In the 1950s, while the US army was intentionally blasting soldiers with radiation in order to study them as they melted and died, this film was made to minimize public worry about nuclear radiation. Governments always lie about nuclear radiation. They never tell the truth. So, as President Obama stands before the nation assuring us that no dangerous radiation will reach our shores from the sudden nuclear Armageddon of Japan, watch this reassuring little film and wonder.
Tag Archives: propaganda
Interplanetary Revolution – 1924 Soviet Animation
Paul Gallagher at Dangerous Minds posted this 1924 Russian propaganda masterpiece. It’s a wild, science fiction, abstract work of art that just keeps pumping out wondrous images, one after the other. I love the ragged edges and mix of photographs, hand-drawn animation and cutouts.
A Day of Thanksgiving – 1951 Film
In that marvelously stilted, creepy and bigoted 1950s way, this little slice of propaganda shows how a family celebrates Thanksgiving. I’m most interested in the comment about being thankful for not ‘working slave hours.’ Interesting bit of thankfulness, especially since every thankful person in the film is white.