|
Countdown to Zero
| Released |
24 June 2011 |
| Director |
Lucy Walker |
Starring
|
Jimmy Carter, Tony Blair, Mikhail Gorbachev, Valerie Plame Wilson |
| Producer(s) |
Lawrence Bender |
| Origin |
United States |
| Running Time |
91 minutes |
| Genre |
Documentary |
| Rating |
TBC |
|
|
Incendiary.
Tracing the origins of the atomic bomb may not appear to be the most interesting of topics to document, at least for those of us not arms aficionados, but Countdown to Zero is not your typical historical documentary. Directed by Lucy Walker who previously won acclaim for Waste Land- a documentary on art and its transformative powers, Countdown to Zero looks at the background of atomic warfare and poses a hypothetical world-threatening concept, all set against the palpitating immediacy of a ticking clock.
An incendiary subject matter such as this, discussed by people such as former British PM Tony Blair, Mikhail Gorbachev, Pervez Musharraf and Jimmy Carter, makes for a compelling insight into the dangers inherent in escalating nuclear activity. Failed diplomacy, a vengeful act of terrorism or simply a costly mistake are all that hang in the balance between our present global state and that of utter devastation. One particularly poignant moment is when we are shown the minute amount of radioactive material it would take to eradicate the whole of New York City. It may seem like the stuff of Marvel Comics but the reality is that nuclear activity is a growing and a glowering threat. Countdown to Zero is simultaneously trying to relay this warning but also mobilize public activity into global disarmament.
Taking inspiration from An Inconvenient Truth, Walker seems intent on making the wider public more morally conscience of the world we now inhabit. This is no bad thing as a world of terrorism, subversive arms dealing and acts of sabotage are now realities. However whilst the dangers are both scarily conveyed and corroborated in Countdown to Zero there are several inherent flaws with this document which are difficult to overlook. Firstly and possibly an idiosyncrasy of mine, the ticking of the clock sound effect which permeates every scene gets increasingly annoying and rather than increase the drama, it inhibits it by diverting attention away from the matter at hand. Secondly Countdown to Zero is seriously repetitive. The A-list billing outlined above is all well and good but if Blair echoes Carter's theories then surely it would have been to the benefit of the documentary to have edited out the repetition and in its stead highlight more of the devastation that faces the public as it is this that will ultimately galvanise action. Finally, the culpability issue is not satisfactorily dealt with. While Walker was born in London, Countdown to Zero is essentially an American output which fails to address the fact that it was the United States who first used atomic bombs in warfare, decimating the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 with an estimated human cost of approximately 200,000 citizens.
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Louisa McElwee |
