But the Threat Remains
December 31, 2022 8:32 AM Subscribe
Two decades into the twenty-first century, the risk of nuclear war is again on the rise—though it remains, for most, at a remove, seemingly irrelevant to daily life. How can we keep a sustainable balance of attention between the immediate (rent, food, health) and what could fairly be deemed intangible (the annihilation of human life)? The language of the nuclear threat becomes almost comedic—even within the bounds of this piece—vacillating between “peril” and “crisis,” “war” and “utter annihilation,” terms that, through repeated use, become monotonous, cartoonish. from By the Bomb’s Filmic Light
I am extremely surprised that they didn't mention any of the major anti-nuke "what if" films from the 1980 (The Day After, Threads, When The Wind Blows....). There's a still from The Day After but that's it.
I am a GenX'er, which made me a Cold War teenager growing up hip-deep in "nuclear war is possible and if it happens we're fucked" nihilism. I assumed that we in the 1980s knew far more about the dangers of the Bomb, and Back In The Day people just didn't know enough or even care enough to ask the questions. But two films from the 1940s and 1950s surprised the hell out of me, and one in particular could have been one of the most amazing film noirs ever if it had ended a little earlier....
* The Best Years Of Our Lives is mostly remembered for Harold Russell these days; he was one of the three servicemen returning "back to normal" after World War II ended, and he won an Oscar for basically playing himself, a serviceman who'd lost both his arms and had to adjust to using prosthetics. But what floored me was a quick scene with another soldier, an officer, whose somewhat nerdy son corners him at one point and says the following:
* And then there was Kiss Me Deadly. This was a late film noir Mickey-Spillane "Mike Hammer" film; I'm kinda "meh" on noir, and much of the film actually uses the tropes that left me cold - Mike Hammer is monomaniacally driven to solve the mystery that's fallen into his lap, even though his buddy on the police force and his girlfriend have both urged him to let it go, and he's not opposed to beating people up to get his answers. It's basically your run-of-the-mill hard-boiled tough-guy detective movie up until the last half hour - when Hammer finally discovers what the Big Mysterious MacGuffin was that the bad guys had killed someone to get their hands on. Hammer discovers that the murder victim had a key her killers had been looking for; he finds the key before they do, and ascertains that it belongs to a gym locker somewhere in Los Angeles. He assumes that the killers were actually after what was in that locker and goes to unlock it himself. And when he does - he finds a lead-lined box, filled with "radioactive fuel" which had been stolen from Los Alamos.
What happens after he finds it is the part that blew my mind. Hammer instantly realizes what the stuff is, and urges the gym manager to clear the area and keep people away from it. And then he heads directly to the police station to tell them where he found. And what floors me about this scene is - Hammer is visibly scared. But not just in an "oh shit it's nukes" way - but also in a more personal, "usually I would know what to do but in this case I don't" kind of way. The police chief chews him out for a while, basically telling him "you asshole, this is why we told you to leave this alone, and now you went and made everything worse", and heads off to the gym to get the stuff, leaving Hammer sitting in his office dazed and at a loss.
There's more that happens after that - the bad guys get the box, Hammer chases them to a beach house where they fight over the thing, yadda yadda. But - honestly, if that film had ended with Hammer in the police chief's office, it would have been one of the most amazing noir films I'd ever seen. Because ending it there would have been a subtle acknowledgement at just how much the threat of nuclear changed things; the usual espionage hijinks and tough-guy vigilante tactics not only wouldn't work any more, they might make things worse.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:09 AM on December 31, 2022 [21 favorites]
I am a GenX'er, which made me a Cold War teenager growing up hip-deep in "nuclear war is possible and if it happens we're fucked" nihilism. I assumed that we in the 1980s knew far more about the dangers of the Bomb, and Back In The Day people just didn't know enough or even care enough to ask the questions. But two films from the 1940s and 1950s surprised the hell out of me, and one in particular could have been one of the most amazing film noirs ever if it had ended a little earlier....
