Monday, June 26, 2023

Short feature review - "Silo 15" (1969) *** (warning: spoilers)

 A 45 minute film, written as a TV play, rejected by the ABC, shot for German TV, then filmed it won an  Awgie and was picked up in Sydney by an American commercials guy who filmed it in colour, sold it around the world and eventually Australian television.

A great idea -Jack Thompson and Owen Weingott are two men in a nuclear missile silo (not sure what country - Jack has an odd accent at times). There's a big explosion, they're cut off from base, Weingott wants to launch and Thompson doesn't.

Truth be told this is probably better suited to 30 minutes - there's some padding, waffly dialogue - but it's an terrific situation and builds to a decent climax (Weingott shooting Thompson, then discovering it was an earthquake). Part of me was hoping Weingott would have launched the missile but anyway. Written by Greg Martin who I'm not sure did anything else, at least not produced.

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