Radio Bikini

Rating:
Summary: Radio(active) Bikini
Review: "I'm making a film. If you want to learn history, read a book." - - Robert Stone

Robert Stone's Academy Award-nominated documentary, Radio Bikini, teaches history by presenting the story of the 1946 atomic bomb tests in the Marshall Islands using US government film. With hundreds of cameras recording the blasts in the Bikini Atoll, Operation Crossroads must have been the most extensively recorded event in history up to that time.

The story of smiling sailors before the test (putting animals in cages to test anti-radiation substances, drinking 3-2 beer, playing volleyball) alternates with the reminiscences of a sailor who suffered horrendous effects after returning to the area of the blast.

The chief of the island describes the day the Navy came and told him the United States needed to move his people and destroy their home. He'd never even seen a motion picture camera before that day.

Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov spars with US representative Bernard Baruch at the United Nations about which country has more peaceful intentions for the atom. Protesters march against the Bikini tests.

Stone's comment on film vs. history quoted above is misleading. He doesn't take the Jerry Bruckheimer approach to filmmaking (Blackhawk Down, Pearl Harbor) that dismisses historical accuracy in favor of an exciting story. He's just aware of the shortcomings of film to explain an historical event. (The interview with Stone included on the DVD is very interesting.)

Radio Bikini proves that film can show the truth, even if it can't show the whole truth. The physical effects of the Bikini tests we see are real. Cameras don't have to (as they often do in the age of embedded reporters) lie by showing the exultation of soldiers after combat but turning away from the dead and scarred bodies of soldiers and civilians.

(ADDITIONAL RECOMMENDATION: If you're interested in how film has treated history, see the Spring 2004 issue of Cineaste. There's a forty-page supplement with comments by historians like Simon Schama and Eric Hobsbawm and historical filmmakers like John Sayles and Costa Gavras.)

Rating:
Summary: Illuminating footage, but doesn't live up to hype
Review: "The Most Terrifying and Unbelievable Story of the Nuclear Age."

That's what the quote on the cover of the DVD says. Unfortunately, I don't think the DVD quite lives up to these expectations. (Why can't we just have good cover art instead of shameless fluffy quotes?)

In my book, the first bomb drops on Japan (Justified or not) must be the most terrifying. Those awoke the world to the power man has created. If not those, the future explosions and deployment in the MEGATON range must be the most terrifying. (The bombs dropped on Japan and FIRST tested in Bikini atoll were no more than 21 Kilotons).

I found the released footage fascinating in showing our naivete of our attitudes toward nuclear weapons at the time. The zoom out of a former sailor talking earlier than showing his hand is good too, though when put in context of what happened to those in Japan, not surprising. (I have been to Hiroshima (and Los Alamos area and museum) - which might affect my perception of this film too, in other words if one doesn't know much about nuclear history they might rate it higher)

Interviews with Bikini atoll native is good too, but I don't believe the author ever mentions that <200 people (167 from what I've read elsewhere) were moved / affected. Which in the scheme of mass death during WW2, isn't a high number. Although the movie Star Trek: Insurrection comes to mind (Which talks about how many people is too much to "sacrifice" for a goal). A map showing the blasts in relation to the Atoll would have been good too for perspective.

This is where I feel the movie failed a bit, it didn't do enough to express the context of the times. While there are clips of the end of WW2 and various clips from government officials after, I think it could have been tied together better.

Some more discussion on the irony of coming out of WW2 with all its death and destruction then blowing up a tropical paradise would be good. Also, brief discussion on other Bikini Atoll blasts would have been good.

On a final positive note - using the perspective of sailors in describing the events is good.

Worth watching, but don't have too high expectations. Atomic Journeys narrated by William Shatner is worth watching too.
www.atomictraveler.com has a ton of good info on the subject too.

As an aside, a good place to visit in the US is the Titan Missle Museum near Tucson, Arizona. Fully intact missle silo with 100 foot missle. Formerly armed with 9 megaton (600x more powerful than each bomb on Japan) nuclear warhead. I believe this is the largest size nuclear warhead the US deployed. We did test a 15 Megaton blast unexpectedly though on Bikini. The Russians tested even larger ones supposedly.

The follies of man. <smile>

Rating:
Summary: Radio(active) Bikini
Review: "I'm making a film. If you want to learn history, read a book." - - Robert Stone

Robert Stone's Academy Award-nominated documentary, Radio Bikini, teaches history by presenting the story of the 1946 atomic bomb tests in the Marshall Islands using US government film. With hundreds of cameras recording the blasts in the Bikini Atoll, Operation Crossroads must have been the most extensively recorded event in history up to that time.

The story of smiling sailors before the test (putting animals in cages to test anti-radiation substances, drinking 3-2 beer, playing volleyball) alternates with the reminiscences of a sailor who suffered horrendous effects after returning to the area of the blast.

The chief of the island describes the day the Navy came and told him the United States needed to move his people and destroy their home. He'd never even seen a motion picture camera before that day.

Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov spars with US representative Bernard Baruch at the United Nations about which country has more peaceful intentions for the atom. Protesters march against the Bikini tests.

Stone's comment on film vs. history quoted above is misleading. He doesn't take the Jerry Bruckheimer approach to filmmaking (Blackhawk Down, Pearl Harbor) that dismisses historical accuracy in favor of an exciting story. He's just aware of the shortcomings of film to explain an historical event. (The interview with Stone included on the DVD is very interesting.)

Radio Bikini proves that film can show the truth, even if it can't show the whole truth. The physical effects of the Bikini tests we see are real. Cameras don't have to (as they often do in the age of embedded reporters) lie by showing the exultation of soldiers after combat but turning away from the dead and scarred bodies of soldiers and civilians.

(ADDITIONAL RECOMMENDATION: If you're interested in how film has treated history, see the Spring 2004 issue of Cineaste. There's a forty-page supplement with comments by historians like Simon Schama and Eric Hobsbawm and historical filmmakers like John Sayles and Costa Gavras.)

Rating:
Summary: DH
Review: Best documentary I have ever seen. The ending leaves you speechless and in deep thought. Everyone should see this movie at least once. Should be required of all high school/college students.

Rating:
Summary: Speechless
Review: My Dad was on the USS Reclaimer - lucky to still be alive. Not many people realize what a controversial, scary event this was when it happened. People honestly thought the world was going to be destroyed and yet, hundreds of teenagers were exposed to massive amounts of radiation. As the video ends, you will be sitting there with your mouth hanging open. A must see.

Rating:
Summary: Speechless
Review: My Dad was on the USS Reclaimer - lucky to still be alive. Not many people realize what a controversial, scary event this was when it happened. People honestly thought the world was going to be destroyed and yet, hundreds of teenagers were exposed to massive amounts of radiation. As the video ends, you will be sitting there with your mouth hanging open. A must see.