* The Best Years Of Our Lives is mostly remembered for Harold Russell these days; he was one of the three servicemen returning "back to normal" after World War II ended, and he won an Oscar for basically playing himself, a serviceman who'd lost both his arms and had to adjust to using prosthetics. But what floored me was a quick scene with another soldier, an officer, whose somewhat nerdy son corners him at one point and says the following:
Say, you were at Hiroshima, weren’t you Dad?..did you happen to notice any of the effects of radioactivity on the people who survived the blast? […] We’ve been having lectures in atomic energy at school, and Mr. McLaughlin, he’s our physics teacher, he says that we’ve reached a point where the whole human race has either got to find a way to live together, or else […] Because when you combine atomic energy with jet propulsion and radar and guided missiles, just think…My jaw dropped when I saw this ("you mean people were thinking about that kind of thing in 1946? Why didn't anyone listen?")
* And then there was Kiss Me Deadly. This was a late film noir Mickey-Spillane "Mike Hammer" film; I'm kinda "meh" on noir, and much of the film actually uses the tropes that left me cold - Mike Hammer is monomaniacally driven to solve the mystery that's fallen into his lap, even though his buddy on the police force and his girlfriend have both urged him to let it go, and he's not opposed to beating people up to get his answers. It's basically your run-of-the-mill hard-boiled tough-guy detective movie up until the last half hour - when Hammer finally discovers what the Big Mysterious MacGuffin was that the bad guys had killed someone to get their hands on. Hammer discovers that the murder victim had a key her killers had been looking for; he finds the key before they do, and ascertains that it belongs to a gym locker somewhere in Los Angeles. He assumes that the killers were actually after what was in that locker and goes to unlock it himself. And when he does - he finds a lead-lined box, filled with "radioactive fuel" which had been stolen from Los Alamos.
What happens after he finds it is the part that blew my mind. Hammer instantly realizes what the stuff is, and urges the gym manager to clear the area and keep people away from it. And then he heads directly to the police station to tell them where he found. And what floors me about this scene is - Hammer is visibly scared. But not just in an "oh shit it's nukes" way - but also in a more personal, "usually I would know what to do but in this case I don't" kind of way. The police chief chews him out for a while, basically telling him "you asshole, this is why we told you to leave this alone, and now you went and made everything worse", and heads off to the gym to get the stuff, leaving Hammer sitting in his office dazed and at a loss.
There's more that happens after that - the bad guys get the box, Hammer chases them to a beach house where they fight over the thing, yadda yadda. But - honestly, if that film had ended with Hammer in the police chief's office, it would have been one of the most amazing noir films I'd ever seen. Because ending it there would have been a subtle acknowledgement at just how much the threat of nuclear changed things; the usual espionage hijinks and tough-guy vigilante tactics not only wouldn't work any more, they might make things worse.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:09 AM on December 31, 2022 [21 favorites]
Back In The Day people just didn't know enough or even care enough to ask the questions.
"...the best authorities are unanimous in saying that a war with H-bombs might quite possibly put an end to the human race. It is feared that if many H-bombs are used there will be universal death – sudden only for a minority, but for the majority a slow torture of disease and disintegration."
The Russell-Einstein Manifesto, July 9, 1955
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 10:04 AM on December 31, 2022 [7 favorites]
"...the best authorities are unanimous in saying that a war with H-bombs might quite possibly put an end to the human race. It is feared that if many H-bombs are used there will be universal death – sudden only for a minority, but for the majority a slow torture of disease and disintegration."
The Russell-Einstein Manifesto, July 9, 1955
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 10:04 AM on December 31, 2022 [7 favorites]
Yeah, nuclear movies aren't what they used to be. But there's Oppenheimer coming out in July.
posted by Miss Cellania at 11:00 AM on December 31, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by Miss Cellania at 11:00 AM on December 31, 2022 [1 favorite]
Oppenheimer has me conflicted, actually.
