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The Atomic Cafe

1982

Jayne Loader, Kevin Rafferty ...

Documentary

7.6

418

Documentary A compilation of 1960's films about what to do in case of a Nuclear attack and the effects of radiation, also footage of troop tests of the exposure to an atomic bomb.

	Author	Review
United States	Vincent Canby The New York Times	"A devastating collage-film that examines official and unofficial United States attitudes toward the atomic age in the years immediately after World War II"	POS
United Kingdom	David Parkinson Empire	"Interesting mainly as a historical curiousity."	NEU
United States	Gary Goldstein Los Angeles Times	"The film is shrewdly and smartly edited to make its paradoxical points without the need for a unifying voiceover to seal the deal"	POS
United States	Dave Kehr Chicago Reader	"One's interest in the subject (...) is quickly subsumed by one's disgust with the dishonesty of the filmmakers, who have used every editing trick in the book to make these old propaganda films look as ridiculous as possible"	NEG
United States	Roger Ebert rogerebert.com	"'The Atomic Cafe' is a chilling memory of life in the first years under the mushroom umbrella (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 4)"	POS
United Kingdom	Time Out	"The material evidently took years to unearth, and most of it is fascinating by any standards. But like so many compilations, this emerges as much less than the sum of its parts."	NEU
Canada	Andrew Parker The Gate	"A concise, intelligent, and exceptionally edited documentary where history more or less hangs itself by using its own words"	POS
United States	Bilge Ebiri Village Voice	"Both bitterly funny and heart-stoppingly upsetting (...) Its points come across cumulatively, subtly"	POS

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