World War III (1982)

Touches You

One of my all time favorites.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

I saw this miniseries as a child and I find it beguiling at the time. This was in the early 1980s, at the height of the Cold War, and the plot, though perhaps unlikely, did not sound as far-fetched as would now seem. Basically, after the US decides to impose a grain embargo on the Soviet Union (remember this really happened after the Russians invaded Afghanistan in 1979), the Soviets decide to retaliate by invading Alaska (!). Tensions rise, and an urgent meeting between the president of the United States (Rock Hudson) and the Soviet leader (Brian Keith) in Greenland does not defuse the situation. Given the title of the movie, I'm not revealing much if I say the movie does end in a rather bad note. Well made and entertaining, though a bit of a product of its time.

I agree with everyone else: a great TV-movie, with the always excellent David Soul, and I am SHOCKED that it never received a DVD release (or even VHS as far as I know, but I haven't checked eBay recently). At the time, circa 1982, with Reagan in the White House, and the following year's "The Day After" and ongoing anti-Nuke protests, the military conflict between the US & USSR was very relevant. Perhaps I should say extremely relevant: my generation's Cuban Missile Crisis. I am always amazed when I talk with someone under-30, who says "Reagan? Cold War? Huh???". I had friends who literally lived in a hole in the ground part of the year, with their bottled water and dried food stash. A bit crazy even for the day, but I was in the military reserve, and the mindset of the country, be you a pacifist or a warrior, was in agreement that the nuclear fireball was on it's way by warhead any day. Not to give any support to Bush #2, but in another 20 years we'll look back at the first decade of the 21st Century and tell our grandchildren about the Terrorist Attack(s), and they will have NO CLUE what we are talking about. This excellent TV-movie is a good reminder of those long years of living with the threat of nuclear war. I'm glad that it can be viewed now as an entertaining history lesson.

This film made an enormous impression on me at 12 yrs old, so much so that it sticks with me 21 years later. The film is suspenseful. The cinematography is top of the line. The climax (no spoilers follow) involves an application of military strategy dating from ancient times, which seemed imaginative to me at the time. And the cold of Alaska, the threat of Soviet invasion, the stakes of nuclear holocaust... all had me on the edge of my seat. I'd love to buy the film, but alas, there are no releases on DVD or video.

Thankfully, this 1982 miniseries no longer has any contemporary relevance unless you're doing a study of Cold War era movies (I won't comment on the dated aspects of the political outlook, since I've done that with other movies like "2010" and "Dr. Strangelove"). I have to wonder though if the previous reviewer is confusing Brian Keith's performance in "Meteor" with this one, because that was the film where he spoke only Russian. In this one, it was just accented English.Rock Hudson is credible as the president, though there's really not much to brag about from the rest of the cast. I do have to give the producers credit for their metaphorical depiction of the end. Gil Melle's music accompanying the images is probably the most frightening sounding I've ever heard in a TV score. It's much more eerily effective than the graphic attempts at realism in "The Day After" (and reminiscent of the ending of "Fail Safe").