By Dawn's Early Light

Superb, but definitely not for the faint-hearted
I have for a long time been a fan of apocalyptic, WW3-type thrillers, and this HBO Original tops my list as one of the best ever! Based on the novel Trinity's Child by William Prochnau and starring Powers Boothe and Rebecca DeMornay, By Dawn's Early Light is an excellent cautionary tale of what would happen if a nuclear exchange were started by dissidents in another country's military and how the members of two different governments would work together to stop it. It is also the tale of Captain Moreau (DeMornay) and Cassidy (Boothe), two B-52 pilots assigned to knock out the leadership bunkers of the Russian military, and their struggle to do what they believe is the right thing. At first they feel themselves bound by duty to their country, but as they begin to grasp the full scope of just what it is they're doing, each of them must struggle with their own doubts and fears about what would happen if the conflict they're involved in were to escalate into an all-out war.

Boothe and...

Pray it's only a nightmare. . . .
In the tense, edge-of-the-seat tradition of Fail Safe, By Dawn's Early Light is a vivid depiction of how the hair-trigger reactions of the superpowers can be manipulated by persons outside ordinary power circles, and how the technology and pre-ordained response patterns take on an inexorable life of their own.

As a retired military man, I found that this film grew more frightening as the initial nuclear exchange faded into the background and both the civilian and military leadership struggled with the apocalyptic question of how or even whether to turn off the brutal cycle of escalating retaliation. The technical accuracy of the film, both in the equipment and the tactics displayed, heightened the effectiveness.

What makes this movie stand out from other doomsday thrillers is its ability to show the terrible strain of responsibility and indecision on people at all levels of the command structure, and the personal price paid by those who could handle the pressure and...

A superb adaptation of Prochnau's 'Trinity's Child'
This is a very good representation of what a nuclear war really would be like from two different perspectives - that of the national leadership, and that of the crew of a B-52 sent to undertake a nuclear strike mission. By far the most impressive aspect of this movie is the very realistic sequence portraying the US Strategic Air Command detecting and responding to a Soviet nuclear first strike, alerting the President, and then him having to make the decision on how best to retaliate. They have done their homework in this regard. Martin Landau turns in an excellent performance as a confused, afraid President being confronted with armageddon in the early hours of the morning. In SAC HQ, CINCSAC confronts the President of his own imminent demise, with a warhead a mere two minutes away from destroying his facility, thus highlighting the sacrifice of many in order to give the President the chance to retaliate against what is clearly an unprovoked attack.

As a strategic analyst...

Click to Editorial Reviews