- Amnesty International report brands Libya's militias 'out of control'
- Obama proposes bringing jobs home from overseas. Would his plan work?
- Obama's NASA budget: Mars takes a hit, but space science isn't dead
- Payroll tax deal close: Why did Republicans back down? (+video)
- Israel says Bangkok, Delhi, and Tbilisi attacks all linked – to Iran
- Rick Santorum's new machine-gun ad: Will it work? (+video)
- Honduras prison fire kills more than 300, highlights regional problem (+video)
- Angry Birds joins Facebook in bid to reach 800 million users
Countdown to Zero: movie review
Lucy Walker's documentary, 'Countdown to Zero,' takes a chilling look at various nuclear war scenarios.
Countdown to zero: In the film, the point is made that an object no bigger than a tennis ball can easily wipe out a major city like New York.
Courtesy of Magnolia Films
Made-up horror movies have nothing on “Countdown to Zero,” a documentary about nuclear security that won’t make you sleep better at night.
Skip to next paragraphRelated stories
-
Nuclear weapons: a political strike on the big screen
- Waste Land: movie review
- Top five movie trends and surprises of 2010
Topics
Recent movie reviews
Director Lucy Walker uses as her springboard a speech before the UN by President Kennedy where he invoked “a sword of Damocles” hanging over civilization because “accident, miscalculation or madness” could trigger a nuclear event. She then proceeds to lay out all the various and not unlikely scenarios by which that sword could fall.
Big-time talking heads include Jimmy Carter, Mikhail Gorbachev, Valerie Plame Wilson, and Pervez Musharraf, but the most chilling anecdote arrives courtesy of nuclear activist Joe Cirincione. In 1995, an American rocket intended to study the aurora borealis was misinterpreted by the Russians as an attack missile. If Boris Yeltsin had not overridden his own advisers, Russian nukes would have been launched at American cities.
“He wasn’t drunk,” Cirincione helpfully explains.
Grade: B+ (Rated PG for thematic material, images of destruction, and incidental smoking.)
More Monitor reviews
Become part of the Monitor community
36K on Facebook | 12K on Twitter | 2,250 on YouTube