The Missile

Austin Film Society’s Frederick Wiseman series continues with a wildly different take on nuclear proliferation than Oppenheimer. Instead of dramatizing the moral murkiness straight-up, the legendary documentarian chooses to turn the lens on the mundane, with a characteristically meticulous and immersive look at the 4315th Training Squadron of the Strategic Air Command – aka, the air force base that trains the staff of America’s missile launch sites. Upon its release in 1988, the Chicago Tribune wrote of The Missile, “One comes away with the frightening feeling that dealing with devastation is considered a prosaic business.” – Lina Fisher