By John Wills
The documentary movie The Atomic Cafe Released on March 17, 1982, The Atomic relates the story of the American atomic Cafe met with largely positive reviews. bomb from its inception in 1945 through to Vincent Canby for the New York Times dominance over world affairs in the late applauded the “devastating collage film” 1950s. Consisting solely of archival for its exploration of atomic culture, and footage, filmmakers Jayne Loader, Kevin called it a picture “deserving national Rafferty and Pierce Rafferty craft a attention.” Richard Harrington for the convincing narrative of early Cold War Washington Post declared, “The Atomic events and attitudes. Their film provides a Cafe could be the most important film of critical glimpse into post-war America: a 1982,” and a “place from which to start world of Duck and Cover school drills, rethinking about the unthinkable.” 60 troops marching toward ground zero at the Minutes, Good Morning America and Nevada Test Site, and politicians waxing David Letterman all showed clips from the lyrical over both the threat and the movie. promise of a new atomic era. The film highlights the aesthetic spectacle, The release of the film proved timely. The abundant novelty and kitsch appropriation Atomic Cafe spoke to lingering of the bomb endemic to the period, but disillusionment with government stemming also reveals the drama, deceit and even from the Watergate scandal and the death associated with atomic Vietnam War. It aligned with the peak of experimentation. public distrust over national atomic policy. In the 1970s, renegade scientists such as An expansive US Government film John Gofman questioned the safety of the catalogue provided the initial inspiration American nuclear industry, and in 1979, a for Atomic Cafe. Intrigued by a list of partial meltdown at Three Mile Island thousands of documentary titles, Pierce nuclear plant in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Rafferty approached his brother Kevin, a drew nationwide attention to the dangers fledgling filmmaker at the California of the atom. In 1981, newly elected Institute of Arts, over ideas for a film. President Ronald Reagan pushed for a Sharing a mutual interest in government rapid escalation in the nuclear arms race, propaganda, they began work on the with the Soviet Union and the United project in 1976. They teamed up with States entering a period of heightened Jayne Loader, a freelance journalist, and tensions, dubbed the ‘Second Cold War.’ gradually narrowed their scope to government and press depictions of the The Atomic Cafe raised serious doubts atomic bomb. Rafferty then spent several over how far the government, nuclear years searching for films in public and industry and military could be trusted. It private archives, before the team sat down showed troops at the Nevada Test Site to review approximately 10,000 hours of being shepherded towards radioactive footage. Splicing together segments from mushroom clouds, little different from the press reels, military training films and civil caged animals kept on-site and exposed defense documentaries, Loader and the to deadly blasts for the benefits of Rafferty brothers aimed to create a story science. It highlighted a government that told itself. Atomic-themed music willing to lie to Marshallese Islanders over provided a soundtrack to the speeches the dangers of radiation, and brazen and conversations on-screen. Financed enough to suggest to the American public mostly by the three filmmakers, the film that hiding under picnic blankets could cost around $300,000. assure survival in nuclear war. With its alarming tone, the film served as an instant protest tool for the 1980s anti- nuclear movement Freeze. It successfully an army chaplain reassures his men at the transformed pro-nuclear propaganda into Nevada Test Site that there is “no need to anti-nuclear propaganda. be worried” with the atomic bomb "a wonderful sight to behold," the following Through its satire of the military-industrial clip shows unprotected troops getting complex, The Atomic Cafe joined a range mouthfuls of radioactive dirt as they run of material targeting America’s love affair towards a gigantic dark cloud. Rife with with the atom. For some time, feature dark humor, the film reaches its crescendo films had offered an artistic challenge to with a montage of images that together the American post-war atomic hegemony, depict a wholescale nuclear attack. A the most famous being Stanley Kubrick’s woman fake-screams, a kid in bizarre black comedy Dr Strangelove or: How I protection gear rides his bike, and the Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the cartoon character Burt the Turtle hides Bomb (1964). The China Syndrome under his shell as the United States is (1979) and Silkwood (1983) explored obliterated; the final scene shows a chirpy issues of deception and corporate father instruct his family, “children you malpractice in the nuclear industry, while better clear up the broken glass and all Testament (1983) and the ABC television this debris, all in all I’d say we’ve been movie The Day After (1983) offered very lucky around here.” As Paul Herman painfully realistic depictions of nuclear for the New York Times related, “The attack on American home soil. After movie is about the atom bomb, one of the watching The Day After, Reagan confided most serious subjects a filmmaker could in his diary that the film proved “very choose in these times. Yet in the effective and left me greatly depressed.” audience, youngsters and adults alike are Released the same year as The Atomic convulsed with laughter.” Cafe, the documentary Dark Circle, directed by Judy Irving and Chris Beaver, The Atomic Cafe helped historicize the highlighted the problems of the nuclear bomb and highlight the pivotal role of fuel cycle at Rocky Flats production facility propaganda in America’s atomic program. in Colorado and Diablo Canyon plant in While sometimes underplaying the California. Together, such films helped complexity of the period and the range of the American public visualize the dangers motives behind the nuclear test series, the of radioactivity. Film provided a powerful movie remains a powerful warning medium for negotiating atomic issues. statement. Its enduring relevance is two- fold: to question the promotion of new and By utilizing vintage film clips, Atomic Cafe untested technologies and to recognize offered a distinctive evidence-based flavor the power and willingness of the of nuclear skepticism. Rather than government to deceive on a mass scale. employ a narrator, the team allowed the footage to speak for itself, and left the The views expressed in this essay are those of the picture open to interpretation by the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the Library of Congress. audience. Pierce Lafferty explained, “the three of us had decided all the way along John Wills is the Director of American Studies that the film was going to be in a format at the University of Kent. He specializes in US that would to a certain extent force people environmental issues and popular culture. He back on their own memories, on their own is the author of five books, his most recent thoughts, on their own perceptions about being “Disney Culture” (2017). this material.” Jayne Loader referred to The Atomic Cafe as a “compilation vérité,” notable for the absence of any “voice of god” to guide the viewer. The team’s choice of content nonetheless framed the narrative. Loader and the Lafferty brothers selected footage that highlighted the paradoxes and lies of the age. When