'Every man, woman, and child lives under a nuclear sword of Damocles, execution by the slenderest of threads, capable of being cut at any moment by accident, mistake, or by madness," said President John F. Kennedy in his 1961 address before the United Nations. "The weapons of war must be abolished before they abolish us," completed the president in his declamation for nuclear disarmament. JFK's speech is the premise of Countdown to Zero, a doom-umentary enumerating too-close-for-comfort close calls that strength have resulted in nuclear annihilation.
The film, moreover, speculates on the ease with which madmen - terrorists with a piece of highly enriched uranium can wipe out a city. So, is Lucy Walker's screed a influential argument for receiving rid of the nuclear arsenal or a cry of Chicken Little alarmism that the sky is falling.In truth, this glowing researched, anxiety-provoking film is both. Highly refined, and populated with such eloquent talking heads as former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and former CIA agent Valerie Plame, the film is Worst Case Scenario: The Nuclear Edition.
Heard about the time in 1995 when a U.S.-Norway investigate rocket showed up on Russian radar, was incorrect for a nuclear warhead, and advisers urged Russian President Boris Yeltsin to retaliate? "Providentially, Yeltsin wasn't drunk," cracks a talking head. Or about the time in 2007 when an American B-52 bomber flew across country with warheads on its section that the pilots didn't know were there. Or about A.Q. Khan, father of Pakistan's nuclear program, who sell his services to North Korea and Iran? Although the movie intends to arouse viewers to social action, it is just as likely to paralyze them with fear.
The film, moreover, speculates on the ease with which madmen - terrorists with a piece of highly enriched uranium can wipe out a city. So, is Lucy Walker's screed a influential argument for receiving rid of the nuclear arsenal or a cry of Chicken Little alarmism that the sky is falling.In truth, this glowing researched, anxiety-provoking film is both. Highly refined, and populated with such eloquent talking heads as former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and former CIA agent Valerie Plame, the film is Worst Case Scenario: The Nuclear Edition.
Heard about the time in 1995 when a U.S.-Norway investigate rocket showed up on Russian radar, was incorrect for a nuclear warhead, and advisers urged Russian President Boris Yeltsin to retaliate? "Providentially, Yeltsin wasn't drunk," cracks a talking head. Or about the time in 2007 when an American B-52 bomber flew across country with warheads on its section that the pilots didn't know were there. Or about A.Q. Khan, father of Pakistan's nuclear program, who sell his services to North Korea and Iran? Although the movie intends to arouse viewers to social action, it is just as likely to paralyze them with fear.
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