Mimi Hall
Vice President, Communications
Atomic Pulse
Command and Control to air on PBS on Jan. 10
UPDATE: Command and Control will air on PBS on Jan. 10 at 9:30 p.m. ET, following President Obama’s farewell address, which will be aired live by the network. Please tune in for this gripping and very important film!
Did you miss Command and Control when
it screened in your city this fall? No worries, the acclaimed Robert Kenner documentary
is coming to PBS in early 2017 and will be available for free streaming and for
purchase shortly after the broadcast.
As the critics have noted, it’s a film well worth seeing – both
as a cautionary tale and as pure edge-of-your-seat entertainment. From The
New York Times to Rolling
Stone, reviewers have called it masterful, riveting, convincing, and
fascinating.
Based on author Eric Schlosser’s book of the same name, Command and Control tells the story of a
terrifying accident in Damascus, Arkansas in 1980, when a worker at the Titan
II missile complex dropped a socket, puncturing the fuel tank of an
intercontinental ballistic missile armed with a nuclear warhead. The
heart-pounding race to prevent the missile from exploding and the nuclear
weapon from detonating is captured in the film through flashbacks and original
footage juxtaposed against present-day interviews with those involved, from the
workers in the missile silos to then-Secretary of Defense Harold Brown. Even
Bill Clinton has a cameo, in historical footage, as he was the Arkansas
governor at the time.
Entertainment Weekly’s review says it all: “As far as horror movies go, the turkey baster in Don’t Breathe or the goat in The Witch have nothing on the socket wrench or the switchgear in Robert Kenner’s nerve-melting Command and Control. The pace of the drama is riveting.”
The film has been screening around the country this fall, including at New York’s Tribeca Film Festival. At this writing, there are still several screenings to go – and more being added all the time.
Still ahead:
October 27: Martha’s Vineyard Film Center, Vineyard Haven, MA
October 28: Pickford Film Center, Bellingham, WA
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