Tuesday, December 04, 2007

I'd seen portions of "Duck and Cover," but never in its entirety until a few minutes ago. Especially striking about this Cold War gem is its unsparing delivery. Once it dispenses with Burt the Turtle's conflict with the suicide-bombing monkey, things get grim in a hurry.



True, the film-makers avoid lingering on the truly horrifying questions likely running through its young audience's mind, but the narrator's delivery is stark and sharp. (The message, in case some half-wit in the back of the classroom didn't catch it the first three times, is clear enough: something unthinkably destructive could come out of the sky at any minute -- probably when you're least suspecting it -- and kill you.)

The future encapsulated in a blast of white light . . .

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Bring back the fifties! What wonderful childhood memories of intense and unrelenting paranoia! (It could happen any time with no warning. I especially like the bouncey little "Duck and Cover" jingle -- but hey, instead of a turtle, shouldn't they have used, well...a duck?)

--W.M. Bear

Anonymous said...

We were shown this film in grade school and then we were led to the basement of the school where we were told to squat down with our head between our knees and our hands over our head. We were told we were practicing for the inevitable attack. It's no wonder my generation embraced therapy, drug abuse and alcohol. Pass the xanax please!

Anonymous said...

I show this to my students every semester and and one thing I've noticed over the past few years is that students see this type of thing as very similar to what the government is telling us now, with the terrorism color charts, suggestions of covering windows with duct tape and pastic, etc.

I've found that it's a lot easier to explain to students now of the mindset of the Cold War than it was for my generation (I'm in my early 30s) to understand in college during the 1990s.

Mac, have you seen Atomic Cafe?

Mike Clelland! said...

I went to kindergarden in the fall of 1967, the sumer of love.

We had what were called "tornado drills" all thru out elementary school. A few honest teachers told us these were actually air-raid drills. It was so weird, we were being lied to in such formal & organized way. Especailly about an issue so ever-present and hellish.

And - I grew up in Michigan, where we really MIGHT have had tornados. So it felt kinda normal.

Peace - and I mean it!

Anonymous said...

All of the above say it all!

Only I self medicated.

It was more fun.

Anonymous said...

The film harkens back to the 50's, when it was considered imaginable that such ludicrous "duck and cover" drills might actually save some people.

Yet, today, where the prospects of nuclear war seem more remote, there are more nuclear weapons of all kinds, with more lethality, and more accuracy, than at almost any time before (there was Salt I and II, which reduced nuke numbers somewhat, and a further slight reduction after the collapse of the USSR in 1991).

So, while the cold war hysteria of the 50's is absent, the danger is even greater than before, potentially, and is slowly increasing as more nations obtain nukes, and Russia returns to essentially a dictatorship.

Pass that xanax over here, please.

Anonymous said...

We had what were called "tornado drills" all thru out elementary school. A few honest teachers told us these were actually air-raid drills. It was so weird, we were being lied to in such formal & organized way. Especailly about an issue so ever-present and hellish.

Ah, shit! So THAT'S what all those damn tornado drills really were (gently smacking myself upside the head).

--WMB