The Atomic Cafe (Collector's Edition)
January 2009 Reviewed by: Rad Bennett Format: DVD	(all ratings out of 5): Overall Enjoyment Picture Quality Packaged Extras Sound Quality

Shortly after America used two atomic bombs on Japan, effectively ending the Second World War, it became evident that the potent weapon was here to stay. Russia did a test and the Cold War was launched. More tests on all fronts triggered fear, and that fear escalated into hysteria. From 1950 to 1960, people lived in what has come to be called the Atomic Age. The Atomic Cafe tells the story of those times by using footage from the era itself. There is no narration, no talking heads reflecting on events. Everything is told from the viewpoint of the day in footage carefully edited and juxtaposed to create a running narrative.

Director Kevin Rafferty sequenced the film clips so that they are often quite amusing. Dark, gallows humor is not uncommon in dealing with such dire topics as atomic radiation; it reached a pinnacle in the ‘60s with a movie that proved one of the greatest masterpieces of black humor ever made: Dr. Stranglove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. Rafferty doesn’t angle his entire approach toward humor, however. There are plenty of grim statistics and sights along the way.

The film does not condone one side over the other. America isn’t all innocent. A jolly film of army personnel telling Pacific Islanders why an atomic-bomb test will cause them to be evacuated also shows that they were assured no harm would come to them. Later scenes of those people being treated for serious radiation burns are intercut. A dumbed-down training film telling soldiers what to do when they are on bomb duty, again assuring no harm, is balanced by shots of those soldiers huddled in foxholes all too close to the nuclear fallout, very much in harm’s way.

The government tried to reassure a fearful public in often ridiculous ways, overall assuring them that radiation fallout was the least of their worries. They produced quite a few propaganda films. These are excerpted in the feature documentary and included in their entirety on the second disc of this set. The most famous and possibly ridiculous of these is Duck and Cover (1951), which asserts that if we do what the title says, we can protect ourselves against nuclear attack. It was made by the Civil Defense branch of the government and aimed largely at school children. The public believed and the phrase became a mantra for the era. Skeptics built fallout shelters.

Some more serious films are also included: Self Preservation in an Atomic Attack (1950); Operation Crossroads (1946), which contains film of the Bikini Island tests; and Operation Cue (1955), a color film that chronicles nuclear tests on mannequins and home sites in Nevada. There are several others as well, but I found these the most interesting.

Because both the feature and extras utilize older source material, the video quality is fairly low, but it is never intolerable. Without restoration, it is probably the best we will see. The audio is quite adequate for the material. On the surface, the packaging is very good. A sturdy hardback foldout (similar to Warner’s book style used for certain Blu-ray classics) is housed in a flimsier cardboard dust jacket. But inside the foldout the discs must be slid in and out of cardboard sleeves. I see no way to avoid scratching them if you play them several times. It’s one of those package ideas that looks good on paper but fails in actual use.

Speaking of looking good, it seems very ironic that several commentators in the movie, especially ones with things to gain, refer to the atomic blasts as "beautiful." I’d go for "awesome" unless you find the Angel of Death attractive as well.

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