Movie Analysis Essay on The Atomic Cafe

Introduction

The Atomic Cafe movie explicates how, from 1948 to the 1950s, the American tried to learn how to live with the nuclear bomb. Carey Kefauver toured the country with cautions regarding strontium 90 in the milk products, and newspapers ran blueprints for fallout shelters (Greenleaf 2019). In the schools and at the community centers, people were taught how to 'duck and cover.' Thus, 'The Atomic Cafe' is a significant reminiscence about the Americans' life during the early period of the mushroom umbrella. After the bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, the country experienced a scanty national euphoria (people believed that since the U.S have the atomic bomb, the world would not experience another war). However, before the celebration was over, news broke that the Russians have the atomic bomb, and because they were considered to be heartless communists, the likelihood of war became imminent. This paper will critically analyze the Atomic Cafe (1982) movie.

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After the Russians developed the atomic bomb, fallout shelters are presented in the movie as the solutions. During the leadership of President John F. Kennedy in the early 1960s, the government critically proposed that shelter programs will help to act as a war deterrent because the Russians will come to realize that America has a chance to survive the nuclear attack. The producer of 'The Atomic Cafe' passed via thousands of old television broadcasts, government propaganda films, newsreels, and army films to develop necessary material in their film that presents narration and shows how the nuclear bomb entered American mythology. In the movie, there are speeches of politicians, songs, and a frightening documentary about the American soldiers protecting themselves from the atomic mass, and later, they expose themselves to radiation without knowing (Greenleaf 2019).

It is clear that during this period, nuclear destruction appears frightening, despite the government trying to play down why 85% of the population are worried regarding the bomb. One of the most disturbing parts of the movie shows how the grade and high school pupils participated in learning the civil defense programs (Greenleaf 2019). Also, the girls during their home classes exhibit their canned products developed for nuclear survival, and it is understandable from the look on their faces that they do not have an idea about how they can survive the nuclear war and portray little aspiration of doing that. The children are taught civil defense by the government officials through Burt the Turtle educational films. Still, there seems to be no opportunity of understanding how to survive the nuclear war.

Conclusion

In conclusion, 'The Atomic Cafe' movie is very significant to American history because it reminds people about civil defense and fallout shelters. In the film, both educational training programs and army training about an atomic testing show that the experts at that time had little knowledge regarding nuclear energy and its potential impacts on the environment and humans (Greenleaf 2019). The primary message of the movie is that if nuclear war ever took place, it would be devastating because the civil defenses are inadequate, and people are not emotionally prepared. Also, the movie acts as a reminder to the public and policymakers that during the 1950s, the government wasted enormous resources on addressing the likelihood of nuclear war, instead of using those resources to enhance the citizen's life. Even today, the government continues to maintain demure silence regarding this awful and awesome subject.

Works Cited

Greenleaf, Legolas. "The Atomic Cafe - contains some disturbing imagery." YouTube, 25 Feb. 2019, www.youtube.com/watch?v=lF0r1OdDIME.