Half life: a parable of the nuclear age

Duration: 86

Year Published: 1985

Creator: Direct Cinema

Format: 16mm

Color: Color

Sound: sound

Description: This documentary investigates the effects of the post-World War II testing of nuclear weapons on the Marshall Islands, tiny atolls in the mid-Pacific. Although the islands were under U.S. protection as part of a strategic trust formed in 1947, the next decade saw the explosion of at least 66 atomic and hydrogen bombs in the area. When the powerful bomb, code-named Bravo, was detonated at Bikini on March 1, 1954, the islanders on Rongelap and Ultirik Atolls were not evacuated although naval ships were available. When radioactive fallout, resembling snow, reached the islands, children excitedly played in it unaware of its dangers. Incorporating declassified government footage and contemporary interviews, the filmmaker documents the dire effects of the Bravo test on the atoll inhabitants and U.S. weathermen stationed nearby and chillingly reveals a case study of a cynical radiation experiment on human populations.