Countdown to Looking Glass (1984)

Directed by

Fred Barzyk

Genre

docufiction, drama fiction

Country

Canada

Runtime

1h 30m

Rating

6.1 of 10 from 16 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A made-for-TV movie about a crisis between the United States and the Soviet Union over the Strait of Hormuz. It shows the political and financial events leading up to a nuclear exchange, using a mix of news broadcast segments and dramatic scenes with reporters and officials.

tensebleakthoughtfulurgentclinicalgrippingominousdocumentary-style

What happens

Countdown to Looking Glass is a Canadian made-for-television movie that premiered in the United States on HBO on October 14, 1984 and was also broadcast on CTV in Canada. The movie presents a fictional confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union over the Strait of Hormuz, the gateway to the Persian Gulf. The narrative of the film details the events that lead up to the initial exchange of nuclear weapons, which was triggered by a banking crisis, from the perspective of an ongoing news broadcast. Unlike similar productions such as the previous year's Special Bulletin and the later Without Warning, the producers of this film decided not to make the entire production a simulated newscast, but instead break up the news portions with dramatic narrative scenes involving characters played by Scott Glenn, Helen Shaver and Michael Murphy. The appearance of real-life newscasters, as well as noted CBC Television host Patrick Watson (although he does not appear as himself in this film) lent additional authenticity to the production. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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