fear..". Powerhouse cast and bristling dialogue. This realistic fake newscast can be seen as a tense drama, dark comedy, satire, and/or propaganda. (Pokes fun at the FBI too!) A must see!

The whole nuclear-thriller aspect of this film is fairly suspenseful, but "Special Bulletin" succeeds most as an accurate depiction of network news. (Within a few hours, the nuclear hostage situation has its own theme song and computer graphics.)

Well-acted -- and shot on video for further verisimilitude -- this gem is one of the great made-for-TV movies of all time.

This film is a real sleeper and its presentation is virtually unique.The film depicts a shattering and momentus news event unfolding as it would be viewed if you were watching CNN. The film is way ahead of its time, and offers some alarming and shuddery scenes of an event that could certainly happen.It was a film I will never forget, and one that I highly recommend.

If Orson Welles had been in the prime of his career in the early 1980's, he may very well have been the lead anchor in "Special Bulletin", an homage to Welles' classic, panic-inducing "War of the Worlds" that has been updated for the nuclear age. The basic premise surrounds the news coverage by the fictional RBS network of a tense standoff in a harbor in Charleston, South Carolina, between authorities and domestic terrorists aboard a tugboat. What is it the terrorists want? Through the use of the news crew they took hostage, they insist on a forum to air their demands. Specifically, the United States government must disarm all nuclear weapon devices in the Charleston area and bring the detonating devices to the tug boat where the terrorists will take them out to see and dispose of them. If their demands are not met, they will EXPLODE A NUCLEAR BOMB that they have on board to boat!! They give until 4:30 pm the day after the initial skirmish to meet their demands, or the bomb will detonate at 6 pm. The news coverage proceeds very much like one would expect during such a crisis, complete with speculation on if the threat was real, press conferences on the government's reaction, scientific analysis of the effect of the bomb if it explodes, and biographies and psychoanalyses of the terrorists. In fact, the coverage was so authentic that local television affiliates were flooded with calls from panicky Charleston residents who wanted to know if this was really happening (in spite of constant disclaimers that this was not an actual event). The tension truly begins to mount as the deadline draws close and there still has been no word on if the government with adhere to the demands. Just after the first deadline passes, the government announces that they will be sending all the detonators to the tugboat. As the terrorists cheer the approach of the trucks that supposedly carry the detonators, there video feed in the tugboat is knocked off-line to conceal the team of Special Forces commandos boarding from the other side of the ship. A brief, but fierce, firefight ensues, leaving the terrorists either dead or captured. With the boat now secure, it is up to the nuclear bomb squad to disarm the weapon before it detonates. Alas, as the final deadline grows closer, they trip one of the anti-tamper devices and the bomb explodes. It's a truly horrifying moment caught on tape that leaves one feeling as though they just witnessed a huge atrocity. In the aftermath of 9/11, such a film is even more chilling. "Special Bulletin" is an excellent cautionary tale of the effects of the news media, terrorism, and the nuclear threat all rolled together.

This has always been one of the films I have watched again every couple of years or so. It's a first class production. While obviously a period piece in terms of its news sets, clothes, etc. the subject matter is even more timely then when it was originally aired. We all learned why on 11 September 2001.
Broadcast news in all of its glory(and flaws)is candidly portrayed by this cast. The seeds of entertainment driven news packaging are sprouting after the RBS network gets its bearings. This has become standard practice at today's network news operations during a crisis.
I always knew that the fictional events here were possible. The events of 9/11 have brought a nightmare of mass murder like this into reality.