"Last Best Chance" reviewed in THE NEW YORKER

THE NEW YORKER

THE TALK OF THE TOWN

COMMENT

RAIN AND FIRE

By Hendrik Hertzberg

Issue of 2005-10-03

Posted 2005-09-26

Excerpts below.  For full text, please go to:

http://www.newyorker.com/talk/content/articles/051003ta_talk_hertzberg

… Early autumn is a big season for new releases, and last week, what with the opening of the New York Film Festival and all, there were lots of such screenings around town.

One of them was different. … The audience consisted of diplomats, military officers, international bankers and lawyers, and think-tankers. The speakers after the lights went up were white-haired gentlemen in business suits: Pete Peterson, the council’s chairman; Ted Turner, the billionaire philanthropist and founder of CNN; Warren Buffett, the folk philosopher and fabulously rich investor; Richard Lugar, Republican, the current chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; and Sam Nunn, Democrat, the retired chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and now head of a nongovernmental organization called the Nuclear Threat Initiative.

The film, “Last Best Chance,” was a bit unusual, too. … Set in the near future, it takes the form of a slick international suspense thriller, the kind that cuts from a rainswept warehouse in a bleak corner of the former Soviet empire to a dimly lit White House Situation Room. It has no sex scenes, no car chases, and no wisecracking sidekicks, and it is only forty-five minutes long, but it lays out a frighteningly plausible narrative of how terrorists might buy or steal the makings of a nuclear bomb, assemble one, smuggle it halfway around the world, and send it on its way to an American city in an S.U.V.

… “Last Best Chance” was made not by a movie studio but by a singularly unraffish indie producer: Nunn’s Nuclear Threat Initiative, with support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the MacArthur Foundation. The blurb on its poster comes not from Ebert & Roeper but from Kean & Hamilton—Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton, the chairman and vice-chairman of the 9/11 Commission. Its grosses are zero. For the past five months, it has been distributed free on DVD. Now it has been taken up by HBO, which plans to show it repeatedly, beginning on October 17th.

…Its purpose is to stimulate public support and political pressure on the Bush Administration and Congress to do something serious about the terrifying danger of nuclear terrorism.

… After the September 11th attacks, Condoleezza Rice said that no one had imagined planes being smashed into buildings. After Hurricane Katrina, President Bush said that no one had imagined the breach of the levees. These statements were untrue, of course, but Rice and Bush probably believed them at the time. What no one can say, or can have said in good faith for many years, is that no one has imagined nuclear terrorism, and not just onscreen. With another hurricane about to make landfall in this strange season of apocalypse, the old spiritual’s prophecy of the rainbow sign to Noah should not be forgotten: no more water, the fire next time.

October 15, 2005 in LAST BEST CHANCE NEWS | | Comments (0)

Planting Seeds: Last Best Chance DVD Distribution

Planting Seeds: Last Best Chance DVD Distribution

8/22/05 – Cottonwood Falls, KS  (1 DVD)

·        The Falls Literary Society at the Emma Chase Café in Cottonwood Falls

8/23/05 – Hays, KS (4 DVDs)

  • Fort Hays State University – (1) Dr. Chapman Rackaway, professor of Political Science and director of a program at FHSU called the American Democracy Project; (2) Dr. Michael Suchoparek – teaches a class on terrorism
  • Hays Mayor Kent Steward
  • The Hays Daily News

8/24/05 – Wakeeney, KS; Boulder, CO (4 DVDs)

  • Butterfield Trail Bunkhouse
  • Watersong Sanctuary
  • Secure World Society
  • Boulder activist John Steiner (via WAND board member Dorothy Rupert)

8/28/05 – 8/29/05 – Craig, CO; Rock Springs, WY (7 DVDs)

