Rating: 
Summary: Good film
Review: In their brilliant compilation film "Atomic Café", Kevin Rafferty, Jayne Loader and Pierce Rafferty reveal a dynamic disapproval of atomic warfare. Although no new scenes were filmed for this movie, the editors state that nuclear warfare is wrong through their selection of material and their juxtaposition of sound and images. They also bring out the inherent ironies of Cold War propaganda in a humorous yet horrifying way.
Rating: 
Summary: Done on the cheap - but entertaining
Review: Some real gems mixed in with quite a bit of dull footage. Good for nostalgia... especially the "Duck and Cover" scenes... my 6th grade teacher always promised she was going to show us that film, but it was hard to get from the San Diego City Schools A/V Department by 1971 (it was already considered a hoot by then). The best scenes are those from the Army field tests, with the soldiers dutifully being exposed to the blast, and marching in towards the fireball - really freaky stuff. It all reminds me of the monthly Air Raid Siren tests... it was really eeiry - in the 60's, the tests would go off every 1st Tuesday of the month at 12:00 noon. I'd stand on the upper terrace of our hilltop-located school, and listen to all the Air Raid Sirens winding up and down all over San Diego (there was one outside every school and every fire station - really LOUD, 35' tall, yellow SOBs they were)... whenever they had a test, you couldn't help but think; now would be the PERFECT time for the Russians to ATTACK! But, it was all BS anyway - if they did attack, San Diego County and all the Aircraft Carriers and Military Bases would have been VAPORIZED! Then, one day, the city came to their senses and stopped testing; and a few years after that, the sirens all just disappeared (sold as junk, I guess).
Rating: 
Summary: America Adapts to a Nuclear World -- on film...
Review: The Atomic Cafe is a cult classic Cold War documentary, focusing on the development and deployment of nuclear weapons from the perspective of the U.S. in 1982. Some of the footage of nuclear detonations is breath-taking, especially when placed into the perspective of the time.The Atomic Cafe does a masterful job of weaving together news reports, government information films, public service announcements and dramas from World War II right up through the Cold War of 1982. It's interesting to watch the sometimes frightening, sometimes naive and sometimes even humorous moments that illustrate the American culture adapting to a world in which it had the ultimate destructive power (the atomic bomb), then lost the edge over the menacing Soviet Union, then developed an even more powerful weapon (the hydrogren bomb) and then saw the Soviets catch up yet again. Some of the moments in the documentary are just classic, thanks to great footage but even more, awesome editing. For instance, one part shows a man looking at a newspaper and he says "well, at least we don't have to worry. We're the ones with the bomb!" Then there is a cut to someone stating that the Soviets now have the bomb. Then there is the naivety: Another part shows an Army officer briefing a company of soldiers who will be deployed into a nuclear area shortly after a test detonation. He tells them that there is this "new" threat called "radiation", but that they won't have to worry about it too much. They then show these soldiers in their trenches immediately after the detonation and they stand up to see, while radioactive dirt and debris whooshes over them. A news reporter asks one of the soldiers: "Did you close your mouth?" The soldier answers, laughing: "No, I got a mouthful!" If anything, the Atomic Cafe is a stark reminder of where we've been. It'll definitely be something interesting for my children to watch someday.
Rating:
Summary: it lets you laugh at how stupid we all were
Review: the greatest movie i ever saw in school, i like it so much, i watch it at least once a month. it is truely a mockery of the intellegence of the nation, which you can't help, but laugh at ourselves. i wake up every morning singing about bert the turtle, and all day i laugh with my friends about all the clips through out the movie. it is something to definately frolic over.
Rating:
Summary: Humorous and revealing
Review: This documentary has very entertaining footage that makes you laugh and cry at the same time. It sends shivers down your spine when you hear what public officials were saying during early days of the cold war. Many times there were references to the "will of God" in the same sentence there were references to nuclear weapons and testing and it just horrified me. Looking back it all looks very silly but people took themselves very serious then. Today we take ourselves very serious. It makes you wonder how we will look back on ourselves at this current time. What are we going to think, in the future, of our current speak of profits and competition, of downsizing, corporate synergy, aggressive advertising promising that some product will make us happy? Or, will it be something else that we will cringe at the sound of hearing?
Rating:
Summary: It's actually synically hilarious....
Review: THIS FILM IS SADLY REMINISCENT OF REALITY, a reality that has been glossed over in our history books, it seems so far away....But why then can the USA not sign the Ban Nukes Treaty? This is an excellent portrayal of Nuclear Madness...Duck and cover is proposterous! It was a view of the government to make people feel that they had some sort of control but the truth is people...nuclear bombs are NON Commonsensical...this documentary reveals the madness that overtakes the dark hearts of man.... Sure the broken glass and flying debris will cause minimal physical damage but remember the cancerous skin, the contaminated fetus's with radiation poisioning for generations to come...irradiated water, irradiated grass that our cows feed on, the air we breathe....call up the indigenous people of the Marshall Islands if they still exist from all of the 500+ bombs tested on thier atolls....great art direction...
Rating:
Summary: This excellent film is about the history of the atomic bomb.
Review: This film shows pro-atomic bomb footage and the atomic bomb's effect on our culture. Atomic Cafe has very funny moments along with more sober moments. Look for an appearance of a younger Ronald Reagan promoting the benefits of the bomb, and how a priest urges that we nuke North Korea to end the Korean War. Duck and Cover!! This is one of my favorite documentaries of all time.
Rating: 
Summary: Dr Strangelove without the creativity, script, etc.
Review: This is a cult flick, won't argue it. It's also overly long, often boring and even though it's using no original material whatsoever, the juxtapositions and thematic polarization of what is used often combine into the pretentious and overbearing. If you're IQ is above 120 or so, expect to have your intelligence frequently insulted (the nudge, nudge variety of "get it? get it? isn't nuclear war bad? ain't these people creepy?" underlying messages). It can't touch the depth of a, say, Koyanisqatsi. Over-rated.
Rating:
Summary: Funny but also unsettling
Review: This is a great documentary: it has no narration and simply lets the time speak for itself. It features a wide assortment of clips: army training films, educational films, TV shows, newsclips--all centered around Americans' attempts to grapple with the reality of "the bomb." While it certainly is outrageously funny, it also reminds the viewer that real people suffered from Cold War atomic ignorance, and that our government, while not always deliberately lying, at least didn't know what it was talking about half the time. The film also effectively shows how the Cold War was not just some abstract "thing," out there, but rather something that affected the lives of everyday Americans in all sorts of complex ways.
Rating:
Summary: Teach Your Children Well
Review: This review is directed primarily to the under 30's who are still trying to figure out the boomer generation. As one savvy reviewer here surmised, this film goes a long way into explaining the psychological behavior of boomers who actually were instructed by well-meaning nuns (in my case)or other elementary and high school teachers to practice ducking beneath their desks in the event of a nuclear strike. As the wit, Dave Barry, points out, the stucture of wood and minimal steel was no doubt designed as a carefully-constructed safeguard against nuclear annihilation by the brain trust that was guiding the civil defense system of the era. Other such gross anomalies are addressed in this film. In this case, the idea of looking back provides some comic relief, but I for one, can tell you, that when the sirens were going off every other day back in 1962-63, we didn't regard it as all that funny. Read the Amazon reviewer's take above, then invest some money in purchasing this film. It is a great document that depicts a serious subject in a lighthearted manner, yet the underlying message is timeless. It should come shipped with the caveat: "Lest we forget."
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