Twilight’s Last Gleaming **** (1977, Burt Lancaster, Richard Widmark, Charles Durning, Melvyn Douglas, Paul Winfield, Burt Young, Joseph Cotten) – Classic Movie Review 8239

Director Robert Aldrich’s 1977 thriller Twilight’s Last Gleaming is a gleaming, smart thriller, starring Burt Lancaster as Lawrence Dell, a maverick Air Force general who escapes from a military prison and captures a US missile base and threatens to start World War Three unless the US Government admits to its Vietnam War crimes.

A great cast of golden oldies performs valiantly under skilful director Aldrich, who keeps it extremely exciting and suspenseful for its considerable length of 146 minutes.

The political message is a little muddled, but Twilight’s Last Gleaming is way more thoughtful and intelligent than the usual gung-ho Vietnam dramas.

Also in the all-star cast are Richard Widmark, Charles Durning, Melvyn Douglas, Paul Winfield, Burt Young, Joseph Cotten, Roscoe Lee Brown, Charles Aidman, Gerald S O’Loughlin, Richard Jaeckel, Vera Miles, Leif Erickson, Charles McGraw, William Smith and John Ratzenberger. We will never see their like again, or the like of the bullish Aldrich again. It was in many ways Twilight’s Last Gleaming.

The screenplay by Ronald M Cohen and Edward Huebsch is based on the novel Viper Three by Walter Wager.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8239

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