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“Outrageuously silly plot”

I disagree. Up until the time the film was made, the nation had entered wars and won them. They had defined starts and endings. Between wars, people went back to a peacetime life largely untroubled by warfare.

But the advent of nuclear weapons changed all that. We entered the era of massive perpetual defense and first-strike capability. It was a sea change in military thinking to shift from an as-needed warfare capability with defined starts and ends to a perpetual cold war mentality. Our soldiers, sailors and airmen were quite unprepared for that shift and the need for career military men. They were used to being called up as-needed and returning to civilian life afterwards.

In my opinion, the film was mainly made to get people to accept the new reality and to recruit people to the new military with readiness a 24x7 requisite. This is pointed out very clearly in the film. I recall Lt. Col. Robert ‘Dutch’ Holland making this argument in a speech during the film, but the only relevant quote I can find on IMDB is by Sgt. Bible: “We never know when the other fella may start somethin’, so we’ve gotta be combat ready 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”

The civilian population had to adjust to the new reality of 24x7 preparedness and nonstop training flights.

I was born in 1951 and grew up with this Cold War reality. But you have to put yourself in the shoes of adults in the 1950s adjusting to this new world. This required change in attitudes by the American people was something I had not thought of until I watched “Strategic Air Command.”

While Steyn’s review is good, I think he completely misses this critical point.

I’m watching the very last episode of “Ozark” tonight and I think I’ll re-watch “Strategic Air Command” after that.

Outrageuously silly plot but the aviation makes it a great watch.

Not sure I agree with the 1st part about plot, but I do agree with the aviation scenes. As a resident of the Tampa Bay area, it is fun to see the scenes of downtown St Pete and MacDill. FYI: Al Lang Stadium is now an USL (United Soccer League) home for the Tampa Bay Rowdies. And that takeoff from MacDill with the RATO B-47 and turn to northwest shows how small Tampa was with that barely glimpsed 2 lane Dale Mabry road! FYI: This film is free to Amazon Prime members.

As for the plot, I think there was logic to the baseball theme as Jimmy Stewart did the 1949 "Stratton Story" (w/ June Allyson) with good box office and this 1955 movie was written for BOTH popular and SAC approval! If you take away that plot device of the recall to flying from Baseball, you lose much of the depicted loss & sacrifice shown.

There is also the need to put historical context to this film's era that I think the reviewer, Rick McGinnis, gives insufficient attention! First fact is that the B-36/B-47s of that era were the SOLE strategic attackers against the two strong enemies of Soviet Russia & Red China. The USSR had the Atomic Bomb in 1949 and Red China had not only taken the mainland China but had fought the UN/West forces to a standstill in Korea by 1953. At the time that this movie was filming, the Red Chinese were shelling the Republic of China islands of Quemoy & Matsu (1954-55). In Europe, Stalin probed vigorously for weakness as in the Greek Civil War (1944-49) and in bolstering the large Italian & French Communist (political) Parties.

What this presented to Truman and then Eisenhower was the dilemma of resisting two very large conventional militaries with a much smaller land military and the most powerful navy in world history. But neither of these were sufficient to actually attack either opposing power center. Thus the requirement of a 24/7/365 nuclear strike as the offset to a matching & EXPENSIVE upsize of the Army and staging it overseas!

To me this is the CONTEMPORARY CONTEXT of this movie that we do not understand today! As expensive and as dangerous as the Strategic Air Command was then, it was CHEAPER and more effective than its alternatives! Thus this 'silly plot line' of a ballplayer being dragged back to (cold) war and his growing acceptance that his service was required but also worthy of the mission!