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44 of 49 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Teach Your Children Well, December 12, 2000
This review is from: The Atomic Cafe [VHS] (VHS Tape)
This review is directed primarily to the under 30's who are still trying to figure out the boomer generation. As one savvy reviewer here surmised, this film goes a long way into explaining the psychological behavior of boomers who actually were instructed by well-meaning nuns (in my case)or other elementary and high school teachers to practice ducking beneath their desks in the event of a nuclear strike. As the wit, Dave Barry, points out, the stucture of wood and minimal steel was no doubt designed as a carefully-constructed safeguard against nuclear annihilation by the brain trust that was guiding the civil defense system of the era. Other such gross anomalies are addressed in this film. In this case, the idea of looking back provides some comic relief, but I for one, can tell you, that when the sirens were going off every other day back in 1962-63, we didn't regard it as all that funny. Read the Amazon reviewer's take above, then invest some money in purchasing this film. It is a great document that depicts a serious subject in a lighthearted manner, yet the underlying message is timeless. It should come shipped with the caveat: "Lest we forget."
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33 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Movie - 5 Stars - DVD - 3 Stars - Average - 4 Stars, April 25, 2002
Before Peter Kuran and his special effects magic on old atomic films, there was "The Atomic Café." It's a psuedo-documentary (it's all pieces of old Civil Defense, nuclear testing, and government films cobbled together, with some newsreel footage to boot) by Jayne Loader and Kevin Rafferty (George W. Bush's cousin, who later added his talents to a little production called "Roger and Me.") The humor is dark (and funny) only in retrospect, as "The Atomic Café" explores some of the most insidious and stupid moments of the cold war. It starts with the Manhattan Project and the effects of the Bomb on Japan, and segues right into the Rosenberg's trial and the insanity of McCarthyism. Next, you have the famous "duck and cover" films along with lesser-known civil defense stuff, including fallout shelter plans and so forth. There is little narration, and what you hear, comes from the Rosenberg's testimony, army technicians explaining how radiation can be avoided (yeah, right) and the viewer's own common sense, saying, "man, we really believed this hogwash once, and it helped us sleep better at night." This new DVD presentation gives us the film in its original 1.33:1 aspect ratio, with a two-channel stereo soundtrack. The print is decent, but as none of these old films were restored before compilation, there is grain and color loss throughout, but it's a problem with the source material, not the DVD itself (this is how Atomic Café was supposed to look). The sound is the biggest disappointment: Kuran was kind enough to give his Atomic films a dynamic 5.1 DD soundtrack, and Atomic Café sounds more like a radio broadcast than a DVD. Plus, there are zero extras to speak of. Normally, extras do not make a DVD (how many times are you going to watch them, anyway?) but this is one of those times when an interview, or a commentary track, or even a movie trailer, would have been nice. All in all: worth the price, especially to an Atomic collector. This film belongs on the shelf of any serious nuke-film aficionado, and this DVD will probably be the best version we're going to see.
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27 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
America Adapts to a Nuclear World -- on film..., May 2, 2002
The Atomic Cafe is a cult classic Cold War documentary, focusing on the development and deployment of nuclear weapons from the perspective of the U.S. in 1982. Some of the footage of nuclear detonations is breath-taking, especially when placed into the perspective of the time. The Atomic Cafe does a masterful job of weaving together news reports, government information films, public service announcements and dramas from World War II right up through the Cold War of 1982. It's interesting to watch the sometimes frightening, sometimes naive and sometimes even humorous moments that illustrate the American culture adapting to a world in which it had the ultimate destructive power (the atomic bomb), then lost the edge over the menacing Soviet Union, then developed an even more powerful weapon (the hydrogren bomb) and then saw the Soviets catch up yet again. Some of the moments in the documentary are just classic, thanks to great footage but even more, awesome editing. For instance, one part shows a man looking at a newspaper and he says "well, at least we don't have to worry. We're the ones with the bomb!" Then there is a cut to someone stating that the Soviets now have the bomb. Then there is the naivety: Another part shows an Army officer briefing a company of soldiers who will be deployed into a nuclear area shortly after a test detonation. He tells them that there is this "new" threat called "radiation", but that they won't have to worry about it too much. They then show these soldiers in their trenches immediately after the detonation and they stand up to see, while radioactive dirt and debris whooshes over them. A news reporter asks one of the soldiers: "Did you close your mouth?" The soldier answers, laughing: "No, I got a mouthful!" If anything, the Atomic Cafe is a stark reminder of where we've been. It'll definitely be something interesting for my children to watch someday.
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