TV Reviews : New Wiseman Film Views ‘Missile’ Training

You know it’s just a practice run in a training school, but it’s still unsettling to watch two people run through the procedures that will--in the job they’re being trained for--launch a missile with a nuclear warhead. This happens twice in Frederick Wiseman’s “Missile” (at 9 tonight on Channels 28, 50, 15 and 24), bringing on small chills both times.

Wiseman’s unique documentaries are known--infamous, some would say--for their unsparing looks at American institutions. Tracing their inner workings, however tedious, the films offer no quick cut-aways or narration. “Missile,” Wiseman’s 23rd work, is typical.

In its 115 minutes, this color film follows a group of Air Force trainees as they prepare to “sit in the bowels of the earth,” as an officer repeatedly puts it--where, manning Minuteman Launch Control Centers, they’ll be expected to push buttons, if ever commanded to do so, that will probably mean the end of most life on Earth.

Actually, as we learn here, it’s somewhat more complicated than pushing a button. “Missile” presents quiet horrors and ironies galore, but it also has a reassuring side: Not only do two people have to simultaneously turn keys to launch a missile--as we’ve seen in films such as “WarGames”--but apparently the action of one two-person crew has to be followed by a similar action by another crew for missiles to actually take off.

Apparently is a word that comes in handy when discussing Wiseman’s format. Its chief fault isn’t the slow pace--you’re usually drawn into the tempo and “Missile” is no exception. It’s the confusion caused by the insistence on a lack of narration.

For example, the moment in “Missile” that seems to be the most disturbing comes when an instructor seems to be coaching a trainee on how to pass written tests even if he does not understand the material. This seems to fit in with other indications that the school (at California’s Vandenberg AF Base) may be too lenient in letting unqualified crew members into those missile-control rooms. However, that may not be exactly what’s happening--in a Wiseman film, there are no clarifying explanations.

While typically low-key and spaced with seemingly irrelevant diversions (a softball game, a discussion of WWII souvenirs), “Missile” has its own brand of grim humor--note the general who describes himself as a “master missileer”--and it holds one’s interest for most of the way.

Still, one would like to know more about why these trainees--mostly college graduates--are so eager for what most people might consider a boring job with an ominous responsibility. In a Wiseman film, you don’t get interviews, so you seldom get motives. On the other hand, you do get so much else that a normal TV documentary would miss, so who’s complaining?