Multimedia Collection
The Atomic Cafe
DVD
88 min
1982
D843 .A796 2008 DVD
One of the defining documentaries of the 20th century, THE ATOMIC CAFE (1982) offers a darkly humorous glimpse into mid-century America, an era rife with paranoia, anxiety, and misapprehension. Whimsical and yet razorsharp, this timeless classic illuminates the often comic paradoxes of life in the "Atomic Age," while also exhibiting a genuine nostalgia for an earlier and more innocent nation.
Narrated through an astonishing array of vintage clips and music - from military training films to campy advertisements, presidential speeches to pop songs - the film revolves around the threat - and thrill - of the newly minted atomic bomb. Taking aim at the propaganda and false optimism of the 1950s, the film's satire shines most vividly in clever image splicing, such as, footage of a decimated Hiroshima alongside cheerful suburban "duck-and-cover" routines. More than anything else, THE ATOMIC CAFE shows how nuclear warfare infiltrated the living rooms of America, changing the nation from the inside out.
Distributed by New Video Group.
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