"When not close enough to be killed, the atomic bomb is one of the most beautiful sights in the world."
The Atomic Cafe is a 1982 film directed by Jayne Loader, Kevin Rafferty, and Pierce Rafferty.
It is a documentary about nuclear war and the nuclear arms race, consisting entirely of stock film clips. 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. 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. 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. 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.
Tropes:
- After the End: Discussed Trope. 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.
- Art Shift: There are several animated clips, most famously the bizarre Bert the Turtle animation from Duck and Cover. The end titles show an animation of missile silos disguised as houses, with the fake houses flopping open when the ICBMs are fired off.
- 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. But other segments, like the boy in the radiation suit riding a bike, or the film clip that tells people not to worry about losing their hair to radiation because it will grow right back, play as absurd black comedy.
- Call-Back: The closing montage has a series of nuclear bomb detonations, interposed with clips already seen earlier in the film, like the shot of picnickers ducking-and-covering with their picnic blankets, or the boy in a full-body radiation suit riding a bicycle.
- Crazy Survivalist: A long portion of the film deals with the popularity of fallout shelters in the 1950s and the idea that you could save yourself from nuclear holocaust by building a reinforced concrete basement. A child in class makes a poster of stuff you should take with you in the shelter. An even weirder clip has a man recommend storing tranquilizers in your bomb shelter, so you don't freak out with Cabin Fever. An advertising clip proudly demonstrates new construction suburban homes with bomb shelters built in.
- This survivalist attitude is also deconstructed by cutting to a professor from Columbia University, Mario Salvadori, pointing out that from a psychological standpoint, this culture of shelter-building would probably make both Americans and Russians more inclined towards a nuclear war instead of less.
- Fallout Shelter Fail: The film at one point gives two major reasons for why fallout shelters wouldn't really be enough protection in the event of a nuclear attack:
- The film first follows a clip of a man at a seminar claiming to an audience member that it would be possible to survive a 20 megaton surface burst explosion if you were at least 12 miles away, with a clip of another professor from Columbia, Seymour Melman, explaining that such an explosion would also cause an intense, deadly firestorm spanning roughly 2000 square miles around the point of detonation and that a fallout shelter would be futile within this range.
- The film then follows a commercial for a fallout shelter with another clip of Prof. Melman, this time pointing out that similar shelters during World War II, which were hit with much weaker bombs than nuclear or atomic ones, tended to kill people in them through asphyxiation or incineration.
- False Reassurance: One expert assures a group of soldiers that if they're close enough to a nuclear blast to get a lethal dose of radiation, they don't have to worry about getting sick because it's likely the initial blast will kill them anyway.
- Gorn: Film clips of horribly injured victims of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings.
- Interplay of Sex and Violence: One clip shows a good-looking, fashionably dressed woman, making come-hither poses, right in front of a missile.
- The Ken Burns Effect: Mostly averted as the film consists of live-action footage rather than still photos, but there is a zoom in on a picture of charred corpses in Hiroshima.
- Nuke 'em: Starts with the actual nuking of two cities in Japan. Another section of the film is a clip of a U.S. Congressman who forcefully advocates for the use of nuclear weapons in The Korean War against both the North Koreans and the Chinese.
- Product Placement: One of the more surreal clips has a creepily earnest announcer guy warning about the dangers of communism, then extolling the capitalist virtues of two specific California shopping malls that apparently funded the newsreel.
- Red Scare: Many stock footage clips demonstrate the paranoia about and fear of the Soviet Union that built public support for the nuclear arms race. One completely crazy newsreel documents a small Midwestern town that decided to simulate a communist takeover, complete with the mayor getting arrested and a pro-Stalin parade down the main street. (This same clip was also used in the anti-Vietnam War documentary Hearts and Minds.)
- Soapbox Sadie: The clip of the passionate young Straw Feminist / Straw Pacifist ranting about how the U.S. should disarm and make friends with Stalin. She's even standing on a box.
- Soundtrack Dissonance: Disturbing footage of nuclear bomb blasts and people in radiation suits is coupled with weird 1950s pop songs like "I Guess It's My Atomic Love For You".
- Spinning Paper: Several transitions announce big historical moments by having a newspaper zoom into frame. The one announcing the Soviet detonation of their first atomic bomb in 1949 actually spins.
- Stock Footage: The whole movie. Government propaganda, newsreels, commercials, military training films.
- Straw Character: One Army training film shows a stereotypical Straw Feminist in huge glasses on a soapbox claiming that Communist countries want peace and are all-around great countries. She is also a classic Straw Pacifist.
- Tempting Fate: A film clip has someone looking at a newspaper and saying "Well I guess there's nothing to worry about; we're the ones that have the bomb." This is immediately followed by contemporary news coverage of the successful Soviet nuclear bomb test in 1949.
- Tested on Humans: One segment shows footage of pigs being exposed to atomic blasts so their injuries can be studied. That's followed by a different clip in which U.S. Army soldiers are stationed out in the desert, with no protection, so they can be measured for radiation exposure after a nuclear detonation.
- Visual Title Drop: A diner called "Atomic Cafe" is briefly shown.
- We Interrupt This Program: A instructional film about taking shelter before a nuclear strike opens with two actors performing a hammy radio drama. After the director in the control booth gets the bulletin about nuclear war, he intrudes into the studio and says "We interrupt our normal program", then makes the announcement.
