Atomic cafe6/21/2023 ![]() Black Comedy: Some of the film is not funny at all, like the scenes from the devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, or the clearly upset man who struggles to describe the hard death of Ethel Rosenberg in the electric chair.The end titles show an animation of missile silos disguised as houses, with the fake houses flopping open when the ICBMs are fired off. ![]() Art Shift: There are several animated clips, most famously the bizarre Bert the Turtle animation from Duck and Cover.One fellow with a bomb shelter quite calmly observes that after nuclear holocaust, some 80%-90% of the population will be dead, so there will be more food left for the rest. The notorious short film Duck and Cover, which purported to teach schoolchildren about how to "duck and cover" to protect themselves in case of nuclear attack, is prominently featured. Topics include the nuclear testing on Bikini Atoll, the Red Scare, the development of the hydrogen bomb, continued Army nuclear testing, and the popularity of fallout shelters in the 1950s. From there the film shows newsreels, commercials, public service films, and military training films, dealing with the paranoia and propaganda of the early atomic age. The film starts with footage of the 1945 Trinity test and the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, intercut with an old interview with Paul Tibbets, the pilot of the plane that dropped the Hiroshima bomb. ![]() ![]() It is a documentary about nuclear war and the nuclear arms race, consisting entirely of stock film clips. The Atomic Cafe is a 1982 film directed by Jayne Loader, Kevin Rafferty, and Pierce Rafferty. "When not close enough to be killed, the atomic bomb is one of the most beautiful sights in the world." ![]()
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