Disgruntled Nam Vet Controls The Button 'Twilight's Last Gleaming' is extremely original and gripping edge of your seat action. It ranks right up there with, 'Failsafe' 'War Games' and 'Crimson Tide' as one of the all time great nuclear holocaust films.The plot: Four terrorists led by Burt Lancaster manage to take control of a nuclear missile silo in Montana. As implausible as it is we're gripped by not knowing whom they are or their motives.It's cleverly revealed that Lancaster is a disgruntled Vietnam vet general who wanted to expose the truth about the war's motives through the release of classified documents. As a result the military framed him for murder. Lancaster organized a prison break and with nine missiles at his disposal he speaks with the president directly and demands the documents be made public.Lancaster comes off as one of the few movie terrorists we sympathize with even though he's just killed American soldiers.We also feel for the honorable president who is left with an impossible choice, release documents which could destroy the country, or face a nuclear holocaust.The film's villains are the military generals who caused this mess and refuse to allow the disclosure of the documents. They'd prefer a nuclear war! 'Twilight's Last Gleaming' really keeps you on the edge of your seat for 2.5 hours! It shows how powerful drama can overcome implausible Hollywood cliques such as escaped convicts taking over a secure missile silo, even knowing its traps.Also that Lancaster and Paul Winfield would be stupid enough to simply walk out of the bunker. And that "military snipers" would spray and pray with M16s in the final scene. And that NO paramedics would be on site.Paul Winfield is horribly miscast as a jive talking street thug. Paul Winfield the most eloquent black actor today reduced to a stereotypical token black guy? It doesn't work. Winfield can't play the fool no matter how hard he tries. But he does get to say one of the best lines in movie history: "To get out of that sxxxhole I would've told you I was George Wallace with a tan." A classic sound bite.

Dismissed upon original release as a "pedestrian potboiler", TWILIGHT'S LAST GLEAMING (a phrase taken from "The Star Spangled Banner") has subsequently come to be regarded as a belated masterpiece in Robert Aldrich's career . Actually. Aldrich was merely a hired hand on the project and only managed to secure the services of one of his long-time crew members (editor Michael Luciano, albeit sharing that credit with two others); even so, Jerry Goldsmith (standing in for the absent DeVol) delivers a typically fine musical backing. It was also the fourth collaboration between the director and leading man Burt Lancaster (as a disgraced but vehemently patriotic former U.S.A.F. General) who heads a remarkable cast where a known face virtually inhabits every major role; in this regard, Melvyn Douglas (as the Secretary of Defence), Charles Durning (as the U.S. President), Gerald S. O'Loughlin (as the Presidential aide) and Paul Winfield (as a dishonorably discharged soldier) emerge as particularly outstanding. In this day and age replete with bland, unnecessary remakes of past successes, it is refreshing to come across an older movie that stands no chance whatsoever of being deigned with that dubious honor; not only that: I sincerely believe that, as long as the war in Iraq rages on, it will also never be released on DVD...but I would love to be proved wrong by Warners. Ironically enough, I watched this on the very day that Italy was gloriously burying (via an all-day-long TV coverage) six of its sons who lost their lives in a suicide attack while serving in Afghanistan! Set in the near future of 1981 (i.e. four years after production), technically, TWILIGHT'S LAST GLEAMING can be considered a science-fiction movie and, in fact, it is virtually as prophetic as John Frankeneheimer's THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE (1962) vis-a-vis the eventual shooting of the U.S. President (lest we forget, an assassination attempt on then-President Ronald Reagan was actually made in 1981)! In plot terms, the film resides somewhere between Frankenheimer's SEVEN DAYS IN MAY (1964; in which Burt Lancaster is a renegade U.S. General who sets a coup d'etat in motion) and THE BEDFORD INCIDENT (1965; in which tyrannical naval officer Richard Widmark drives one particular officer serving under him to nuclear holocaust) and, indeed, Widmark plays Lancaster's antagonistic former superior in GLEAMING as well! The highlight of the film is the central discussion sequence in which the real reasons behind the Vietnam War are revealed to a disbelieving President by Secretary Of State Joseph Cotten; in this regard, it is refreshing to have the U.S. President - not to mention Burt Lancaster - lose it and let rip with four-letter words and other assorted profanities (perhaps most surprisingly when uttering a "Screw Church!" very early on). Another unexpected but most welcome element were the occasional dollops of black comedy which serve to alleviate the ever-increasing tension of the situation - like when Durning and O'Loughlin exchange wisecracks while discussing the possibility of the former losing his life in the process of his ransom exchange meeting with Lancaster, Winfield and Burt Young (who have commandeered a military base capable of launching nine missiles) or when Winfield entertains the notion that the approaching President may be a double or that the security cameras are showing the surrounding grounds of their military base as uninhabited because the Army has employed midget snipers!! Necessitated by the increasingly intricate train of events, Aldrich makes admirable use of the split-screen technique to keep up with the Presidential discussions, Widmark's military maneuvers and Lancaster's agonizing waiting; incidentally, the latter would soon star in one of the first (and most effective) films dealing with the Vietnam War, GO TELL THE SPARTANS (1978; with which I am familiar and have just acquired). Despite the film's considerable length of 144 minutes, it emerges an exciting and thought-provoking political thriller, a genre which, personally, never fails to engross me; having said that, there was a shorter version prepared for European distribution which ran for 122 minutes and the film also sported the alternate title of NUCLEAR COUNTDOWN for some theatrical engagements. Thankfully, I came across a good VHS-sourced copy (albeit panned-and-scanned) of the full-length version from CBS/Fox Video which, as I said earlier, will most probably have to do for an indefinite period of time...

