The decades following the 1950s bring to America considerable historical perspective of a prior era characterized by extreme fear and suspicion of Soviet Russia. Accompanied by patriotic hillbilly songs from the 40s and 50s, retro video clips comprise almost all of the visuals in this documentary about America's response to the Cold War. And what a response it was, as demonstrated by two overarching themes.The first theme was one of hypocrisy. Government and military propaganda devices tried to reassure people that America was a peace loving country, yet one that needed to be prepared for war. Says one clip: "Our object is not aggression; we need not become militaristic, but ..." Another spouts: "This is the destructive power we pray God we will never be called upon to hurl at any nation, but ...". And yet another: "All the world knows we Americans are constructive, not destructive, however ..." Yes, there's always a "but" after sanctimonious feel-good babble.A second theme was paranoia. Quite humorous are the responses to the prospect of a nuclear attack. The bomb shelter craze; the silly "duck and cover" instructions that schoolchildren received; those ominous air-raid sirens; those hideous gas masks. It was all a cultural fad of fear, promulgated by a military industrial complex that craved war.Throughout this era of hypocrisy and paranoia, the distraction of consumerism dominated peoples' lives, egged on of course by the same military industrial complex. A traditional nuclear family and spending money became encouraged values, to counter those evil Russians.In one segment, a man with great earnestness intones: "It gives me a great deal of satisfaction to represent two outstanding shopping centers ... concrete expressions of the practical idealism that built America ...; you'll find beautiful stores ... and of course plenty of free parking for all the cars that we Capitalists seem to acquire. Who can help but contrast the beautiful ... settings of the Arcadia Shopping hub ... with what you'd find under Communism".Americans had valid reasons to fear and repel Hitler and similar dictators. But post WWII, the military industrial complex used the experience of WWII to manipulate a fragile and misinformed American public. Without any narration whatsoever, "The Atomic Café", with skillful editing, uses the voices from that era to convey a cultural subtext that, in retrospect, reeks of deception and sanctimony.

Disturbing collection of 1940s and 1950s United States government issued propaganda films designed to reassure Americans that the atomic bomb was not a threat to their safety."The Atomic Cafe" was released at the height of nostalgia and cynicism in America. By 1982, Americans lost much of their faith in their government following the Vietnam War, the Watergate scandal, and the seemingly never-ending arms race with the Soviet Union. "The Atomic Cafe" reflects and reinforces this idea as it exposes how the atomic bomb's dangers were downplayed (President Truman calls the atomic bomb a gift from God) and how the government used films to shape public opinion.Even today (2016) the film holds up as a startling example of how the government kept the American people ignorant, and may possibly have been themselves ignorant. The way the Army handled radiation seems dangerous and foolish today. What I would like to see is this: if the film is ever put on blu-ray (and maybe it already is for all I know), go back to the sources and clean them up. Obviously not all could be, but if you were able to improve the picture quality, this film could stay relevant and interesting for decades to come.

I'm not rating the videos within the film with a ten out of ten; they are disturbing, inaccurate propaganda used to keep US citizens unaware of the horrifying effects of nuclear fallout and "the bomb". During the Cold War many countries lived in fear of the bomb, and with the internet today, online communication and truths being exposed, we know enough not to be fooled by propaganda... right? Well, I'll tell you one thing, all that "go green" environmental anti-pollution stuff all over movies, TV and the news right now is all propaganda.What Atomic Cafe does with these old videos of nuclear testing, mushroom clouds and the portrayal of Japan and Russia as evil monster countries is gather them into a shocking and powerful collection of real propaganda that was seriously aired on the radio and on TV during the 40's and 50's.One of the more disturbing ones is where a cheerful man casually dresses his little boy in a safe-suit and tells him to "hurry and not be late getting to the air raid shelter!", waving goodbye with extreme nonchalance as his kid rides off on a bike. Atomic Cafe shows the corrupt politicians and soldiers in power, some seriously messed up cartoons done for children on the bomb, the racists who discuss the natives of Bikini Island as if they're sub-human and too dumb to understand the destruction of their once-beautiful island, and then there's the disturbing song and full-color cartoon about radioactivity "blowing commies into the ground". A woman claims communism is better in a hypothetical situation and is then degraded by three men (feminism wasn't even a movement back then).To understand just how sadistic, disturbing and frightening these video clips are, you'll have to watch this movie yourself. Just remember that this was all from an era where science was the new solution to all issues, and that things today are very different... and be very, very grateful you live in an era of technology but also very wary of what other propaganda is right in front of your eyes in the modern society.

Travel with us now if you will to the mid 1950s, when it wasn't only fear we were to fear, but the atomic bomb and the grinding pelvis of Elvis Presley. This is a nice documentary made up of a collection of American propaganda films and material from newsreel archives. Various nuclear-themed clips from the 1940s and 1950s. Building of the atomic bomb and the devastation it left in Japan. Thoughts of the H-Bomb and how it would/could be used. Washington's Communist witch hunt and the notorious trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. Actually a well pieced together history of our lives and fears. Footage of the Bikini island test; atomic mushroom clouds and footage of school children learning to "Duck and Cover". Sometimes humorous; sometimes dour...Atomic City to Nagasaki. Educational look at the dark side of Cold War America. Appearing through archive footage: Dwight D. Eisenhower, Paul Tibbets, Richard Nixon, Harry S. Truman, Lloyd Bentsen, Val Peterson, Lyndon B. Johnson and Hugh Beaumont.