Editing The Atomic Cafe (section)

==Synopsis==
The film covers the beginnings of the era of [[nuclear warfare]], created from a broad range of archival material from the 1940s, 1950s and early 1960s including newsreel clips, television news footage, U.S. government-produced films (including military [[training film]]s), advertisements, television and radio programs.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://filmforum.org/film/the-atomic-cafe|title=Film Forum · THE ATOMIC CAFE|website=Filmforum.org|access-date=24 February 2023}}</ref> News footage reflected the prevailing understanding of the media and public.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njDEf0OwCdA|title=THE ATOMIC CAFE: Ducking, Covering, and the American Cultural FALLOUT - Brows Held High|date=7 November 2020 |access-date=24 February 2023|via=[[YouTube]]}}</ref> The film covers both the impact of the atomic bomb on popular culture and daily life, as well as documents the military's increasing fascination with carrying out more and more dangerous tests. The film opens with footage of the [[Trinity Test]] and concludes with a montage of stock footage simulating a nuclear attack on the United States.

Though the topic of atomic holocaust is a grave matter, much of the humor<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://hyperallergic.com/454323/the-atomic-cafe-1982/|title=The Comic Absurdity of the Atomic Threat|first=Dan|last=Schindel|date=7 August 2018|website=Hyperallergic.com|access-date=24 February 2023}}</ref> derives from the modern audience's reaction to old training films, such as the ''[[Duck and Cover (film)|Duck and Cover]]'' film shown in schools. Another sequence involves footage of US Army training maneuvers in which soldiers are instructed to walk into a mushroom cloud as part of an exercise to study how efficiently the armed forces could kill the survivors of a nuclear bomb strike if Soviet Soldiers ever made it to US soil; prior to the beginning of the exercise, the soldiers are informed, "Viewed from a safe distance, the atomic bomb is one of the most beautiful sights ever seen by man."

=== People shown ===
The following people are shown in excerpts from speeches, interviews and news reports, along with several unnamed actors, civilians, members of the armed forces and narrators: [[Lloyd Bentsen]], [[William H. P. Blandy]], [[Owen Brewster]], [[Frank Gallop]], [[Lyndon Johnson]], Maurice Joyce, [[Nikita Khrushchev]], [[Brien McMahon]], [[Seymour Melman]], [[George Molan]], [[Richard Nixon]], [[Robert E. Stripling]], [[Val Peterson]], [[George Portell]], [[Bill Burrud]], [[George Putnam (newsman)|George Putnam]], [[Ronald Reagan]], [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]], [[ Joseph Stalin]], [[Douglas MacArthur]],
[[Ethel Rosenberg]], [[Julius Rosenberg]], [[Mario Salvadori]], [[Lewis Strauss]], [[Paul Tibbets]], [[Kermit Beahan]], [[Harry S. Truman]], and [[James E. Van Zandt]].