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Monday, September 30, 2013

Hollywood Exploits the Bomb

Interesting piece today at the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists on how, in contrast to movies of olde, present day "action" flicks merely exploit nuclear danger and don't make it palpable or thought-provoking.  Frankly, I did not know that The Wolverine with Hugh Jackman had a key scene set during the Nagasaki blast--and I am usually up on all that.   I've written two books about The Bomb and film:  Atomic Cover-up on the U.S. suppression of historic film footage from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and Hollywood Bomb, about the censorship of the film movie epic (right up to Truman), from MGM, in 1947.

In the Wolverine clip note:  Nagasaki bomb did NOT go off over its target, the harbor, but up one of its valleys.  This cut the death toll in half--to about 75,000.   Also: There were only a couple hundred Japanese troops in the city at the time...

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