  • The Craig Daily Press
  • Craig Mayor Don Jones
  • Super Carwash Attendant Dick Dunckley
  • The Rocket-Miner, Rock Springs Newspapers, Inc.
  • Becky Costantino, Executive Assistant to Rock Springs Mayor Timothy Kaumo
  • Rock Springs Fire Chief Brad Sarff
  • Western Wyoming Community College – Ken Fitschen, Dean of Academic Affairs

8/30/05 - 8/31/05 – Lander, WY (3 DVDs)

  • The Lander Journal
  • Lander Mayor Mick Wolfe
  • Wild Iris Mountain Sports

8/31/05 – 9/1/05 – Ring Lake Ranch and back to Lander, WY (17 DVDs)

  • Ring Lake Ranch Staff and Guests
  • The Bread Board in Lander

9/2/05 – Cody, WY (3 DVDs)

  • Thomas the Apostle Center
  • City Hall – Cody Mayor Roger Sedam
  • The Cody Enterprise

9/3/05 – Yellowstone National Park (1 DVD)

  • Park Ranger

9/6/05 – Bozeman, MT and Helena, MT (22 DVDs)

  • Montana State University – Dr. Franke Wilmer, Political Science Department Chair
  • Bozeman Fire Chief Chuck Winn
  • Lewis & Clark County Democratic Action Group
  • The Independent Record
  • George Ochenski, veteran lobbyist for the Montana legislature and editorial writer for The Missoula Independent

·        Helena Mayor Jim Smith

9/7/05 – Helena, MT and Missoula, MT (6 DVDs)

  • Montana Outdoor Sports
  • Montana State Senator Dave Lewis (District 42)
  • Frank Kromkowski – Helena Peace Seekers Co-chair
  • Betsy Dague – Jeannette Rankin Peace Center Director
  • Missoula Independent News
  • Missoula Mayor Mike Kadas

9/19/05 – Spokane, WA (46 DVDs)

  • Rev. Paul Rodkey and Kerry Rodkey – Presbyterian Church, campus ministry network (10)
  • Sandi Thompson-Royer – Presbyterian Church, in the area of Domestic Violence
  • Susan Whaley – Northwest Conflict Management Center
  • Gonzaga University Student Publications
  • Gonzaga University Political Science – Dr. Jon Isacoff
  • KPBX / KSFC Radio
  • KYRS Radio
  • The Inlander Newspaper
  • Spokesman Review
  • Rusty and Nancy Nelson – Spokane Peace & Justice Action League Directors (6)
  • Participants in the Spokane LBC Program at the Community Building (22)

9/20/05 – Walla Walla, WA (3 DVDs)

  • Whitman College – Jeanne Morefield, Assistant Professor of Politics
  • City Council Member Barbara Clark
  • Walla Walla Union Bulletin

9/21/05 – Condon, OR and The Dalles, OR (8 DVDs)

  • Rose E. Rietmann, Mother of WAND Public Policy Director Marie Rietmann
  • Lauren Allen, Condon UCC Minister
  • Condon Mayor Dale Thompson
  • Vic Miller, Retired Teacher (Condon)
  • The Dalles Chronicle
  • The Dalles Mayor Robb Van Cleave
  • Columbia Gorge Community College
  • Rev. Vercouteren, The Dalles UCC Minister

9/22/05 – Breitenbush Hot Springs, Mt. Hood National Forrest (1 DVD)

  • Cabin Roommate, Donna

9/23/05 – Corvallis, OR (4 DVDs)

  • Oregon State University – Dr. Richard Clinton, Political Science (2)
  • Corvallis Mayor Helen Berg
  • Corvallis Gazette-Times

9/24/05 – Eugene, OR (22 DVDs)

  • Eugene Mayor Kitty Piercy
  • Helen Park – Several affiliations including the Creswell Library Board, AFSC Regional Board
  • Participants in the Lane County WAND evening potluck/program (20)

9/25/05 – 9/26/05 – Route 101 (Oregon) and Arcata, CA (6 DVDs)

