Rating: 
Summary: Some reasons why
Review: Nukes in Space is a serious documentary as well as eye candy. For those reading the history of the era, it provides the larger media-culture background to the Cuban Missile crisis. It goes far to explain why Kennedy and MacNamara went for the various arms control negotiations that lead to banning open air nuclear testing and eventually the ABM Treaty.
Rating:
Summary: Some reasons why
Review: Nukes in Space is a serious documentary as well as eye candy. For those reading the history of the era, it provides the larger media-culture background to the Cuban Missile crisis. It goes far to explain why Kennedy and MacNamara went for the various arms control negotiations that lead to banning open air nuclear testing and eventually the ABM Treaty.
Rating: 
Summary: A world of historic events beautifully restored in this film
Review: Since I've seen Mr. Kuran's "Trinity and Beyond" I was anxious to see what restoration magic he had continued with his latest release. I wasn't disappointed. For those who don't realize it, much of the historical film of the 50's through the 70's is rapidly fading. Unique scenes that will never be re-enacted are dwindling in vaults everywhere do to time's effect on the dye used in color film. Peter Kuran is a filmmaker and documentarian with several awards to his name. He has chosen what seems like a limited-interest field to apply state of the art restoration techniques to obtain quality film to tell his story. His use of Mr. William Shatner's even-toned, non-judgemental reading of the script of this period of our nations' history, combined with the Moscow Symphony Orchestra's music is a wonderful match. Even though I've seen many of the clips shown in this film before, never have they had the clarity, color saturation or sharpness that Mr. Kuran has brought to this film. I've been aware of the work that is necessary to achieve this level of restoration, and his devotion to this film is remarkable. Tracing the history of the space race, saber rattling, and political posturing, the viewer is made aware of science and politics intermingling from a new perspective. A real concern about the damage the tests were doing to the world beyond our planet is retold by modern interviews with experts from that era. Of course the film is technically excellent, but as a true documentarian, Mr. Kuran leads us to consider the events of the time as neither evil or necessary, but just that they were a period we fortunately lived through without war. There are many new clips I've not seen elsewhere, and one brief (as is everything concerning the amazing Sprint antiballistic missile) a few seconds of this rare rocket accelerating at 100 G's! The serious collector should own this film just for the restored archival material. Those who did not live through this nerve-racking time should view the film to obtain a flavor of the tense world situation that could easily have seen the use of these weapons in anger. Sure there are a few minor problems with the production (a muted background explosion is heard as a distant German V2 rocket hits some distance away, rather than having the necessary delay in arrival of sound), but overall the filmmaker uses good judgement in not flaunting all of the videographer's toys, fades, wipes and special effects that mar other productions. My only concern is realizing that hundreds of thousands of feet of film lay slowly deteriorating, never to be subjected to Mr. Kuran's magical process of restoration. Perhaps archivists and historians in charge of rare material will approach Visual Concepts to ask for their help in preserving this unreplacable film.
Rating:
Summary: Essential Viewing
Review: This collection is essential viewing for anyone interested in this subject.I live in England and had heard of these DVDs but was never able to find them. I finally found them... and ordered them. Boy was it worth it. The images of the detonations are spectacular, beautiful, and absolutely terrifying. Couple this with superb narration, research, and extra features, and you have probably the best all-round documentary on the history, science and politics of nuclear warfare around.
Rating:
Summary: The Bomb Set
Review: This set of 3 documentaries is both visually stunning and very engaging. All 3 movies are very interesting, but i would say that Trinity And Beyond is the coolest of the bunch. It is a little more sweeping than the others, and covers a more broad amount of general information on the history of nuclear weapons. It also has the most actual bomb footage, and the DVD extras- like the 3D short movie on a Nevada test site, are fantastic. Nukes In Space has some startling footage of atmospheric nuclear testing which resulted in rainbow auroras and electromagnetic disturbances. It also dives into the space race and how it was connected to the nuclear arms race, very interesting stuff. Atomic Journeys is pretty cool too, but just not quite as exciting. The movie returns to ground zero at several different nuclear sites, and then proceeds to dive into the history of the site. Both Nukes In Space and Atomic Journeys have great DVD extras as well. All in all, this set contain 3 great documentaries with some truly spectacular and frightening footage. All 3 DVDs are presented wonderfully- from the way cool DVD menus to all the extras they packed on, Goldhil Home Media and Peter Kuran have presented a wonderful addition to anyones DVD collection.
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