The Atomic Cafe (1982)
The Archives Project

Description

Atomic Cafe is a review of the atomic age and the beliefs held by Americans at the time. Many things such as Burt the Turtle who was the figurehead the "Duck and Cover" campaign are featured. Along with these film clips are portions of Army training films and demonstration films concerning atomic testing. All of these clips are combined to show how little the experts knew about atomics at the time. And even more to the heart, the point is to show the extent propaganda was used to mollify the fears of the American public, and her soldiers.

Collected reviews and ratings

10 digitallyobsessed.com | Dan Lopez

Atomic Cafe is just as relevant today as when it was first released, perhaps more so than most might think. It's also a fantastic collage-style documentary, ranking with some of the finer examples of the genre.
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9.0 IGN.com | Rick Sanchez

If you've never seen Atomic Cafe, it's a valuable and entertaining record of where we've come from as a country. The film makers did an outstanding job compiling and editing the footage and you'll be both shocked and amused by what you see.
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9.0 PopMatters.com | George Tiller

The Atomic Café is more relevant now than it was in 1982. Because this documentary is not only about atomic weapons but also what a frightened America will do and what it will believe. It’s about the manipulation of a people. It’s about us, here and now.
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9.0 Amazon user reviews

The Atomic Cafe does a masterful job of weaving together news reports, government information films, public service announcements and dramas from World War II right up through the Cold War of 1982.
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8.4 DVD Verdict | Bill Gibron

Twenty years on, The Atomic Cafe's attempts at satire and irony, the inter-cutting misinformation and military films filled with vacuous lies and outrageously inaccurate depictions of nuclear survivability with real documentary footage of the ravages of atomic warfare, are misguided. What was wacky and outrageous then is insulting in a world reeling from 9/11 and daily suicide bombings.
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6.7 Time Out | DP

The film fails to offer even the barest social context for its material, as if atomic madness was an isolated phenomenon unrelated to the whole constellation of '50s paranoia from McCarthyism to UFOs.
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6.3 TV Guide

To the extent that The Atomic Cafe works as anything other than a supercilious joke, it is in making us realize that authoritative, official-looking speakers don't always know what they're talking about - a point that would have been better served with a broader range of subject matter.
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6.3 TV Guide

To the extent that The Atomic Cafe works as anything other than a supercilious joke, it is in making us realize that authoritative, official-looking speakers don't always know what they're talking about - a point that would have been better served with a broader range of subject matter.
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6.0 filmcritic.com | Christopher Null

There are certainly lessons in the film about hysteria and misinformation, but their delivery is hampered by someone with an overactive need to poke fun. As such, you need to take the movie itself with a grain of salt - just like you do with the leaders and filmmakers it skewers.
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