On the one hand - it seems like it may be a really poignant story, about this progressive academic physicist wonk who followed the trail of scientific discovery - only to realize too late that the particular trail he was on ended up being one of the globe's biggest threats on several levels. That's a tragic story, in the classical sense of the word (his fatal flaw was wanting to pursue knowledge, even though that knowledge lead him AND us to such a place). But on the other hand - the idea of polishing the reputations of the people who touched off the nuclear arms race does not, and will never, sit right with me. The danger they put us all in - even today, nearly 80 years later - is too great.
I grant I may be biased about that, still.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:28 PM on December 31, 2022 [2 favorites]
On the one hand - it seems like it may be a really poignant story, about this progressive academic physicist wonk who followed the trail of scientific discovery - only to realize too late that the particular trail he was on ended up being one of the globe's biggest threats on several levels. That's a tragic story, in the classical sense of the word (his fatal flaw was wanting to pursue knowledge, even though that knowledge lead him AND us to such a place). But on the other hand - the idea of polishing the reputations of the people who touched off the nuclear arms race does not, and will never, sit right with me. The danger they put us all in - even today, nearly 80 years later - is too great.
I grant I may be biased about that, still.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:28 PM on December 31, 2022 [2 favorites]
I found The Making of the Atomic Bomb (warning: like 800 pages long) very enlightening in that specific regard, EC - if dense history is your thing you may find it interesting.
posted by thedaniel at 12:45 PM on December 31, 2022 [7 favorites]
posted by thedaniel at 12:45 PM on December 31, 2022 [7 favorites]
Empress,
"you mean people were thinking about that kind of thing in 1946? Why didn't anyone listen?"
Some were.
Modern Man Is Obsolete, by Norman Cousins
Saturday Review, August 1, 1970
From Hiroshima to Human Extinction: Norman Cousins and the Atomic Age
https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/hiroshima-norman-cousins-1945
Human Events Pamphlet #1, 12/1945
The Atomic Bomb versus Civilization, by Robert M. Hutchins
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uiug.30112042378528
"Einstein on the Atomic Bomb," part 1, an interview by Raymond Swing in Atlantic Monthly (November 1945)
"Atomic Education Urged by Einstein", The New York Times (25 May 1946)
from the pre-bomb days:
1935 August Peace Must Be Waged: An Interview with Albert Einstein
Science Illustrated 4/1946
Atom Bomb pieces
Secrecy is No Answer, by Sen. Harley M. Kilgore; The Atom Bomb Test, by Hans Bethe; "The Greatest Problem," by Albert Einstein; pp. 6, 15, 16
Survey Graphic
9/1945 The Atomic Bombshell, by S. Collum Gilfillan
posted by issue #1 at 12:56 PM on December 31, 2022 [4 favorites]
"you mean people were thinking about that kind of thing in 1946? Why didn't anyone listen?"
Some were.
Modern Man Is Obsolete, by Norman Cousins
Saturday Review, August 1, 1970
From Hiroshima to Human Extinction: Norman Cousins and the Atomic Age
https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/hiroshima-norman-cousins-1945
Human Events Pamphlet #1, 12/1945
The Atomic Bomb versus Civilization, by Robert M. Hutchins
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uiug.30112042378528
"Einstein on the Atomic Bomb," part 1, an interview by Raymond Swing in Atlantic Monthly (November 1945)
"Atomic Education Urged by Einstein", The New York Times (25 May 1946)
from the pre-bomb days:
1935 August Peace Must Be Waged: An Interview with Albert Einstein
Science Illustrated 4/1946
Atom Bomb pieces
Secrecy is No Answer, by Sen. Harley M. Kilgore; The Atom Bomb Test, by Hans Bethe; "The Greatest Problem," by Albert Einstein; pp. 6, 15, 16
Survey Graphic
9/1945 The Atomic Bombshell, by S. Collum Gilfillan
posted by issue #1 at 12:56 PM on December 31, 2022 [4 favorites]
Seconding The Making of the Atomic Bomb. It's one of the best nonfiction books I've read, and the first part provides an excellent recap of the late 19th and early 20th century discoveries in physics that led to nuclear arms.
posted by mollweide at 12:57 PM on December 31, 2022 [7 favorites]
posted by mollweide at 12:57 PM on December 31, 2022 [7 favorites]
Yes the SF writers were thinking about it in 1946.
