If You Love This Planet (1982) [Review]

Summary:
Terre Nash directed this wonderful, Academy Award winning short film about the threats of nuclear war. "If you Love This Planet" combines a lecture by Dr. Helen Caldicott, a nuclear [...]

Terre Nash directed this wonderful, Academy Award winning short film about the threats of nuclear war. “If you Love This Planet” combines a lecture by Dr. Helen Caldicott, a nuclear critic, with archive footage from the fifties and this approach works very well. The archive footage – mostly US-Army propaganda material – features lines like: „The power of the universe is harnessed in the new atomic bomb.“ The previous bombs are compared to „midgets, compared with the new atomic wonder.“ Today, the footage might appear unintentionally funny, but the background back then was quite severe. Many thought that a nuclear war between the Soviet Union and the United States was inevitable and If You Love This Planet takes sides for disarmament; the footage that shows the survivors of the bombing of Hiroshima is shocking to this day. Caldicott also discusses what a nuclear war would mean medically: „This is not a war. This is extermination.“ If You Love This Planet manages to be a message film without being preachy – highly recommended.

If you like this film you might want to check out another great „collage film“ from the same year: The Atomic Cafe, directed by Jayne Loader, Kevin Rafferty and Pierce Rafferty also uses US propaganda films from the 1950s – the result is as shocking as it is funny and tells a lot about the atmosphere of the Cold War.

documentary.net says: Engaging documentary with a message that shouldn’t be forgotten.

Watch this film here

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