The Cold War and Cinema on Sky Arts - Part 2 - Cuba and a New Dawn

The same presenters from Episode 1 start this episode with a discussion about British spy films. A little about Ian Fleming before we see clips from the second of the  James Bond movies. From Russia With Love came in 1963. The Russian threat of the time is disguised, according to John Aizlewood,  by only references to SMERSH and SPECTRE. It's Simon Heffer who describes Bond and Sean Connery, but this is nothing to do with the Cold War. In 1965 came Michael Caine's Harry Palmer in The Ipcress File from the book by Len Deighton. I laughed at the deadpan actor we see. These are my late teens early twenties so all very familiar. Two more Harry Palmer films came next. 

When Simon talks about "the complexity and duplicity" of the Cold War, he refers to both sides fearing the science and technology of the other. That was probably the summation of this whole series. In 2011 came the film adaptation of John Le Carre's Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. This was already a brilliant TV series three decades previously starring Alec Guinness as Smiley and a fabulous cast. Gary Oldman took the part in the film and was equally good. We were told how well Le Carre disguised the traitor in the book and how this was realised in the film.

Cuba

After the long introduction, we are told about Fidel Castro's Cuban Revolution from 1953 to 1959. Graham Greene's Our Man in Havana was an obvious choice to start this section. We see Alec Guiness and Noel Coward in the 1959 film, almost a light hearted version? We are then on to the Cuban missile crisis and the "world wide paranoia". We see some real life footage of JFK addressing Congress, before we see clips of  1993's Matinee that was new to me. Ian Nathan liked how it showed the panic in the country. We also see extracts from Thirteen Days from 2000 whose direction by Roger Donaldson impressed Derek Malcolm along with an all star cast.

The Atomic Age

After some documentary footage of an H Bomb test, The threat of nuclear destruction was all too real. On the Beach from 1969 was, according to Ian Nathan, "ahead of it's time" in it's portrayal of nuclear devastation. The clip we see does not have a happy ending for the survivors of a submarine crew. In 1964 came the blockbuster Seven Days in May". A disarmament treaty that is under discussion is hijacked by Burt Lancaster's coup-de-tat. 1964's Fail Safe with Henry Fonda is one film I want to check out. But we have all been waiting for Stanley Kubrick's Dr Strangelove again from 1964 that Derek Malcolm said "towers above them all". One of my favourite movies. Peter Sellers telling the Russian leader "something going wrong with the Bomb. The Bomb, Dimitri. The Hydrogen Bomb". The full clip on YouTube. The film is called a horrific satire with that terrible farcical ending.

The Space Race

Not sure if this was part of the Cold War, but no denying the competition between the USA and Russia. The Right Stuff from 1983 describes it well. Sometimes stupidly "who wins (the space race) controls the world". Then clips from the film JFK. Not sure why this is relevant to this episode? But Derek Malcolm talks about Oliver Stones "controversial film". I suppose the producers wanted us to see something of this important film.