In Charleston a television crew, which is supposed to shoot a news item about a social conflict in the docks, is taken hostage. The hostage takers, who have a whole different agenda, demand extensive coverage and claim to possess an atom bomb. At first the hostage takers seem to be loons or con men, but is this really the case ?
Topical, tense and taut, "Special bulletin" is an uncomfortably realistic movie about the birth and growth of a major nuclear crisis. A real-life crisis might very well develop along the exact same lines : a lot of media coverage, a lot of talking heads and a total lack of solutions. As in "Doctor Strangelove", the movie contains a sense of steadily growing, steadily escalating doom : the clockwork, once started, cannot be stopped.
"Special bulletin" was years ahead of its time, predicting and condemning the strangely complicit relationship between terrorists and media. Later decennia have given ample proof of this unlovely interdependency. (Viewers who would like to see another exploration of the same theme, could take a look at the recent series "Gidseltagningen" / "Below the surface".)
Topical, tense and taut, "Special bulletin" is an uncomfortably realistic movie about the birth and growth of a major nuclear crisis. A real-life crisis might very well develop along the exact same lines : a lot of media coverage, a lot of talking heads and a total lack of solutions. As in "Doctor Strangelove", the movie contains a sense of steadily growing, steadily escalating doom : the clockwork, once started, cannot be stopped.
"Special bulletin" was years ahead of its time, predicting and condemning the strangely complicit relationship between terrorists and media. Later decennia have given ample proof of this unlovely interdependency. (Viewers who would like to see another exploration of the same theme, could take a look at the recent series "Gidseltagningen" / "Below the surface".)