Mark Kermode, Observer film critic 

The Man Who Saved the World review – lots of colour, little insight

The contrived blurring of doc and drama mars this account of Stanislav Petrov’s role in averting a nuclear catastrophe
  
  

Stanislav Petrov in a hotel in New York.
Stanislav Petrov, the Soviet officer who averted nuclear disaster in the 80s, in a hotel in New York. Photograph: pr

The story of Stanislav Petrov, the Soviet officer whose cool-headed actions on 26 September 1983 averted a nuclear catastrophe (warning systems detected an American strike and protocol demanded immediate retaliation) is gripping enough without the need for hokey docudrama interpolation. Danish director Peter Anthony talks enthusiastically of blurring the boundary “between narrative and documentary”, but as we follow Petrov to the US to meet his idol Kevin Costner, it’s not just the casting that recalls the artifice of In Bed With Madonna. Reconstructions of the fateful night in 1983 and of Petrov’s subsequent bereavement and descent into depression add dramatic colour but little insight.

 

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