The Atomic Cafe (1982)

I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

Sorry, this movie sucks

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Disturbing collection of 1940s and 1950s United States government issued propaganda films designed to reassure Americans that the atomic bomb was not a threat to their safety."The Atomic Cafe" was released at the height of nostalgia and cynicism in America. By 1982, Americans lost much of their faith in their government following the Vietnam War, the Watergate scandal, and the seemingly never-ending arms race with the Soviet Union. "The Atomic Cafe" reflects and reinforces this idea as it exposes how the atomic bomb's dangers were downplayed (President Truman calls the atomic bomb a gift from God) and how the government used films to shape public opinion.Even today (2016) the film holds up as a startling example of how the government kept the American people ignorant, and may possibly have been themselves ignorant. The way the Army handled radiation seems dangerous and foolish today. What I would like to see is this: if the film is ever put on blu-ray (and maybe it already is for all I know), go back to the sources and clean them up. Obviously not all could be, but if you were able to improve the picture quality, this film could stay relevant and interesting for decades to come.

No pun intended but this film is a blast. I only recently became aware of it and promptly decided to order it up via my local library. For someone like myself who lived through most of the era represented in these archival clips, it's a wistful, melancholy trip down memory lane. Like so many others growing up in the Fifties I remember quite vividly how we'd practice those duck and cover drills and stockpile canned goods in a secure room at school in case we found ourselves under attack by those pesky Russkies. The film instructively takes us on a chronological journey from the end of World War II through the Cold War paranoia of the Fifties and Sixties showing how the threat of nuclear war was to be taken seriously, or at least as seriously as the government would have us believe. You know, even as a kid I had a pretty good idea that kneeling next to a wall and covering my head with my hands would make me a goner if the real thing ever happened.One of the more surreal moments offered here was that near rabid clergyman exhorting families with a fallout shelter to deny access to outsiders lest they imperil their own safety. It brought to mind that 1961 Twilight Zone episode 'The Shelter' which pretty much laid out the same scenario with some modification. In the story, a family man who built and supplied his own fallout shelter was besieged by his neighbors to allow them entry when the dreaded siren heralded a nuclear attack. The story demonstrated just how ugly people can become when faced with their own mortality; it was one of Rod Serling's better scripts.In terms of sheer absurdity (and there were numerous examples), the suggestion that doubled me over had to do with providing a bottle of tranquilizers for an extended period in a bomb shelter. How else to contend with the paranoia and boredom of being cooped up while waiting for an emergency to be over. Which would be good advice if you had the foresight to locate your shelter at least twelve miles away from ground zero because otherwise you'd be toast. By the way, a bottle of a hundred would be about right.For those of you interested in this type of stuff, the copy of "The Atomic Cafe" I watched came in a two DVD set from Docurama Films. The bonus disc features yet another eight government propaganda shorts from the era including 1951's 'Duck and Cover' with Bert the Turtle, and what looks like a must see - 'Self Preservation in an Atomic Attack'. For a more in depth treatment of the Bikini Atoll nuclear test, I'd recommend the 1988 documentary "Radio Bikini".

The movie's a quirky documentary assembled from news clips from the '40's and '50's, showing how Americans learned to live with The Bomb if not exactly love it. It looks like the clips are selected with the idea of justifying The Bomb's existence, and then soft-pedaling its destructive power. Of course, the black humor lies in showing that destructive power in the leveled cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and then contrasting that with anemic defensive measures like the infamous Duck and Cover. Naturally, some sort of civilian measures became necessary once the Soviets came up with their version of the A- bomb making nuclear war a real possibility.As a result, politicians and the Pentagon had a big challenge convincing the public not to seek nuclear disarmament as one way of dealing the problem. So, we see efforts to demonize our former ally, the Soviets, plus our own disarmament advocates, in pretty crude terms. Then there are efforts to calm public anxiety through counter-measures, such as bomb shelters and gas masks, along with Duck and Cover. Also, there's considerable grim humor in the way commercial culture trivializes the threat by naming drinks and cafés after The Bomb. After all, what would pack a bigger advertising wallop than a few thousand tons of exploding TNT.Anyway, the movie uses irony and black humor to convey a pretty good sense of an anxious period.(In passing-- Even though we've managed to dodge the nuclear bullet for 60-odd years, it's best to keep in mind that fateful day in 1962, when only a Soviet submarine commander's refusal to press the nuclear button stood between us and a real test of Duck and Cover. For confirmation of this little known fact, Google "soviet submarine commander cuban missile crisis", or "vasili arkhipov" for details.)

there are many famous and great documentaries, 'Harlan County', 'Taxi To The Darkside',etc, that inform us and provide us with valuable knowledge into events and help to deeply impact our thinking. 'Atomic Cafe' isn't that kind of documentary. It doesn't really tell us anything we don't know or provide us with information that isn't already out there. what it is, however, is one of the most entertaining and clever documentaries you could possibly imagine. one IMDb reviewer, who is also a filmmaker, even went as far as to say he liked this better than his own documentary.it's really something when you can take a subject like this and make it into a thing that is screamingly funny, enjoyable fun, without seeming ironically morbid in the process. the film never leaves you with a sour, bitter taste, but with a sense of awe and amusement at the messy predicament mankind has gotten into. everything about it is fascinating, and dare i say, even a little magical. not the bomb necessarily, but just the way the film puts things into it's clever, fun perspective. the film takes a negative subject and turns it into something that is good and cathartic for the viewer. instead of feeling depressed or negative after the film, a viewer is probably more likely to feel strangely elated,empowered, and a bit braver when facing world crisis. i'm not saying we should just laugh at everything bad, but a little humor always helps.the film is done without the help of any kind of narration which leaves the viewer free to make their own conclusions and decide their own feelings on the subject. not that it isn't skillfully done. the montages are excellent, especially the final montage which is timed to Mussorgsky's 'Pictures At An Exhibition'.this is a documentary everyone should see. it helps you cope with the idea of a "bomb"(or bombs), and helps you laugh at the things that seem like mankind's darkest hour. note: this makes a great double feature viewing with either 'Dr. Stangelove' or '5,000 Fingers of Dr.T'.