As for burnishing reputations, would it help if in this case the reputation being burnished in one that was destroyed because the guy thought that going from fission weapons (which have an upper limit on their destructiveness) to fusion weapons (which feature potentially unlimited destructiveness) would be a mistake, and therefore he basically got branded a traitor and had his career ended?
posted by Aardvark Cheeselog at 1:50 PM on December 31, 2022 [3 favorites]
As for burnishing reputations, would it help if in this case the reputation being burnished in one that was destroyed because the guy thought that going from fission weapons (which have an upper limit on their destructiveness) to fusion weapons (which feature potentially unlimited destructiveness) would be a mistake, and therefore he basically got branded a traitor and had his career ended?
posted by Aardvark Cheeselog at 1:50 PM on December 31, 2022 [3 favorites]
Seconding The Making of the Atomic Bomb.
By Richard Rhodes. Thirding. It's one of the most compelling tellings of scientific history I've ever read. I have it on my kindle and in paperback. After the bomb drops, there's 25 pages or so of first-hand accounts of the survivors. It's hard to read, but I think it's the most important part of the book.
Also his _Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb_ is a good companion.
posted by mikelieman at 2:12 PM on December 31, 2022 [7 favorites]
By Richard Rhodes. Thirding. It's one of the most compelling tellings of scientific history I've ever read. I have it on my kindle and in paperback. After the bomb drops, there's 25 pages or so of first-hand accounts of the survivors. It's hard to read, but I think it's the most important part of the book.
Also his _Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb_ is a good companion.
posted by mikelieman at 2:12 PM on December 31, 2022 [7 favorites]
Back In The Day people just didn't know enough or even care enough to ask the questions.
Survivable nuclear war seemed a lot more possible when the bombs were an order of magnitude smaller, there were an order of magnitude fewer, and they were being delivered by slow and vulnerable bomber forces, most of which would be shot down before they were able to release their weapons because there wouldn't have been a protracted air war beforehand to whittle away air defenses.
posted by wierdo at 2:53 PM on December 31, 2022 [1 favorite]
Survivable nuclear war seemed a lot more possible when the bombs were an order of magnitude smaller, there were an order of magnitude fewer, and they were being delivered by slow and vulnerable bomber forces, most of which would be shot down before they were able to release their weapons because there wouldn't have been a protracted air war beforehand to whittle away air defenses.
posted by wierdo at 2:53 PM on December 31, 2022 [1 favorite]
Lacking reasonable criteria to disseminate the article, the feeling of wellness returns, though a bit compact and scenically telegraphic. Looked for one Film. The Atomic Cafe. Arguably the best, watching Strangelove and Atomic cafe is like drinking single malt then Champaign, so.
'Day One' was surprisingly good, 'Manhatten' is better.
posted by clavdivs at 4:33 PM on December 31, 2022 [1 favorite]
'Day One' was surprisingly good, 'Manhatten' is better.
posted by clavdivs at 4:33 PM on December 31, 2022 [1 favorite]
I was also wondering why no On The Beach. Which has Fred Astaire in it btw.
posted by bq at 10:01 PM on December 31, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by bq at 10:01 PM on December 31, 2022 [1 favorite]
Yes the SF writers were thinking about it in 1946.
Among other things, I'm thinking of Heinlein's "Solution Unsatisfactory" which features atomic weapons remaking the global order... in 1941.
posted by doctornemo at 4:49 PM on January 1, 2023 [2 favorites]
Among other things, I'm thinking of Heinlein's "Solution Unsatisfactory" which features atomic weapons remaking the global order... in 1941.
posted by doctornemo at 4:49 PM on January 1, 2023 [2 favorites]
Alas Babylon}
1958 novel. My first post nuclear apocalypse novel.
posted by Goofyy at 3:20 PM on January 2, 2023 [1 favorite]
1958 novel. My first post nuclear apocalypse novel.
posted by Goofyy at 3:20 PM on January 2, 2023 [1 favorite]
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