This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

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.

Completely free of narration, commentary, or intertitles, this documentary presents archival footage from the Cold War era expressing all the facets of nuclear paranoia and the government's feeble attempts to pacify it. Mostly comprised of bits from newsreels and education films (with occasional nuclear-related songs of the time on the soundtrack), the material is alternately hilarious and horrifying, preying on the public's gullibility and need for a voice of authority, no matter how absurd the message. Thirty years after its release, the film is still relevant (everyone got their duct tape ready?).8/10

The Atomic Cafe is composed of footage from the early years of the Cold War. America and Russia square off as atomic bombs threaten both. We see Paul Tibbets near the beginning of the film. Tibbets flew the Enola Gay which dropped the bomb on Hiroshima. The jubilation following World War II was short-lived. Hawks wanted to nuke North Korea. The film is a Who's Who of mid-twentieth century politics. We see Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Lyndon Johnson and Ronald Reagan. There are Albert Einstein, Douglas MacArthur and Joseph Stalin. Even Bert the Trutle logs in. His shell makes it natural for him to "duck and cover." The DVD box sports a picture of a kid riding his bicycle in an effort to outdistance the mushroom cloud over his shoulder.

With the current regime threatening the nuclear option in the middle east, I hope that this documentary sees a new audience. I remember finding a pamphlet showing what would happen if LA was bombed. In our circle, we would have experienced some physical affects, but not immediate death. As a 6 year old reading that I thought of my grandparents who lived in the inner circle. The stilted, self-satisfied voice-over readers, and the juxtaposition of real bomb footage and stranger than fiction instructional films is surreal. The duck and cover segment, well, we had to do that at school. Surely we are not operating under the same misconceptions that a nuclear strike is sanitary. This is really a historic document.