Posthuman Blues

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 . . .