The Atomic Cafe
**This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the movies being covered here wouldn’t exist.
There’s a dark humor that permeates throughout “The Atomic Cafe” that must have been disarming for audiences in 1982. The film is a look at the propaganda of the Cold War that the US government created in order to keep people aware of the threat of nuclear war, but also to allay fears about the prospect of it. We know now that “Duck and Cover” was an insanely ridiculous thing to try and get into people’s heads, as if that was going to save them from a bomb going off, but because the government told people to do it, it is given the sheen of credibility. I never did ask my parents, or grandparents, what they thought of it; This film made me wish that I had.
One of the directors of “The Atomic Cafe” is Kevin Rafferty, who would later assist on Michael Moore’s “Roger & Me,” and in this 86-minute documentary, you can see the sardonic wit with which Moore would later explore modern difficulties in America; in particular, I think his 2002 film, “Bowling for Columbine,” was probably influenced by “The Atomic Cafe,” especially when it looks at how the media sells fear for ratings. Of course, the subject of “Bowling for Columbine” is gun violence, and the aftermath of the Columbine shooting, which was the next major moment where “Duck and Cover” has been sold to kids to help calm fears. It’s sad to think that, now, we continue to sell flimsy hopes to society regarding mass death as opposed to sensible solutions.
The new 4K restoration of “The Atomic Cafe” makes this footage look as new as it was in the ’40s and ’50s. Even as a collection of propaganda, the genius in how Kevin and Pierce Rafferty and Jayne Loader assemble it is in the form of a narrative, from the initial uses of the atomic bomb against Japan to the beginnings of the Cold War, which started proper when Russia tested its own atomic bomb in 1949. Using archival news footage along with the official films, the filmmakers are able to tell the story of how America used its nuclear superiority after WWII for its own gains without really considering the consequences for the world in general. The films on display in “Atomic Cafe”- with a great soundtrack of Cold War-tinged music- give us a profound window into America’s arrogance coming out of WWII, and the way the government used both the media- and cinematic techniques- to get citizens to think that nuclear war was not only likely, but also survivable. Preserving democracy in the American mold was the most important thing we could do, but while the destruction the bomb can do is horrible, it is possible to come out ahead if one is used against us. By giving us a straightforward look at these propaganda films, the directors are hoping we see how much we were duped into believing, at the time.
There are several moments of the film that are entertaining, and infuriating, now, looking through a modern lens of how the government has continued the colonialist spirit of the British Empire in its own way, but I think the most impactful moments- for me- were when we get to the execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, whom were convicted of being spies for the Russians. While they were, indeed, traitors, I think the way the makers of this film linger on them gets to the heart of the real costs of the Cold War- the American psyche has always had an “us vs. them” attitude, but rather than work with others to make for a better world after WWII, we got into an ideological debate that resulted in weaponry that could have killed us all. That might be just as dumb as the government trying to convince us that “Duck and Cover” was anything but a psychological placebo against nuclear radiation.
