One of the most memorable roles in the career of Burt Lancaster was in the 1964 film Seven Days in May. In it, he played an American general who, due to his idealistic zeal and strong convictions, decided to take violent action against his own government. Lancaster played a similar character in Twilight’s Last Gleaming, a 1977 political thriller directed by Robert Aldrich.
The plot, based on the novel Viper Three by Walter Wager, begins on 16 November 1981, when a group of four escaped convicts in Montana ambush a vehicle carrying US Air Force personnel. They steal the men’s uniforms and IDs and proceed to their destination, where they manage to enter a secret underground command centre. The group’s leader, former USAF general Lawrence Dell (played by Lancaster), designed the facility and developed its security procedures, and that allows him to take control of the base’s main asset – nine Titan II nuclear missiles. He then contacts the US government and threatens to launch the missiles against the Soviet Union and thus trigger a Third World War unless his demands are met. He wants $10 million and safe passage for himself and his confederates, but his next demands are more difficult for the administration led by President Dan Stevens (played by Charles Durning). Dell, who took part in the Vietnam War and spent years in a North Vietnamese POW camp, became aware of documents proving that the US government knew the conflict was unwinnable but continued with the pointless bloodshed to prove a point to its Cold War adversary. Dell wants the document published and, to secure the deal, wants the President himself to serve as a hostage.
Twilight’s Last Gleaming represents one of the rare examples where a film’s script represented a significant improvement over its literary source. Aldrich and screenwriters Ronald M. Cohen and Edward Huebsch transformed the leader of the silo attackers from a common criminal into a politically motivated idealist. Dell’s crusade resonated with the American public in the years when the psychological wounds from the Vietnam War were fresh and distrust towards the government following the Watergate scandal and similar revelations was still enormous. Aldrich set the plot deliberately in the near future to make it more disturbing and suspenseful, with the audience, already accustomed to unpleasant surprises in the 1960s and 1970s, using their imagination to consider what might happen in the 1980s. Aldrich very skilfully used the resources at his disposal, with West German locations successfully passing for Montana, and his use of split screens to allow simultaneous action in different locations very effectively created suspense.
This film could have been a classic, but Aldrich missed his opportunity. One of the film’s flaws is its pacing, which makes its length excessive and enables the audience to more easily spot certain problems with one-dimensional characterisation. Some otherwise great and dependable actors seem wasted in their clichéd roles, and that includes Burt Young trying too hard to serve as comic relief in the role of one of Dell’s associates. Richard Widmark is not particularly effective as the ruthless Air Force general who serves as the film’s main villain, and even Lancaster’s performance leaves something to be desired. They are all overshadowed by Charles Durning in the complex role of someone who wakes up as the most powerful man in the world only to be faced with incredibly difficult decisions, including some that may very likely end his life. This performance is in many ways very moving and adds to the powerful ending. Or, to be precise, an ending that would have been powerful had it not been excessively discussed as an option by various characters in the film. Yet, despite not living up to its potential, Twilight’s Last Gleaming is still a very interesting film that will make viewers think about some unpleasant but important subjects in a way many of today’s films, especially those from Hollywood, cannot.
RATING: 6/10 (++)
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