Atomic Cinema Day School
TBC 420 mins
TBC 420 mins
10.00-17.00 (with a lunch break 13.00-14.00)
£45 or £40 for Members and Concessions
Tutor: Peter Krämer ([email protected])
Eighty years ago the American military dropped two nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Earlier this year the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists set its ‘Doomsday Clock’ to 89 seconds to midnight, the closest to doom it has ever been since its inception in 1947, not least because several nuclear powers (ranging from Russia and Israel to Pakistan and India) are currently involved in, or on the verge of, military conflicts.
Hollywood has found different ways to deal with what is arguably the most important global issue since the mid-twentieth century. This allows us to explore our thoughts and feelings about past developments and the possibility of a nuclear war in the future in a safe and even entertaining fashion.
Here are some of the questions we can contemplate with the help of particular movies: What led to the development of nuclear weapons, and was it right to develop them? (See Oppenheimer [2023].) How close did the world come to nuclear war during the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962, and how was the crisis resolved? (Thirteen Days [2000].) Could an unhinged military officer launch an unauthorised nuclear attack, and what could be done to stop it? (Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb [1964].) What would it do to someone if they were convinced that a nuclear apocalypse was only a few years away? (Terminator 2: Judgment Day [1991].) What would it be like for everyone to know for sure that deadly nuclear radiation was soon going to kill everybody? (On the Beach [1959].) What would it be like to live through a nuclear attack? (The Day After [1983].)
About the tutor:
Peter Krämer is an Honorary Fellow in the School of Media, Language and Communication Studies at the University of East Anglia. He is a regular guest lecturer at several other universities in the UK, Germany and the Czech Republic, has written or edited twelve academic books and has also co-authored an illustrated volume about American film for children. He has been involved in adult education for thirty-five years.
Programmed in partnership with the Sir John Hurt Film Trust.
Image credit: Oppenheimer (2023), Dir: Christopher Nolan, © 2023 Universal Studios.