The China Syndrome

Rating:
Summary: SuspenseFULL
Review: The China Syndrome is a great film.

Kimberly Wells(Jane Fonda) is a television reporter doing a fluff story on a local nuclear power plant when a real story falls in her lap. Doing a routine check the plant has an accident. Kimberly and her cameraman, Richard Adams(Michael Douglas), happen to be in the control room when it happens and Richard gets the whole thing on tape. Upon returning to the station her boss decides that they can not air the segment because they were not suppose to film in the restricted area. Infuriated Richard steals the tape. Meanwhile Jack Godell(Jack Lemmon), the plant supervisor, realizes that a major catastrophy was narrowly averted. However,the big wigs at the plant aren't interested because they are about to land a major contract and they don't even want to consider shuting down.

Now the stage is set. What happens from this point on in the film is intense mounting suspense. The film is contantly asking it's audience questions and then quickly delivering answers, but it never lets on too much. The big burning question, though, is will there be another accident at the plant? If there is, this time it will not be able to be swept under the carpet as easily as the first.

This film is situational character development at its finest. Jack Lemmon, Jane Fonda, and Michael Douglas are all in top form in this picture. Especially the late great Lemmon, this is one of his best roles. The supporting cast is excellent as well. Directer James Bridges flawlessly directs the action and with almost no music. It is quite an achievement.

I highly recommend this film to anyone and everyone.

Rating:
Summary: A very interesting movie
Review: The China Syndrome is a great movie about a hypothetical accident at a nuclear power plant in California. An accident which is frighteningly close to what happened at Three Mile Island.

It is true that the movie is not all that concerned with accurately portraying the technical details of nuclear power plants. However, since the movie is not a 'How to Build Your Own Reactor Guide', who really cares about minor technical details.

What the movie does portray (and accurately) are the very real problems of having the same people who promote commercial nuclear power, in charge of plant security.

In reality the AEC did exactly that (a role now played by the NRC). The AEC were in charge of promoting commercial production of nuclear power while also being in charge of security at the plants. Talk about the classic case of the "mouse guarding the cheese".

Also, the scenes showing the futility of the antinuclear protests when faced with patronizing AEC-scientists are historically accurate. In fact, the concerns expressed in the movie about the lack of plans regarding nuclear waste disposal mirror concerns expressed by the antinuclear movement, and are in fact the very problems we are facing today.

All in all a good and thought provoking movie.

Rating:
Summary: A Thriller That Has Not Dated
Review: THE CHINA SYNDROME is one of those rare films that has more than just highly competent acting, scripting, and directing going for it. Current events also pops up from time to time to remind us that the events on the screen fit only too carefully into the jigsaw puzzle of art imitiating life. Just a few weeks after this nuclear power plant disaster film was released, a real life and similar catastrophe happened at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant. And then a decade later, a colossal meltdown at the Russian nuclear facility at Chernobyl again served as warning that if fallible human beings are permitted to design and run nuclear power plants, then the events of THE CHINA SYNDROME are just waiting to happen.

Director James Bridges pictures the fictional Ventana nuclear facility as an inevitable calamity to be. Jack Lemmon is shift supervisor Jack Godell, a man who is dedicated to the safety of the people of California. At first, he staunchly defends the integrity of his bosses who warn him that this plant must go online on time. Soon enough, with the help of television reporter Kimberly Wells, (Jane Fonda) and cameraman Richard Adams, (Michael Douglas) Godell discovers that safety has taken second place to corporate greed and the Almighty Buck. These three are horrified that the plant came THISCLOSE to an accident that might have poisoned the entire state for centuries. The final thirty minutes is a lesson to current directors about how to generate and maintain suspense and audience involvement without gratuitous sex or violence. Lemmon has never been better. Even his later Oscar for SAVE THE TIGER takes a back seat here. Fonda does well as she sets up the pace with a live interview with Lemmon that shows him both tongue tied and exasperated. In the hands of a lesser director, Lemmon might have sounded supremely confident and glib. Lemmon's inability to articulate was itself a tribute to his skill to communicate effectively even when he seemed not to. The closing moments of THE CHINA SYNDROME suggest that all that separates humanity from unimaginable disaster is the courage and wisdom of good company men like Jack Godell, who want only to be allowed to do their job without a board of directors pushing dollars over lives. During the twenty five years following the release of this film, repeated viewings have forced us to view its events under the constantly changing perspective of world events which ironically enough focus on terrorism as the cause of the next disaster. This film simply should not be missed.

Rating:
Summary: A Thriller That Has Not Dated
Review: THE CHINA SYNDROME is one of those rare films that has more than just highly competent acting, scripting, and directing going for it. Current events also pops up from time to time to remind us that the events on the screen fit only too carefully into the jigsaw puzzle of art imitiating life. Just a few weeks after this nuclear power plant disaster film was released, a real life and similar catastrophe happened at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant. And then a decade later, a colossal meltdown at the Russian nuclear facility at Chernobyl again served as warning that if fallible human beings are permitted to design and run nuclear power plants, then the events of THE CHINA SYNDROME are just waiting to happen.

