Condition Red

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Movie
German title Condition Red
Original title By Dawn's Early Light
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1990
length 97 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Jack Sholder
script Bruce Gilbert
William Prochnau
production Thomas M. Hammel
music Trevor Jones
camera Alexander Gruszynski
cut Tony Lombardo
occupation

Condition Red is an American war film released by HBO in 1990 and based on the novel Trinity's Child by William Prochnau . The film is characterized by the fact that it is the last film adaptation of a fictional nuclear war event before the collapse of the Soviet Union and the associated end of the Cold War . Condition Red received two Emmy nominations. The main roles are known Hollywood - actors occupied.

action

A nuclear missile is fired from Turkey , a member state of NATO , into the territory of the Soviet Union. From this, the defense systems of the Soviet nuclear forces recognize a NATO attack on the Warsaw Pact and carry out a limited nuclear strike against the USA with several nuclear warheads on land- and sea-based ICBMs . During the attack by the USSR on the USA, the armed forces of the People's Republic of China attack the USSR in turn, whereby the Chinese government complies with an agreement with the USA.

While the Soviet nuclear missiles are still on the march against the US, the US President receives a telex from the Soviet Prime Minister expressing his regret over the Soviet nuclear attack, as it was a mistake, especially since the Soviet leadership discovered would have said that the nuclear missile attack from Turkey against the Soviet Union was not an act of war by NATO, but rather renegade Soviet officers stole the corresponding missile and used it from Turkey against the USSR in order to combine NATO and the Warsaw Pact Overthrow war. In doing so, they wanted to bring the reformatory upheavals in the Soviet Union to a standstill. The Soviet Prime Minister now offers the US three options for action:

  1. the US does not react at all or
  2. the Soviet Union will accept an equal counter-attack from the USA
  3. the US is responding with a heavier retaliation, forcing the Soviet Union to counter its own part with its full nuclear arsenal.

After a brief consultation with General Renning from the Strategic Air Command , who suspected a bluff in the Soviet telex , the US President ordered a cautious counter-attack with nuclear weapons. While he was about to leave Washington, DC , the city was hit by incoming nuclear warheads and completely destroyed. Although initially believed to be dead, the President survived this attack with minor injuries, but blinded by the bolt of an explosion.

Assuming the death of the president, the chiefs of staff of the US armed forces, in accordance with the US constitution, install the only attainable cabinet member of the US government to succeed the president: the US secretary of the interior . This is taken on board Air Force One and takes over the further warfare from there. He initially followed the considerations of a naval advisor who - like the president, who was believed dead - recommended a limited counter-attack, but was later persuaded by the belligerent Colonel Fargo to carry out an unlimited nuclear strike against the Soviet Union in order to destroy it completely. So he intends to order a comprehensive nuclear attack and sticks to this decision - always supported by Fargo - even when it becomes clear that the US president survived the attack on Washington DC.

The US president tries to establish contact with Air Force One in order to enforce the execution of his orders, but is refused by them because it is assumed that a Soviet attempt at deception. Thereupon he establishes a connection to the flying command post E-4 Looking Glass , is able to convince the commander there, General Alice, of his legitimation as president and orders Alice to ram Air Force One and thereby destroy it in order to avoid a further escalation of the anyway to prevent already catastrophic situation.

In a dramatic air tracking makes Lookingglass the Air Force One located, they can ask questions and ramming into a suicidal maneuver at the last moment before the publication of the fatal command and destroy. The US President then orders an immediate cessation of all hostilities against the Soviet Union.

Subplot

Throughout the film, the subplot is centered on the crew of a single B-52 Stratofortress , from the time of their alarm start in Spokane with the order to destroy Soviet cities. The crew carries out a (virtual) test drop targeting the city of Irkutsk . The B-52 was soon followed and shot at by three Soviet interceptors. These are destroyed when the B-52 flies over a basin into which the crew drops an atom bomb. When the bomb detonated after a delay, the interceptors were directly over the center of gravity of the detonation . After these dramatic events, several crew members - apart from the pilot - lose their nerve, with an officer later even attempting to kill the pilot, which however fails. Copilot Captain Moreau, who is also the lover of the pilot Major Cassidy, refuses to obey him, but can later convince him of the futility of nuclear war, so that it is mutually agreed not to use any further nuclear weapons and thus to abandon the mission unilaterally to solve. A desertion is avoided only will be known that the US President, the cessation of hostilities has ordered.

Differences from the novel

The film is basically very much oriented towards the novel, but differs from it in two essential points: In the novel the crisis begins with a deliberate nuclear attack by the USSR on the USA. Furthermore, there is only a rudimentary love affair between Cassidy and Moreau in the novel, whereas the film even portrays a sexual relationship as existing.

criticism

The lexicon of international films criticized that the film was a "collection of the common genre clichés without any particular entertainment value" . The production “does not go beyond mediocrity in terms of tricks either” .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Condition Red. In: Lexicon of international films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used