savoy-35820 Review of Twilight's Last Gleaming

Twilight's Last Gleaming (1977)

Watched in an overseas Army/Air Force Exchange Service Theater!

[6/10 · 5 March 2024]

I was stationed in Izmir, Turkey when I saw this. The theater was 3/4 full, which was a lot. Majority of the military in the crowd was US AIR Force, since we were of the majority. The atmosphere in the audience was like we were viewing a comedy! Burt Lancaster was his usual, over the top, staccato speech self. Paul Winfield was like his sidekick that was the comic relief, not that the movie needed it. The other cast members did their best to hold up their end of the bargain. Charles Durning as the ill fated POTUS, Richard Widmark as the smarmy general, down to William Hootkins as the morbidly obese Buck sergeant. Hootkins could make a heavy airman appear svelte! The best part of the movie, in my humble opinion, was when they were scanning the area and Winfield mentions snipers. When Burt Lancaster spoke his memorable line, 'there are no midgets in the United States Air Force", it almost "brought the house down". The laughter was so raucous and prolonged we missed several minutes of dialogue! Nobody even tried to shush the audience, I believe to this day everyone was laughing! The movie was so unbelievable in regards to the story, it was almost as if a nursing home was putting on a Judy Garland/Mickey Rooney barn musical. That's a reflection on many of the actors ages. All in all it was a very entertaining movie. For those of us in the audience, it was not Oscar worthy , but I think we would have bought several rounds in our NCO club for the cast and crew for the communal laughter and good time they gave us.