Director James Bridges pictures the fictional Ventana nuclear facility as an inevitable calamity to be. Jack Lemmon is shift supervisor Jack Godell, a man who is dedicated to the safety of the people of California. At first, he staunchly defends the integrity of his bosses who warn him that this plant must go online on time. Soon enough, with the help of television reporter Kimberly Wells, (Jane Fonda) and cameraman Richard Adams, (Michael Douglas) Godell discovers that safety has taken second place to corporate greed and the Almighty Buck. These three are horrified that the plant came THISCLOSE to an accident that might have poisoned the entire state for centuries. The final thirty minutes is a lesson to current directors about how to generate and maintain suspense and audience involvement without gratuitous sex or violence. Lemmon has never been better. Even his later Oscar for SAVE THE TIGER takes a back seat here. Fonda does well as she sets up the pace with a live interview with Lemmon that shows him both tongue tied and exasperated. In the hands of a lesser director, Lemmon might have sounded supremely confident and glib. Lemmon's inability to articulate was itself a tribute to his skill to communicate effectively even when he seemed not to. The closing moments of THE CHINA SYNDROME suggest that all that separates humanity from unimaginable disaster is the courage and wisdom of good company men like Jack Godell, who want only to be allowed to do their job without a board of directors pushing dollars over lives. During the twenty five years following the release of this film, repeated viewings have forced us to view its events under the constantly changing perspective of world events which ironically enough focus on terrorism as the cause of the next disaster. This film simply should not be missed.

Rating:
Summary: Some associated issues...
Review: The China Syndrome, produced by Michael Douglas when he took a moment to put down his joint, is a decent enough picture, as suspense/cover-up pictures from the 70's go. But it is more than that. It has true historical significance, as it constitutes the entirety of what most people know about nuclear power. The considerable ignorance the film has thus engendered would ordinarily be of some concern.

However, said ignorance is of no import. True, the environmentalist anti-nuke crowd has effectively shut down nuclear development in the United States for the last several decades, while France, Lithuania, and other countries have demonstrated the ability to provide the vast majority of their energy needs safely, cleanly, incredibly efficiently, and as importantly, domestically - all with nuclear power. Further, China has emerged at the vanguard of nuclear power, deploying new "walk-away safe" plants that depend on neither engineering nor human beings for their safety, but on the very laws of physics - by design, they simply cannot melt down, and they have no byproducts that cannot be disposed of safely.

Yes, it's true, the aforementioned anti-nuke crowd has prevented any of these technologies from being implemented in the United States, but again, it's important to realize that they've caused no real harm. As we've got plenty of readily available oil, coal, etc., it doesn't actually matter if we avoid making use of the best, most efficient energy sources. As we know, the third world presents no difficulties whatsoever, so we are in the enviable position of not having to worry about progress, or science, or any of that stuff that the less fortunate have to turn to in order to better their lives.

We are in fact in the catbird seat, as it were. My advice: watch this film, develop your anti-science position, vote Nader (or Kerry if you're a realist), fight nukes, and try mightily to keep people from buying SUVs. Anything else would require effort - reading books, questioning assumptions, and so on. Such effort would fly directly in the face of your coddled status as ignorant citizen. You have a right to be intellectually lazy - exercise it!

Rating:
Summary: It Mirrors Reality In Many Ways
Review: This is one of my all time favorite films. Mainly because of Jack Lemon, my favorite actor of all time.

His stunning performance against the powerhouse that is Michael Douglas and Jane Fonda make this movie real. Even scarry and almost as if were real and really happening.

Made in the late 70's, it has everything including leisure suits, bell bottoms and sideburns, but it is a trendy film for the time as well.

This is a REAL example of how LIFE immitated ART. Three months after the release of this film, Three Mile Island happened.

Now with all the terrorist threats and concerns in America, this movie makes you think of the so many ways we can be attacked. The China Syndrom focuses on human error and budget cuts as the problem, but the result is amazing.

If you like good drama, this is a good DVD to own. Buy it!

Rating:
Summary: The Real Star
Review: This is one of my favorite movies. I have the 1999 DVD. (I'm not sure why another is needed; maybe more subtitles.) Mine has 1.85 anamorphic, letterbox, and 1.33 too. The transfer is good. The sound is mono; that on the one just out is a matter of dispute -- either mono or stereo, depending on what you read. (Amazon says mono.)

Yes, this movie has Lemmon, Fonda, et alii -- especially Wilford Brimley, whose performance impressed me a lot. But, maybe because I'm an engineer, I've always thought the real star was the nuclear power plant itself. The movie is, after all, about the safety of nuclear electrical power. The "Ventana" plant stands as a monolithic menace, dominating the movie. (The control room was based on the Trojan plant in Eugene, Oregon; I can't find out where the bowels-of-the-plant sets came from, or the external views.) That it is both loving and vengeful God is always apparent, true at the time of release and moreso today after Three-mile Island, Chernobyl, and especially the California electrical power crisis. The quantity and complexity of design and hardware necessary to run and control the plant are the base structure on which the story rides, giving the opportunities for mechanical failure and human fallibility and criminal chicanery with their consequent apocalyptic danger. (Mike Gray wrote the story in 1974 and 1975 stimulated by failures at the Dresden II reactor near Chicago in 1970 and the TVA's Brown's Ferry reactor in Alabama in 1975.)

The problem of energy sources is still with us. I feel that nuclear power is the way to go until a better way comes along, that civilization will demand it, even in our hyper-safety world. (Would cars, or even aspirin, make it if introduced today?) It might be sun, it won't be wind, and we'll run out of oil. The risks will be managed, and this movie will continue to have its place in the cautionary tales that guide the management.

Rating:
Summary: Three Mile Island: A Warning
Review: This movie came out a year before the incident at Three Mile Island but it is freakishly alike.

A news-reporter is making an item at a nuclear power plant and sees an incident happening right before her eyes. The camerman (Michael Douglas) tapes it all and gives to tape to the anti-nuclear people.
First the corperation does not want to come out and says nothing has happened. One of the people working at the plant (Jack Lemmon) get regrets and wants to come out. The movie has it's highpoint in the end, in the contral room of the plant...

It is a very important movie to show to people the dangers of nuclear power plants and especially the role of human error. Still topical after 25 years, a must-see