The review

The same year as the famous comedy about the bomb, a straight film asked the harder question and fewer people went. A failure in the system sends bombers past the point where a radio can turn them around. The president negotiates with the Soviet premier while the planes fly, and discovers that sincerity is not a recall code. I am not going to soften the bargain he offers. The bargain is the moral, and it is awful, and the awfulness is the point: a man who ordered the machine does not get to blame the machine at the end.

Adults, and worth more of the evening than the satire if the house has only one of them in it. Ask when he stops looking for a clever solution. The film is on the side of that moment and not on the side of anyone's competence. Competence started the problem. Responsibility is what is left. A house that only knows the laugh from the same year knows half the decade's mind, and the smaller half.