The Atomic Cafe

The Atomic Cafe The Atomic Cafe is a 1982 documentary film compiled of clips from government propaganda, training films, news stories, advertisements and other media from the 1940’s through the 1950’s. Many films were prepared by the U.S. government either for the military or for its citizens to view. The form of Atomic Cafe was unique for documentaries. It was produced entirely of different film sources edited together, without narration. The film made its points solely through the selection and order of the clips included in the documentary. The purpose of the film was to show the American people of the 1980’s exactly how the government distributed propaganda and deceived the American citizens of the 1950’s. Atomic Cafe is a perfect example of the government falsifying information to U.S. citizens. The documentary shows the government telling the people not to worry because if they simply closed their mouths and their noses, then the nuclear radiation wouldn’t harm them. The government knew the citizens closing their mouths and their noses wouldn’t do anything to keep them safe from the nuclear radiation. The government advised citizens to be prepared with canned goods and fall-out shelters, when in fact, they knew having canned goods and building shelters would be the least of the citizen’s worries if the atomic bomb did go off. The government also came up with this thing that supposedly showed the amount of radiation that the citizen received. So they might be okay if it didn’t reach 100%. When the government told the American people that, they knew that it wouldn’t really tell them if it reached 100% or not but they wanted to lie to the citizens to make them feel more secure and safe. Atomic Cafe demonstrates perfectly how the United States government misled its citizens about the devastating effects of nuclear war. Clips in the film show the many lies and partial truths published by the government to promise its people that they could survive