I 'm going to counterbalance the previous two reviews. The only reason it's considered "absurdist left-wing" fodder, is that the two reviewers still didn't understand the hatred of that war – of course being divided into this left wing-right wing B.S. wedge that the 2 term administration has firmly slammed into the American Consciousness. The original reviewer doesn't realize that several Vietnam Vets overran the Pentagon, went to Washington D.C. and literally threw their medals. This was a film, that was a catharsis for many overwhelming numbers of PEOPLE THAT ACTUALLY FOUGHT THE WAR experienced.The movie is a cat and mouse thriller with Burt Lancaster demanding attention from the White House by controlling a missle silo/bunker complex. As a former Air Force General with high security clearance, he knows how to complete the mission. The film is a study on why a decorated General threatens to start WW III.On the opposite side of the fence lies the President, played by Charles Durning whose aim is to stop him. The supporting actors are outstanding on all accounts, Richard Widmark, Paul Winfield, Burt Young, Melvin Douglas, to name a few. The actors making up the presidents cabinet are outstanding. The cabinet/advisors must decide- is the General a mad man or can he pull off his threat of missle launch. What is his agenda? The ending is a shocking, uncompromising statement on what happens in a political chess match. The military adviser tells the president, the buck stops here.... you are responsible, even for past transgressions from a previous presidency. I like the fact that a military person says " our way of life can survive the truth."

America developed the Atomic Bomb in the 1940's and terrified the world with it's use on Japan. Ever since, the weapon has undergone enormous transformation from it's inception to the nightmarish mega-tonnage of today. Created to fly only once, these weapons of Mass destruction have been in hibernation waiting for someone lunatic enough to give them flight. Such a man is General Lawrence Dell (Burt Lancaster) who with the passionate fervor of a man with a mission expertly hijacks a missile complex. With the help of three escape convicts (William Smith, Paul Winfield and Burt Young) threaten to start World War III if their demands are not met. Such is the scenario of Twilight's Last Gleaming. The film contains a run-away-script which ignites the fears of the world and confront the President of the United States (Charles During, one of his finest roles to date) and his cabinet with the reality of World Destruction. The high drama and tense nail-biting excitement is one of the bi-products of this heart pounding film. All in all, a classic confrontation between a deceptive, administration and a general out to expose their callous indifferent nature towards war. Excellence performances by Joseph Cotton, William Marshall, and Richard Jaeckel. *****