Member-only story
Oppenheimer Warns of a Nuclear Winter — How Scared Should We Be?
I have recently watched Christopher Nolan’s latest film on his 70mm film in an IMAX theater. And I have to say it was a treat. It went above and beyond what I thought of as ‘good cinema.’
Nolan even spoke to us directly at the theatre, because supposedly we were the only IMAX theater in Europe that had the famed film (I was watching it in Prague, Flora).
What struck me about the movie is how vivid it made the reality of nuclear war.
So, I thought I’d look back on what a nuclear war would look like — especially as Putin’s war on Ukraine looms over the relative global stability we have strived for in the post-war era.
The Cold War saw an influx of cinema related to the dangers of nuclear war. On the Beach (1959) creates a fictitious scenario where Australians are forced to face the fact that all life will end in a few months; Threads (1984) depicts a world where in Sheffield, England, working-class citizens are battling the long-term effects of nuclear war; The Day After (1983) shows the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust on the life of residents in a small town in eastern Kansas; By Dawn’s Early Light (1990) features a scenario where Turkey fires a nuclear missile at the USSR; etc.
