American Experience: Command and Control

American Experience: Command and Control is an intriguing and harrowing documentary that uncovers little-known aspects of American history. The film pivots on a single, tremendous component of contemporary history – the management of the United States nuclear arsenal during the Cold War. An adaptation of Eric Schlosser’s best-selling book of the same title, the documentary is both an engaging depiction of an unnerving incident and an assessment of the United States' nuclear weapon system.

The film, directed by Robert Kenner, focuses on a terrifying accident that took place on September 18, 1980, in a Titan II missile silo in Damascus, Arkansas. The Titan II was one of the most potent intercontinental ballistic missiles in service at the time, housed in an underground facility equipped with a nine-megaton nuclear warhead – powerful enough to wipe out a large part of a major city within seconds. The incident began as just a routine maintenance procedure but descended into a nerve-wracking crisis after a worker mistakenly dropped a wrench socket, which punctured the missile's fuel tank, sparking a dangerous situation that risked a major nuclear disaster.

Constructed as a high-stakes thriller, American Experience: Command and Control intersperses important historical context and observations regarding the overarching issue – how nuclear arsenal was managed during the most delicate and volatile era of global history. The film explores the complex dynamics and protocols that underpinned America's nuclear weapons command, control, and coordination framework.

Though the documentary focuses on an event that occurred decades ago, it raises critical questions about the stewardship of the most lethal weapons of mass destruction. The film instills a sense of doom and dread – underscoring the inherent risks and potential for catastrophic consequences embedded in nuclear weapons management. Yet it also provides fascinating insights into the intricacies of nuclear command systems, becoming an urgent and important education on a topic that remains eerily relevant today.

American Experience: Command and Control excels in maintaining suspense. The real-life drama unfolds in minute-by-minute detail, enhanced with news footage, descriptive technical diagrams, previously classified videos, and firsthand accounts from servicemen who were on site during the incident. The film also includes interviews with government officials, historians, and key individuals involved in the event, thereby providing a balanced and fully fleshed perspective on the situation.

Throughout the narrative, there's a persistent struggle between the human element – here represented by the dedicated but ultimately fallible missile and maintenance crews – and the vast, impersonal machinery of nuclear protocol, highlighting how slim the margin for error truly is. This tension between human flaw and technological might is a running thread throughout the documentary, revealing a chilling reminder of the potential fallibility of the systems that govern some of the world's deadliest weapons.

There is great attention to the paradoxical nature of the nuclear age – particularly the dilemma of building weapons so powerful that they guarantee mutual annihilation and yet are required to maintain a balance of power. Indeed, the paradox that the tools devised to maintain world peace could, in one faulty moment, bring about mass destruction, remains at the core of the film.

In its examination of history, the documentary opens the door for conversations about the present and future of nuclear weapons. Indeed, American Experience: Command and Control asks us to contemplate the terrifying realities of the nuclear age—not merely as decades-old historical events, but as existential threats which remain salient today.

Overall, American Experience: Command and Control is a gripping, deeply thought-provoking documentary, showcasing the heightened dangers and high-stakes risks of one of humanity's most dire creations. The exploration and recreation of the near-disastrous event it portrays serves not only as a historical examination but also as an alarm bell, forcing us to reconsider our relationship with nuclear weapons and the systems that control them.