The Phoenix Network:
 
 
About  |  Advertise
Adult  |  Moonsigns  |  Band Guide  |  Blogs  |  In Pictures
 
Features  |  Reviews
FIND MOVIES
Find a Movie
Movie List
Loading ...
or
Find Theaters and Movie Times
or
Search Movies

The Last Atomic Bomb

Terror on repeat
By NINA MACLAUGHLIN  |  August 1, 2007
2.5 2.5 Stars
INSIDElastatomicbomb

It’s difficult to criticize a documentary about the horror of nuclear warfare and how to prevent it from happening again. Although veteran documentarian Robert Richter’s timely wake-up call is moving (read: terrifying), it’s also repetitive. Richter — who’ll be present at this screening — focuses on one 70-year-old hibakusha, or survivor of Nagasaki, and her attempt to share her experience, remind people of what happened, and urge everyone (from presidents to high-school kids) to take steps toward disarmament. She talks of her parents being burned alive, her brother dying of radiation sickness, her sister committing suicide. She talks of charred limbs, eyeballs dangling from the sockets of still-living people, guts pouring out. But it all loses impact in the retellings. Otherwise, the archive footage chills, as does the segment on the way the US press was banned from showing the physical results of the bomb. The Last Atomic Bomb shows that it could happen again and makes clear that it never, ever should.
Related: Mugged by reality, The new McCarthyism, Dumb or dishonest?, More more >
  Topics: Reviews , Politics, Entertainment, Movies,  More more >
  • Share:
  • Share this entry with Facebook
  • Share this entry with Digg
  • Share this entry with Delicious
  • RSS feed
  • Email this article to a friend
  • Print this article
Comments

Today's Event Picks
ARTICLES BY NINA MACLAUGHLIN
Share this entry with Delicious
  •   HAVE A NICE FUTURE  |  September 09, 2009
    Blake Butler rains gravel and glass
  •   A GIRL'S GUIDE TO BOSTON BOYS  |  September 04, 2009
    Autumn opens itself wide with possibility. And Boston begins to crackle with fresh energy (you'll feel it), as the city spreads its arms to thousands of new humans. New brains and bodies abuzz with all sorts of anticipation. The feeling of fall: potential .
  •   REVIEW: IN THE DEVIL'S TERRITORY BY KYLE MINOR  |  February 25, 2009
    In Kyle Minor's dark debut collection of stories, personal secrets always exact a terrible price.
  •   ASTA IN THE WINGS  |  January 28, 2009
    Jan Elizabeth Watson was reluctant, at first, to set her dreamy first novel in Maine, afraid of marginalizing herself as a "Maine writer."
  •   DEAD END  |  December 30, 2008
    It's a masterful, devastating portrait of a marriage crumbling and a merciless critique of the torpor and predictability of 1950's suburbia.

 See all articles by: NINA MACLAUGHLIN

MOST POPULAR
RSS Feed of for the most popular articles
 Most Viewed   Most Emailed 



  |  Sign In  |  Register
 
thePhoenix.com:
Phoenix Media/Communications Group:
TODAY'S FEATURED ADVERTISERS
Copyright © 2009 The Phoenix Media/Communications Group