AmateurMovieReviews.com

When North Korea detonated a 500 kiloton Atomic Bomb (the equivalent of 500,000 tons of TNT) recently, the communist North was quite adamant about their perceived nuclear power and they threatened the USA with nuclear war, no less. Maybe someone should tell them that the USA has nuclear bombs that have 20 megatons of power (20,000,000 tons of TNT worth of power. Yes, twenty million tons of TNT) Hard to believe that in Kim Jong Il's big DVD collection he did not pick up a copy of the 1982 documentary ATOMIC CAFE, a look at the love of the atomic bomb that was prevalent from 1945 - 1955. Yes, there was quite a bit of love for the atomic bomb, the hydrogen bomb, and those fun little nuclear warheads.

The film starts with clips of the first atomic bomb test in the desert of New Mexico and then shows up the dropping of Fatman and Little Boy on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Then we see the chilling continuation of testing in the Bikini Atoll and then later learn the Soviets have detonated an atomic bomb of their own, launching the paranoia of the Cold War.

ATOMIC CAFE pieces together a string of newsreel footage, industrial films, defense department footage, and radio audio reels to create a comically chilling look at the early days of the bomb in American society. While ATOMIC CAFE provides a point of view that is decidedly left of center and designed to mock the American ideals of the deal, it is understandable to the degree that this was a very serious subject that many people simple were not taking as serious enough as they should when the bomb was first dropped. Plus, it is hard not to laugh at footage of Richard Nixon speaking with Nikita Khruschev and saying, "You are ahead of the USA in some ways such as the rocket ships to outer space, but we are ahead of you in terms of things like color television sets!" (We also get to see Nixon ring a mental health bell in celebration of mental health day. Don't ask)

It is also chilling to see liberal icons like Lloyd Bentson and Lyndon Johnson advocating the use of the atomic bomb and nuclear proliferation. While we know that the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, many have forgotten Pres. Harry Truman saying that serious consideration was giving to dropping atomic bombs on North Korea and Manchuria in order to stop the Korean Conflict. (The Korean War ended during Eisenhower's administration after Ike basically said if you don't cease fire, the bomb is coming)

Much of the weirdness factor derives from the corniness of the footage of the day. All art forms evolve, so it would be understandable that the early days of TV and radio would have a primitive silliness to them. Much of the footage of atomic propaganda films were not made by top of the line Hollywood professionals, so the writing and acting is very silly, but shocking when one considers the goofy attitudes people had towards weapons of mass destruction. Then again, the footage from the devastation of Japan and the effects of the people were censored for forty years, so the public truly had no idea as to the devastating effect. Plus, the bomb protected the stability and security of the free market of US society, something the filmmakers unfairly mocked. Remember, the Cold War went two ways. At the time of this film's original release, the Soviets were waging a chemical war in Afghanistan and waging a campaign of genocide, but they get somewhat of a pass here. (Although there is a very chilling and ominous "joke" that Kruschev directs towards Nixon that did the Russian Premier no public relations favors in the USA)

Also shocking and chilling is how American citizens and soldiers were routinely exposed to radiation fallout from atomic tests and told just to scrub up. Tea loaded off of cargo ships are allowed into the USA as the tea is only mildly radioactive. Such lunacy underscores a very common notion of the America that one was: American was at one time a simpler and more naive society. Now, while we wax nostalgic about this simplicity when watching old TV reruns, the reality is that this simplicity was also extremely dangerous as these simple attitudes extended to nuclear weapons, their potential use, the paranoia that derives from such a possible scenario and how it all changed the fabric of American society when that first bomb was detonated in New Mexico in 1945.

ATOMIC CAFE is a stirring documentary that has been somewhat forgotten today, but is easily still relevant in our world which is no sophisticated, but has not changed.