The Atomic Cafe (1982)

Title: The Atomic Café (1982)

Directors: Jayne Loader, Kevin Rafferty, Pierce Rafferty

Review:

If you knew your country had just blown approximately 80,000 people away, would you be parading on the streets all happy and jolly about it? I know I wouldn’t. No matter what my political views might be, I would not be happy and jolly with such knowledge. I’d probably be depressed for a long time at how crazy the world we live in is. Yet this is exactly what happened during 1945, when knowledge spread that the U.S. had “won the war” by blowing the people of Hiroshima away Americans where ecstatic, jumping and dancing on the streets as if the best thing in their lives had just happened. Where all these people nuts? 80,000 lives where blinked away in a matter of seconds and your freaking ecstatic? I mean, no matter what the Japanese did to the U.S.; it’s still thousands upon thousands of innocent people being blown away, innocent people paying for the actions of their countries military. The bombing of Hiroshima didn’t kill the government officials who were at war with the U.S., that atomic monstrosity blew away innocent men, women and children who probably never picked up a gun in their lives; effectively burning them to a crisp in a matter of seconds. This to me is one of the darkest days in human history, along side Hitler and his holocaust; what happened in Hiroshima and Nagasaki is one of the greatest horrors humanity has ever known!

Mass Grave of Atomic Victims

The Atomic Café is an amazing documentary that shows us how after such a brutal show of force every country and their mother wanted an atomic bomb! It shows us how after the Russians got a hold of atomic weapons as well, atomic paranoia spread through an entire generation, taking over their minds for a very long time. Such was the aura breathed in the United States during the late 40’s and early 50’s. This paranoia is what The Atomic Café captures so well. The documentary expertly gathers military films that prepared their soldiers for an atomic attack; news footage that informed movie goers that the United States had just won the war! It shows us news paper articles from that time and radio shows; T.V. commercials that would sell people the idea of living in an Atomic neighborhood where all the houses had their own underground nuclear shelter! The nuclear paranoia was not only mass hysteria, it was also extremely profitable. The Atomic Paranoia took over the world, they made songs about the atomic bomb, even alcoholic drinks where named after the bomb.

Nagasaki being blown away!

The film shows us how the bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima weren’t enough to satiate the hunger of knowledge for this new terrifying weapon, oh no, we had to know more! So what did the U.S. do? They blew up a couple more atomic bombs in different parts of the world to find out the destructive capabilities of this new atomic monster. But of course, the majority of these tests didn’t take place in the vicinity of the United States, their new weapons were tested near Japan and in the Marshall Islands where the largest Nuclear test ever was conducted, this test was called ‘Castle Bravo’. Watch this documentary and you’ll see news footage that actually calls the nuclear blast ‘a beautiful site’ to behold. Want to see how the United States military convinces the natives of Bikini Island to get the hell out of their little island because they want to tests atomic weapons on it? Look no further then the military films gathered in The Atomic Café. I can completely relate to this, the U.S. military actually tested their weapons in a small island next to Puerto Rico called Vieques; that is until the people of Puerto Rico and Vieques kicked them out, people where dying of cancer left and right!  

See how the government prepared children to react when a nuclear blast hit U.S. shores! They even created a cartoon character called ‘Bert the Turtle’ that sang a song that taught kids to duck and cover! As if this would help at the hour of a nuclear blast! Ducking and covering would only get you charred to a crisp in this position, nothing else. This is really an outstanding documentary; it is chilling because it is real. I cant recommend it enough As some of you many know, I’m a humanist, and things like war and nuclear weapons simply make no sense to me. Seeing all these people in such a state of paranoia simply made me feel sorry for them, seeing the government manipulate and openly lie to them made me feel even worse. Ever seen a government tell people not to worry so much about a nuclear explosion? Because in a nuclear explosion on 15% of the population would die? That worrying so much over so little makes no sense? Such things where said to Americans by their government during those nuclear scare days. Hell, I couldn’t believe it when I saw the footage of a nuclear test where they actually had soldiers walk towards the nuclear blast! How freaking stupid where those guys? Guinea pigs for sure!

Stare right at it kids, dont worry, the radiation is the least of your worries!

We don’t have such worries during our times, but who knows when our governments might decide to start up another nuclear paranoia? The people of Japan actually lived through a post-apocalyptic time thanks to the bombs, this is something that is still reflected in the films they make. The best example is of course, Gojira (1954) a film that completely mirrors how the Japanese people felt about the bombs and atomic power. The creature known as Godzilla embodies everything that they feared about Americans and their atomic weapons! Godzilla was a creature that destroyed Japan with its atomic breath, I'm sure that this is no coincidence. Thankfully, there are a couple of treaties in the works to make nuclear testing illegal, but unfortunately they aren’t in effect yet. Believe it or not countries don’t want to sign these treaties! I guess that would make them look all weak or vulnerable? This of course means that any country with ‘weapons of mass distruction’ is still capable and willing to blow us the hell away as we comfortably eat our dinners in our living rooms, watching Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985). Heaven help us, and don’t forget to “duck and cover”; which will do absolutely nothing to save you, have a nice day.

Rating: 5 out of 5 

'Castle Bravo', the biggest Nuclear Test ever conducted by the U.S.!