The Atomic Cafe
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Movie Reviews of The Atomic Cafe
Movie Review: Atomic Buffet
Summary: 4 Stars
I was listening to a country western song on the radio and it reminded me of the closing song in "Atomic Cafe". I haven't seen that movie in 20 years but I remember it well. It is an interesting idea for a movie; flims clips about the Atomic Bomb from the 40's and 50's. We were a nation (and a world) that was sorting out just exactly what we should or shouldn't do with this new-found weapon of mass destruction. I remember the duck and cover drills in school and I especially remember my somewhat elderly and somewhat overweight teacher trying to get under her desk when the alarm sounded.
There are a lot of reminders of that era in "Atomic Cafe" and those of us who remember that time can laugh at a lot that we see. The bomb shelters are still out there. When we were looking to buy a house some years ago, we looked at one that had a bomb shelter in the basement. I thought of an old "Twilight Zone" episode and envisioned it as my reading room. However, that was about all that that house had to offer. For those who weren't around back then, this movie may fit somewhere between frightening and ridiculous.
We still have the atomic bomb these days and the potential users of those weapons are scarier than were the ones in the "Atomic Cafe" era. Hopefully, we will still be able to watch this movie and laugh for generations to come.
Movie Review: Life under threat of the mushroom cloud
Summary: 4 Stars
A Dr. Stangelove-like documentary about the atom bomb and the country's response to the possibility of nuclear war with Russia in the 1950s-60s. Using only government propaganda footage, the movie is both sad and funny: bomb tests using army troops as subjects, the Red scare, building bomb shelters, etc. The ending is a mock attack on the US, with people running to air raid shelters and surveying the "damage" afterward.
Viewed from this distance it seems almost insane what people back then went through, although I remember as a kid participating in air raid drills at school where we were taken into the basement of the school where canned food and bottled water was stored, and where we could expect to spend weeks perhaps if a nuclear attack occurred. I don't know what the adults were thinking, but to a kid it was pretty scary and very real. There is some great usage of topical songs in the movie. It's all a mind-bending look at one aspect, at least, of life in the US a generation ago.
Movie Review: It's Finally on DVD!
Summary: 4 Stars
I am gratified to see that this film is on DVD. Michael Weldon, author of The Psychotronic Film Guide, calls this the most important film ever made. I'm not sure I'd go so far as that, but this is a good film. Few of the other reviewers have commented about the actual content of the movie. It's a documentary with little (or no) narration which pieces together newsreel and archival films to contrast the stark destructive reality of nuclear weapons with the insipid optimism of 50's Cold War propaganda. Apparently this theme is lost on a great deal of viewers including the US Air Force; you can buy it at the National Atomic Museum gift shop.
Another reviewer commented on the bad music on the soundtrack. In fact, this soundtrack is just as important a historical document as the film itself. It was the very last LP record I ever bought in shrink-wrap. Now that the film is on DVD, it's time for the soundtrack to come out on CD as well.
Movie Review: 3.5 stars out of 4
Summary: 4 Stars
The Bottom Line:
An exceptionally interesting and often funny documentary on the Cold War (specifically U.S. propaganda), The Atomic Cafe uses no narration or "talking head" interviews yet manages to be compelling and thought-provoking through the use of archive footage alone; a must-watch for anyone interested in history.
Movie Review: Atomic Cloud
Summary: 4 Stars
Viewing this generally well composed archival footage was not as much humorous as ironic nor as horrific as graphic, leaving a sense of nebulousness from which to further contemplate the human experience. Worth watching, from time to time.