The Atomic Cafe
(DVD)

Originally released in 1982.

Edited by Jayne Loader, Kevin Rafferty ; archival research, Pierce Rafferty ; music coordinator, Rick Eaker.

Speakers from archival footage: Paul Tibbets, President Harry S. Truman, Vice Admiral W.H.P. Blandy (commander of the Bikini Test), Sen. Brian McMahon, James E. Van Zandt (United States congressman from Pennsylvania), Rep. Lloyd Bentsen, Richard Nixon, Sen. Owen Brewster, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Gov. Val Peterson (director of Civil Defense), Sen. Lyndon B. Johnson, Lewis L. Strauss (chariman, Atomic Energy Commission), Prof. Seymour Melman (Columbia University), Prof. Mario Salvadori (Columbia University), Nikita Khruschev ; archival footage of Julius Rosenberg, Ethel Rosenberg.

"A dark comedy in the truest sense, this film took the nation by storm when it first debuted in theaters in 1982. A compilation of archival film clips beginning with the first atomic bomb detonation in the New Mexico desert. The footage, much of it produced as government propaganda, follows the story of the bomb through the two atomic attacks on Japan that ended World War II to the bomb's central role in the Cold War. The film recounts a defining period of 20th century history and serves as a chilling and often hilarious reminder of Cold-War era paranoia in the United States, artfully presented through a collage of newsreel footage, government archives, military training films, and fifties music. Profoundly shocking and perversely topical, the film craftily captures a panicked nation, offering a fascinating and witty account of life during the Atomic Age and resulting Cold War, when fall-out shelters, duck-and-cover drills, and government propaganda were all a part of our social consciousness."--Container

DVD; NTSC; Dolby digital, stereo.

In English.

Added to the Library of Congress' National Film Registry in 2016.