Sputnik Fever (2007)
"Sputnik Mania" (original title)

Documentary looking back at the USSR's Sputnik satellite and its effects at the time and over the last 50 years.

Director:

David Hoffman

Writers:

David Hoffman, Paul Dickson,

Stars:

Liev Schreiber, Sergei Khrushchev, Jay Barbree

Cast

Credited cast:
Liev Schreiber	...	Narrator / Storyteller
Sergei Khrushchev	...	Himself
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Jay Barbree	...	Himself
Paul Dickson	...	Himself
Dwight D. Eisenhower	...	Himself (archive footage)
Susan Eisenhower	...	Herself
Nikita Khrushchev	...	Himself (archive footage)
Richard Nixon	...	Himself (archive footage)
Daniel Schorr	...	Himself
Estelle Taylor	...	Herself (archive footage)
Wernher von Braun	...	Himself (archive footage)

Storyline

The launch of Sputnik 50 years ago almost triggered a nuclear World War III. Global catastrophe was averted, however, because of a private agreement between two ex-generals. Now, with the help of recently released documents from the former Soviet Union, the full story of how close we cam to global nuclear war can be told for the first time.

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Plot Keywords:

sputnik | satellite | nuclear war | rocket | year 1957 | 

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Genres:

Documentary

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Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

1 June 2007 (USA)

Also Known As:

Sputnik

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

$1,805 (USA) (21 March 2008)

Gross:

$10,650 (USA) (21 March 2008)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Varied Directions International

Technical Specs

Runtime:

92 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Connections

Features The Home Economics Story (1951)

User Reviews

Amazing Overview of the Eisenhower era

SPOILERS I never had much education about the Eisenhower years, now this documentary is complementing a book I'm reading, " The American Way of War" by Eugene Jarecki, the guy who did the film, "Why we Fight". Ike was a military man who tried to hold back the military, and apparently so was Kruschev, in some ways.

Sputnik inspired awe, then fear and the arms race. But Ike tried to put a peaceful spin on it to the end.

Also amazing, if I remember the film correctly, 1958 alone had hundreds of atomic tests by the US and the USSR! I had no idea there were so many.

And seeing the strange, reluctant reliance on Werner Von Braun, and Von Braun's utterly cloudless, arrogant demeanor - what a complicated world this is, was and will always be.