And so, we've finished our final film for the semester. Before I make my remarks, I would just like to say that I like this movie. It is original for being entirely comprised of archive footage and not bringing in any cliches, like voice-over narration and re-enactments. The "interviews" are merely clips from other meetings, yet they yield insight to the frantic psyche of the American mind, especially during the Cold War. My only regret is that the creators did not include any of the McCarthy hearings, but this is the atomic bomb, not the red scare. They go hand in hand, but the red scare is merely one of the symptoms; it has been going on long before the atom bomb was even conceived, before World War II broke out in Europe.
I've been skeptical about our government ever since seventh grade, but now that I look back on everything, I have every right to. It's one thing to say another government's evil and that only bad governments utilize propaganda, but it's another thing for a "protector of freedom" to do it. It's hypocrisy to the lowest, and I'm stunned how many people are unaware about it. The students of Tech are smarter than that, but I'm scared for the rest of the nation. Are we doomed to forever be unaware of what the rest of the world is doing? To be trapped like prisoners in the cave, laughing at the one person who has the audacity to go outside and see the world? I have no hope for us...
Anyway, the irradiation scenes haunted me in my sleep and whenever I do my work in school. They weren't as violent as the media portrays it, but it's still disturbing. What makes it worse is that we can eat poison and be fully unaware of it, and that's precisely what happens with the Bikinians. Nobody knew how to treat irradiation at the time, and it's still dumb-founding even today. For the U.S. Army, their island is nothing more than something to be experimented on. The same applies for the hogs, who have no means of escape. They're forced into these man-holes, and when testing's finally over, their skin is scorched along with the rest of their organs. Dieve, I'm glad I'm not a pig!*
It's been roughly four or five months since October, and I have yet to put up an original movie review. I have had several in mind, so hopefully, I can do it. All in all, the Atomic Cafe is a wonderful documentary and I highly recommend it to anyone who's interested in the Cold War.
*Reference to Upton Sinclair's The Jungle
I've been skeptical about our government ever since seventh grade, but now that I look back on everything, I have every right to. It's one thing to say another government's evil and that only bad governments utilize propaganda, but it's another thing for a "protector of freedom" to do it. It's hypocrisy to the lowest, and I'm stunned how many people are unaware about it. The students of Tech are smarter than that, but I'm scared for the rest of the nation. Are we doomed to forever be unaware of what the rest of the world is doing? To be trapped like prisoners in the cave, laughing at the one person who has the audacity to go outside and see the world? I have no hope for us...
Anyway, the irradiation scenes haunted me in my sleep and whenever I do my work in school. They weren't as violent as the media portrays it, but it's still disturbing. What makes it worse is that we can eat poison and be fully unaware of it, and that's precisely what happens with the Bikinians. Nobody knew how to treat irradiation at the time, and it's still dumb-founding even today. For the U.S. Army, their island is nothing more than something to be experimented on. The same applies for the hogs, who have no means of escape. They're forced into these man-holes, and when testing's finally over, their skin is scorched along with the rest of their organs. Dieve, I'm glad I'm not a pig!*
It's been roughly four or five months since October, and I have yet to put up an original movie review. I have had several in mind, so hopefully, I can do it. All in all, the Atomic Cafe is a wonderful documentary and I highly recommend it to anyone who's interested in the Cold War.
*Reference to Upton Sinclair's The Jungle
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