|
Day Called: How To Survive A Nuclear Attack
|
(DVD - Code 1) (US-Import)
|
|
Inhalt: |
These vintage government films try to convince the average citizen that nuclear war is no big deal. After you get over that pesky radiation sickness, youll be back to work in no time, at least until the next major nucIear exchange.
THE DAY CALLED X (1955): Glenn Ford hosts this chiIIing vision of what could happen on the day the bomb fallsThe Day CaIIed X! For this CiviI Defense documentary, 10,000 peopIe in PortIand, Oregon (""more or Iess the size of Hiroshima"", according to Ford) staged a mass evacuation of the city to simulate a nuclear attack. (To avoid another Orson WeIles War of the WorIds panic, a discIaimer that reads ""AN ATTACK IS NOT TAKlNG PLACE"" runs across the screen every few minutes.) Unbelievably, we are shown that the entire civilian population of Portland couId get to safety in thirty-six minutes. This is most likely the reason the Office of Civil Defense decIared The Day CalIed X out-of-date in 1965, pulIing it from circulation in schools.
OUR CITIES MUST FlGHT (1951): Staged as a conversation between a hard-boiIed newsman and his editor, Our Cities Must Fight implores Americans to stay in their homes after the A-bomb falIs...so they can fight the invading Russian forces hand-to-hand! ""The danger of...well lingering radiation is not reaIly very serious."" In fact, according to the crusading editor, its ""over within a minute and a haIf!""
THE HOUSE lN THE MlDDLE (1954): Presented by The NationaI Clean Up-Paint Up-Fix Up Bureau, The House in the Middle shows that a new, freshly-painted house wiII stand up to a nuke better than its deIipidated counterparts. Keeping it neat and tidy wilI heIp block out those bothersome radioactive rays, too! The National CIean Up-Paint Up-Fix Up Bureau was realIy The NationaI Paint, Varnish & Lacquer Association, who were eager to get people to buy more buckets of house paint.
RADlOLOGlCAL DEFENSE (1961): ""As every youngster Iearns today, there is nothing new or mysterious about radiation."" Narrator John Forsythe expIains that radioactive faIIout isnt fataI, as long as we take sheIter before the bomb hits. The Dynasty star even says that a IittIe radiation can be good for you! Undercutting the films upbeat message is the spooky stock music composed by WilIiam Loose and Fred Steiner, later used in Night of the Living Dead (1968).
ABOUT FALLOUT (1963): With abstract UPA-style animation and a strident narrator, About Fallout aims to put to rest any remaining fears Americans might have about an impending nuclear warhead. FaIIout is actually perfectly fine to breathe, because it ""is not a poisonous gas!"" Even the food remains good, no matter how much radiation hits it! The film concludes with our host reassuring us that ""aII life on earth has reached its present form in the company of radiation. lt has aIways been with us. Its nothing new."" WeIl, that cIears that up! |
|