  • Fellow traveler at the Cape Perpetua Overlook
  • Port Orford Visitor Center Friend
  • KHSU Radio, Arcata
  • Rob Enge – Community activist and former Green Party leader, Arcata (2)
  • Humboldt State University – Dr. Selma Sonntag, Political Science Department Chair

9/27/05 - 9/28/05 – Sacramento, CA (12 DVDs)

  • Participants in the Grandmothers for Peace Evening Program (10)
  • Former Sacramento Mayor Anne Rudin
  • Friend at LaBou Coffee Shop

9/29/05 – Oakland, CA (4 DVDs)

  • Mills College – Dr. Judith Bishop, Institute for Civic Leadership (ICL) Interim Director (3)
  • Mills College – Dr. Emery Roe, Professor of Public Policy

10/4/05 – Flagstaff, AZ (5 DVDs)

  • Mayor Joseph Donaldson
  • City Councilwoman Karen Cooper
  • The Flagstaff Public Library
  • Northern Arizona University, Dr. David Schlosberg – Political Science Department Chair
  • The Arizona Daily Sun

10/7/05 – Grand Canyon, AZ and Gallup, NM (3 DVDs)

  • Friend at Grand Canyon National Park campground
  • Gallup City Manager Eric Honeyfield
  • The Gallup Independent

10/8/05 – Albuquerque, NM (4 DVDs)

  • Ruth Koury – ACLU and Community Leader
  • Don Hancock – Southwest Research and Information Center
  • Maria Santelli – Albuquerque Center for Peace and Justice
  • Glenn Rosendale – Center for Action and Contemplation

10/9/05 – Albuquerque, NM and Santa Fe, NM (4 DVDs)

  • Angie Cerdantes (Texas resident, staying at CAC)
  • Rosario Smith (Texas resident, staying at CAC)
  • The Santa Fe Reporter
  • Video Library – A business in Santa Fe

10/10/05 – Santa Fe, NM (1 DVD)

  • Rev. Holly Beaumont, Advocate, New Mexico Conference of Churches

10/11/05 – Childress, TX, Vernon, TX, Durant, OK (5 DVDs)

  • Childress Mayor Pat Steed
  • The Childress Index
  • Childress Public Library
  • Vernon City Manager Jim Murray
  • Southeastern Oklahoma State University – Dr. Richard Pearlstein, Professor of Political Science

10/12/05 – Durant, OK and Fort Smith, AR (12 DVDs)

  • Katy Morris – Presbyterian Elder and Community Leader, Durant
  • Wanda Johnson – Retired Presbyterian Minister, Durant
  • Durant Emergency Management Director Tim Cooke
  • Durant City Manager Paul Buntz
  • Durant Daily Democrat
  • Southeastern Oklahoman State University – Dr. Lisa Coleman, Honors Program Director
  • Southeastern Oklahoman State University – Dr. C. W. Mangrum, Dean, School of Arts and Sciences
  • Southeastern Oklahoman State University –  Dr. Glenn Johnson, President
  • University of AR Fort Smith –Professor Jo Carson/Communications Class (4)

10/13/05 – Fort Smith, AR and Little Rock, AR (9 DVDs)

  • Beland Manor Inn – Hosts Mike and Suzy Smith, Fort Smith, AR
  • Fort Smith Mayor Ray Baker
  • Entertainment Fort Smith Magazine
  • Southwest Times Record
  • Former U.S. Senator David Pryor
  • U.S. Representative Vic Snyder
  • Arkansas WAND members (3)

10/14/05 – Memphis, TN (2 DVDs)

  • Dr. Lee Ramsey, professor of Pastoral Theology and Homiletics, Memphis Theological Seminary, and Rev. Mary Leslie Dawson-Ramsey, New Hope Christian Academy

  • Dr. Gary Gunderson, Sr. Vice President for Health and Welfare for Methodist Healthcare, and Karen Gunderson, Physician Assistant

August 30, 2005 in LAST BEST CHANCE NEWS | | Comments (0)