Worth: $18.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Ian Zabarte, Lewis Black, Michael Douglas, Mary Dickson, Kevin Kamps, Mark Sennet, Martin Sheen (Narrator)
Intro:
… an incredibly powerful documentary …
The French Enlightenment writer Voltaire once said “History is only the register of crimes and misfortunes.” In the context of this disturbing documentary, one will struggle to fault that.
From the period of 1951 to 1992, the United States government conducted 928 large-scale nuclear tests in a ‘remote’ site in Mercury, Nevada. The years since have certainly questioned this remoteness, as millions of people living downwind from the site continue to experience exposure to an extraordinary amount of radioactive fallout.
This has led to entire generations surrounding the states of Nevada, Utah and Arizona experiencing astronomical numbers of cancer diagnosis and premature deaths. Nicknamed ‘down-winders’, these people gather to expose a horrible truth in recent US history and to give a voice to victims and families ripped apart by the fallout.
The impact that these weapons have is unfathomable and Downwind thankfully does not shy in showing the destructive capabilities of these nuclear devices.
This shocking documentary spends time with an arrangement of grim stories and perspectives of people affected by the blasts. Ian Zabarte, a Principal Man for the Western Bands of the Shoshone Native Indians describes the impact on nature and the loss of tribes. Actor Michael Douglas, through his work on the film The China Syndrome, become a UN Supporter against the use of nuclear weapons. The legacy left behind of American legend John Wayne, and the entire film crew of the 1956 film The Conqueror, exposed to the radiation fallout that spread from a 32-kiloton nuclear device dropped 133 miles from the set.
One of the more touching stories comes from civilian Claudia Peterson who had to go through the trauma of losing her sister, nephew, niece, father in-law, 6-year old daughter and grandson to cancer or genetic mutations. Watching her break down explaining the loss of her daughter is traumatic to watch.
The documentary goes further into shocking discoveries made by the US government in hiding this history and the disgraceful compensation package made by Congress to somehow relieve the pain and misery. It’s guaranteed to make the blood boil. One fascinating section of the film exposes the disturbing propaganda to calm the public in cases of nuclear war – what was with the whole hiding underneath the desk survival tactic?
The only aspect holding this documentary back from greatness is the strange inclusion of actor Martin Sheen as narrator, which does not work entirely in the film’s favour. He does have a connection to the ‘down-winders’ cause and credit to him for that, but a stronger, more powerful voice would have suited the documentary better, instead of Sheen’s stilted and boring delivery.
Downwind is an incredibly powerful documentary, which sadly has a lot more relevance to the current political climate than we’d like to admit. It’s a reminder that even if humanity does plunge back into another global conflict, everything should be done to remove any possibility of using nuclear devices to end it. The toll it has on its victims and the world is something that the father of the ‘atomic bomb’, Robert Oppenheimer, fully understood when he famously uttered the words, “Now I am become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds.”
