1982-10-01
N/A
26 min
Australian pediatrician Helen Caldicott delivers a lecture on the potential medical and societal consequences of a nuclear war, and advocates for nuclear disarmament. The film includes newsreel records of the beginnings of the arms race and the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as well as film records showing the Japanese who were severely scarred and burned in the bombings.
Made amidst the first term of Ronald Reagan's US Presidency, this short documentary uses some clips of his wartime propaganda feature "Jap Zero" (1943) along with some devastatingly effective archive to illustrate a lecture from Dr. Helen Caldicott. She's an Australian paediatrician who is using her time at the podium to warn of the dangers of nuclear proliferation by pointing out some of the medical issues any use of these weapons might cause. The death toll in Hiroshima and Nagasaki is proof of the sheer destructive capability of these devices that can wipe out huge swathes of living things whilst leaving any survivors severely burned and unlikely to receive adequate medical attention from an equally decimated profession now devoid of staff and facilities. The imagery is potent but her accompanying diatribe is much less so. She really does lecture her, admittedly captivated, audience. Not that this is exactly a laughing matter, but she does rather pontificate at us rather than carry us along with her. She frequently cites her reference sources and recent surveys selected, it seemed, to support her position rather than promote any discussion of the political and military realities that prevailed at the height of the Cold War. It's the imagery on screen that we see that pulls no punches. Her tones are at times rather patronising and her school-mistress style of handing-down the gospel according to Dr. Caldicott did start to grate as she continued for just a bit too long. Yes it's a serious issue, none more so, but to engage an audience you have to make them feel invested in your ideals, your language, and your personality - a bit of charisma never goes amiss. I just didn't feel she did that here and there are way more striking demonstrations of the horror of atomic warfare to be found in cinema than this.
