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      Special Bulletin

      1983 1h 40m Mystery & Thriller List
      Reviews 83% 50+ Ratings Audience Score A perfectly typical broadcast evening on a major network is interrupted by a shocking special news bulletin. Anchorman John Woodley (Ed Flanders) and his partner, Susan Myles (Kathryn Walker), reveal that terrorists have threatened to detonate an H-bomb off of the coast of South Carolina if the Navy refuses to agree to their demands -- the disarmament of a key nuclear weapons facility. Soon, the local team covering the story in Charleston is taken hostage and becomes the terrorists' mouthpiece. Read More Read Less

      Audience Reviews

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      wc w One of my all-time favorites. Minus 1/2 star only because its special effects would be better if produced now. Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 03/30/23 Full Review Audience Member May have been scary and unique back in the 80s but it hasn't aged at all. Not a fan of this blueprint like WNUF Special. The plot was pretty good but I think the execution could've been a lot better. May be I'm not giving this classic enough respect, but this is all imo. Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 01/15/23 Full Review Audience Member An Interesting story from a forgotten story angle Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 01/30/23 Full Review Audience Member Enestående tv-film, udformet som en direkte nyhedsudsendelse, om et terrorist-angreb, der muligvis inkluderer atomvåben, på en mindre amerikansk by. Skræmmende (omend måske lidt mindre aktuel i dag, end da den blev lavet), autentisk, ubehagelig, spændende ekstremt vellavet og velspillet. Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 01/26/23 Full Review Audience Member ...I'm still in utter shock at how powerful this movie actually is. Yeah, it's a TV movie, so you get some of that classic "The Day After" hokey acting and then-commonplace Cold War paranoia. However, at the same time, you get something like a more realistic and less verbal version of "A Face in the Crowd" and "Network," two of the best abrasive media satires ever made. Not only is this a film about a crack team of radicals and nuclear scientists who try to achieve worldwide nuclear disarmament by threatening all of Charleston, SC with extremely dirty tactics, this film shows how uncaring the media can be at times and how selfish they probably are. And there's some really good human drama in the film. Also, seeing how this predicted the late-breaking coverage of 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, and the death of bin Laden (mainly because as media proliferates, these events become more and more valuable to cover), I'm willing to consider this one of those few TV movies that transcends from standard mediocrity to one of the most effective films ever made. If there's a film that needs to be reissued (any person will do, but the Criterion could do a decent job), it's this one. It's also on Google Video, so please watch it. Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 02/20/23 Full Review Audience Member A 1980's TV movie done as a newscast about terrorists threatening to blow up Charleston, SC with a nuke that is as much about the role the media plays in events as it is about the possibility of nuclear terrorism. The realistic setting keeps you watching, and the ending (which i won't spoil) is heart wrenching and terrifying at the same time. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/23/23 Full Review Read all reviews Post a rating

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      Critics Reviews

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      MaryAnn Johanson Flick Filosopher [A]as much a lampoon on the media as it is an expression of cultural anxieties about nuclear weapons... Aug 6, 2005 Full Review Read all reviews

      Movie Info

      Synopsis A perfectly typical broadcast evening on a major network is interrupted by a shocking special news bulletin. Anchorman John Woodley (Ed Flanders) and his partner, Susan Myles (Kathryn Walker), reveal that terrorists have threatened to detonate an H-bomb off of the coast of South Carolina if the Navy refuses to agree to their demands -- the disarmament of a key nuclear weapons facility. Soon, the local team covering the story in Charleston is taken hostage and becomes the terrorists' mouthpiece.
      Director
      Edward Zwick
      Production Co
      National Broadcasting Company
      Genre
      Mystery & Thriller
      Original Language
      English
      Runtime
      1h 40m