Houses of Dynamite

I spent the week-end watching A House of Dynamite, which I've wanted to see since it came out.  At last, we had a moment and seized it on Saturday.  It was so well done that I wanted to see it again, to see the artistry of it, once I had the plot figured out.

In some ways, it was strange to be watching a movie about the launch of a nuclear missile during the week-end of the U.S. invasion of Venezuela.  It might have been better to watch Missing, which is about U.S. intervention in Chile or maybe Salvador about U.S. interference in El Salvador.  

Watching A House of Dynamite also made me want to revisit the nuclear war movies of my youth:  The Day After, Testament, and Threads.  But I am resisting--there's only so much of this that I can take and maintain my equilibrium.

It was interesting, though, seeing the very realistic sets of A House of Dynamite and reflecting on the sets of Threads and The Day After, especially the military bases and government operations.   The technology is both updated (all those computers!) and old-school (the siloes that house the missiles, the hatches that cover the siloes).  Then as in the 1980's, I think about all the money spent on weapons, what else it might have been used for.  But I also know that some of that technology had additional purposes, like our laptops and phones that might not have been invented otherwise--weather forecasting equipment too, that keeps us safer.

A House of Dynamite also had wonderful shots of the D.C. area, which gave me that twist of time feeling.  It made me think of the D.C. of the year that I lived there in seminary, but also the D.C. of the 1980's.  In some ways, they are very different cities, and I thought about how long I've loved that city, but how it is unlikely I'll be spending much time there again.

But who knows.  Five years ago, Wesley wasn't even part of my awareness, although it was about to be.  Life takes interesting turns.