MISSILE

With this film, Frederick Wiseman, who likes to describe his documentaries as "reality fictions," once again addresses the workings of and social climate in an American institution. In MISSILE, this is the U.S. military training center at Vandenberg Air Base in California. Here, Air Force officers are learning to man the launch bases for intercontinental nuclear missiles. The film follows the recruits and their instructors through various stages of training, during which the ethical issues with respect to nuclear armament get extensive attention. In Wiseman's characteristic style—soberly observing, without voice-over or music—the quest for the perfect soldier unfolds. The classroom lessons, intensive simulation exercises, and staff meetings are all aimed at creating mentally strong, loyal, and technically perfect teams. For it is ultimately a human decision that allows for the launching of nuclear missiles, and a human maneuver that ensures the order is carried out according to protocol.

The heart of the movie is its view of the immensely complicated systems, with codes and keys and a repertory of precise gestures, that a launch requires—a chillingly abstract and impersonal vision of the end of the world.

“Wiseman's most existentially terrifying film but also maybe his funniest.” - Esther Rosenfield