No pun intended but this film is a blast. I only recently became aware of it and promptly decided to order it up via my local library. For someone like myself who lived through most of the era represented in these archival clips, it's a wistful, melancholy trip down memory lane. Like so many others growing up in the Fifties I remember quite vividly how we'd practice those duck and cover drills and stockpile canned goods in a secure room at school in case we found ourselves under attack by those pesky Russkies. The film instructively takes us on a chronological journey from the end of World War II through the Cold War paranoia of the Fifties and Sixties showing how the threat of nuclear war was to be taken seriously, or at least as seriously as the government would have us believe. You know, even as a kid I had a pretty good idea that kneeling next to a wall and covering my head with my hands would make me a goner if the real thing ever happened.
One of the more surreal moments offered here was that near rabid clergyman exhorting families with a fallout shelter to deny access to outsiders lest they imperil their own safety. It brought to mind that 1961 Twilight Zone episode 'The Shelter' which pretty much laid out the same scenario with some modification. In the story, a family man who built and supplied his own fallout shelter was besieged by his neighbors to allow them entry when the dreaded siren heralded a nuclear attack. The story demonstrated just how ugly people can become when faced with their own mortality; it was one of Rod Serling's better scripts.
In terms of sheer absurdity (and there were numerous examples), the suggestion that doubled me over had to do with providing a bottle of tranquilizers for an extended period in a bomb shelter. How else to contend with the paranoia and boredom of being cooped up while waiting for an emergency to be over. Which would be good advice if you had the foresight to locate your shelter at least twelve miles away from ground zero because otherwise you'd be toast. By the way, a bottle of a hundred would be about right.
For those of you interested in this type of stuff, the copy of "The Atomic Cafe" I watched came in a two DVD set from Docurama Films. The bonus disc features yet another eight government propaganda shorts from the era including 1951's 'Duck and Cover' with Bert the Turtle, and what looks like a must see - 'Self Preservation in an Atomic Attack'. For a more in depth treatment of the Bikini Atoll nuclear test, I'd recommend the 1988 documentary "Radio Bikini".
One of the more surreal moments offered here was that near rabid clergyman exhorting families with a fallout shelter to deny access to outsiders lest they imperil their own safety. It brought to mind that 1961 Twilight Zone episode 'The Shelter' which pretty much laid out the same scenario with some modification. In the story, a family man who built and supplied his own fallout shelter was besieged by his neighbors to allow them entry when the dreaded siren heralded a nuclear attack. The story demonstrated just how ugly people can become when faced with their own mortality; it was one of Rod Serling's better scripts.
In terms of sheer absurdity (and there were numerous examples), the suggestion that doubled me over had to do with providing a bottle of tranquilizers for an extended period in a bomb shelter. How else to contend with the paranoia and boredom of being cooped up while waiting for an emergency to be over. Which would be good advice if you had the foresight to locate your shelter at least twelve miles away from ground zero because otherwise you'd be toast. By the way, a bottle of a hundred would be about right.
For those of you interested in this type of stuff, the copy of "The Atomic Cafe" I watched came in a two DVD set from Docurama Films. The bonus disc features yet another eight government propaganda shorts from the era including 1951's 'Duck and Cover' with Bert the Turtle, and what looks like a must see - 'Self Preservation in an Atomic Attack'. For a more in depth treatment of the Bikini Atoll nuclear test, I'd recommend the 1988 documentary "Radio Bikini".