By Dawn's Early Light (1990)

Fantastic!

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

I wanted to watch this movie based only on claims of authenticity. It just so happened that various members of its cast (Boothe, Jones, De Mornay, Torn & De Munn) made me believe it could even be one of those undiscovered gems that make you ask "why have I not seen this movie before?" Well I'll tell you why; it's LAME! Authenticity goes as far as the bomber plane Boothe and De Mornay are in control of. Apart from that, Boothe's dialogue alone would have made sure his character was grounded. Beyond that, it relies heavily on a lack of knowledge and suspension of disbelief.It may have been good enough for an audience in 1990, but even a college student would be lambasted for making the same mistakes in a short film.Tries to be serious. Silly as hell!

By Dawn's Early Light is tautly paced and very suspenseful.It chronicles a mistaken nuclear exchange and the aftermath. The cast is very strong and extensive. There is much intrigue at work in BDEL and it involves players you wouldn't expect.My complaint about BDEL involves some improbable happenings in the relationship between pilot Booth and co-pilot de Mornay. There is early establishment that Booth is the alpha of the pair. That is quickly and inexplicably reversed very soon after. Suddenly de Mornay is ordering Booth around and he follows instruction with no hesitation. Second, de Mornay has one eye exposed to a nuclear flash. She says she is blind in that eye. No more mention of the injury for the rest of the film. No visible evidence of the retinal burns. No red eye. No swelling. No watering. Nothing resulting from this painful injury. Baffling.Despite that, I thoroughly enjoyed this 1990 HBO production. Back in the day....

I don't know anything about Norad, SAC, ALC, or have been a nuclear submariner so sue me. The movie depicts us as we want our military leaders to be...ones that don't want war. The loose cannon in the fray is the psychotic vice president and the everybody else trying to reverse the end of the world. Liberal propaganda? If it is, then the conservative view is that if we tossed enough nukes at the USSR in the movie we could have won! Ooookay, sure yeah right thats how you win mutually assured destruction wars. Geez some folks that comment on here are nutjobs.I liked the acting, and I found it far more gripping than fail safe or any other nuclear war movie since it concentrated on the people rather than the nukes. If you are a nuke lover who gets aroused at the sight of an LGM-118A taking off than this movie's not for you. Low budgets don't necessarily mean low quality cinema. Another low budget flick about nuclear war I highly recommend along with this one is "Miracle Mile". Another leftist tree hugging commie loving movie you rightwing nuke missile shaft stroking types will hate.

Based on the previous reviews I read, here, I have to conclude that P.T. Barnum WAS right: "There IS a sucker born, every minute!" I served four years in SAC (Strategic Air Command), including a year-and-a-half at Offutt Air Force Base (Headquarters SAC, Omaha, Nebraska), and if ANYONE disobeyed orders, and behaved irrationally (like some of the "professionals" depicted in this awful, awful, awful movie did), they'd have been shot on the spot. Or, at least, we'd HOPE they would! MY GOD, the BAD acting in this movie, plus the BAD writing, the BAD production values (can you believe one reviewer on this board said, "top notch production values"? Yeah, based on WHAT, "Plan 9 From Outer Space"?!), the BAD special effects (on a level with the 60's TV series, "Batman," actually!) and the BAD direction, had me CRINGING in my seat! I quite literally HAD to watch this turkey to its unlikely conclusion, JUST TO SEE HOW BAD IT COULD GET! The ABSOLUTE WORST "acting" was perpetrated by the pilot, and co-pilot, of the B-52 crew (Powers Boothe and Rebecca De Mornay); DO you think the writer of this schlock could've had them on the same page, for at least two minutes??? I mean, one minute he (Boothe) is at her throat, and the very next minute he wants to "canoodle" with her! He calls her the BEST co-pilot he's EVER had, and a heartbeat later, he's giving her cyanide, and ordering her OUT of the cockpit! He (Boothe) engages in fisticuffs with another crew member, and later, THAT crew member ejects himself from the aircraft! JEEZE, at least Slim Pickens DIDN'T have THESE kinds of problems in the FAR, FAR, FAR, FAR, FAR superior, "Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb." In that classic, the B-52 commander (Pickens) ONLY had to contend with a malfunctioning A-bomb. Speaking of "Dr. Strangelove," one of the crew members from that earlier movie returns in this one: James Earl Jones. Man, HIS character is SUPPOSED to be a SAC-trained professional? He waffled, so much, I wanted to call him "Aunt Jemima!" You want to take MY advice, and the advice of a few other sane, rational and intelligent posters on this thread? SKIP this crud, and watch the vastly superior "Dr. Strangelove," and "Fail-Safe." Even "On The Beach," with Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner and Fred Astaire, for end-of-the-world scenarios. BOTTOM LINE: Even the spoof, "Airplane," with Leslie Nielsen (!!!), made more sense than this bottom-feeder did.