It's the bomb
1/1/2001
Newly declassified government footage about the early days of the atomic and nuclear bomb tell a vivid and alarming story about U.S. government nonchalance in the two-volume Atomic Journeys series, Welcome to Ground Zero and Nukes in Space: The Rainbow Bombs (Goldhil, color and B&W, 60 min. each with supplements, Dolby Digital 5.1, fullscreen, $29.95 each).
Each disc, released on VHS earlier in the year without enhancements, digs into a different aspect of the race to make the bomb, and while both are harrowing, Ground Zero is more interesting because of the details of domestic testing, visits to the cratered sites as well as explosions from the '50s and '60s.
The subject of Nukes is the alarming 20 high-altitude nuclear bombs exploded over American cities in a callous and risky experiment to use the Van Allen Belts encircling the Earth's atmosphere for warfare purposes. Both discs are directed by even-handed Peter Kuran and ably narrated by William Shatner, and each has supplements including an isolated musical score by--ironically--the Moscow Symphony Orchestra, trailers, bios and newsreels and speeches. The grainy historic footage doesn't seem to have benefited much from digitization, but considering the explosive content, it's not a distraction. --Buzz McClain
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