by John Bear
Daily Lobo
It's going to be a long winter - nuclear winter, that is.
Two films, "The Atomic Filmmakers" and "Half-Life: A Parable for the Nuclear Age," present cold glimpses into the dark realm of early nuclear-weapons testing by the United States.
That is not to say the two films, which are part of the Nuclear Winter Film Series at the Guild Cinema, are anything alike. One is merely cold in style. The other discusses the cold and cruel treatment of people in the name of science.
"The Atomic Filmmakers" details the work of Lookout Mountain, a top-secret film studio charged with the production of propaganda and the recording of nuclear tests. The film is interesting enough because it provides plenty of raw facts about the history of the American nuclear weapons program.
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But it is also the film's major shortcoming.
The production is slick but sterile, with an almost institutional feel. It's as though the picture would be better suited for viewing in an atomic museum, so patrons who do not feel like walking around can sit and space out to aged photographers waxing nostalgic about the good old days of above-ground nuclear weapons testing.
"Half-Life" is by far the better of the two films, if not the most depressing.
It covers the 66 atomic and hydrogen bomb tests that took place on the Bikini Atoll, Marshall Islands, during the '40s and '50s. At first it appears to be a nostalgia piece like "The Atomic Filmmakers" but quickly takes a markedly sinister change in tone.
The film reveals the U. S. government intentionally left the inhabitants of a neighboring island behind in order to gauge the effects of radioactive fallout on humans.
Interviews with islanders turn a spotlight on the indifference with which they were treated by the government and media. One elderly woman recounts giving birth to lifeless blobs of flesh and stillborn infants, the end result of genetic mutations brought on by massive exposure to radioactive fallout. More contemporary footage of children born with horrible birth defects leaving them with no muscle coordination is particularly heart wrenching to watch.
Old newsreels repeatedly refer to the islanders as "amiable savages," and a taped message showing a smiling President Reagan bidding the newly independent Marshall Islanders good luck reveals the mistreatment occurred well into the '80s.
The film should be avoided at all costs by anyone who is easily offended at the idea that the United States government is not above calculated and cruel behavior toward innocent civilians.
Half-Life: A Parable for the Nuclear Age
Dec. 13-15 at 5:30 and 9 p.m.
The Atomic Filmmakers
Dec. 20-22 at 5:30 and 8 p.m.
Guild Cinema, 3405 Central Ave
Grade: A
