Jason Mihalko I grew up fearing a demon. I wasn't alone. Many of us learned, whether in school or through the news, that this demon was out to get us. The demon was different than us. They didn't believe the same as we did. They wanted to hurt us, hurt us so much that they had these horrible weapons pointed in our direction. The demon was called the United Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.A specter of nuclear war hovered right outside my young mind. I didn't know why the USSR was the demon. No one ever took the time to actually teach me anything at all about the USSR. I just knew I was supposed to be scared. I also knew that I wasn't supposed to like "those" people.My knowledge of the USSR? Minimal. Really none. My eighth grade history teacher, known for coming to class in a Elizabethan period outfit, skipped the lesson on the Soviet Union to "punish" us. He was mad, for some reason now faded from my memory, and refused to teach us. "This will be important stuff to you some day," the teacher said. "You'll be sorry you didn't get the lesson. We'll sit here in silence today."Yeah. My public school wasn't the most progressive experience. I've come a long way from Center Junior High School. Hopefully they too have come a long way.We have new demons to fear now. The process, however, is still the same. The xenophobia and ignorance is still the same. Children raised in the world since the World Trade Center came down have been taught by fearful adults to enact xenophobic fears toward people in Muslim countries--and people of the Muslim faith who are our neighbors in our own country.The cycle continues. Someday a new demon will rise and replace our fear of Muslim people. When we turn our eyes away from the Muslim world they too, might turn their eyes away from us. They'll grow fearful of another demon as shall we. We seem to be unable to find our way out of this cycle of fearing that which is different. You can find this same xenophobia in the movie Trinity and Beyond: The Atomic Bomb Movie. Narrated by William Shatner, Trinity offers up stunning visual imagery of the destructiveness of the weaponry. It provides an engrossing and terrifying spectacle of destruction. The movie fails to question why the bomb was really developed. Maybe the horror is enough. The demon unleashed from the atom speaks for itself.I wish the documentary moved beyond "othering" those outside of the United States. The same tired old xenophobia is laced through the movie. The bomb was developed, as suggested in the movie, to end a terrible war with Japan. It also makes allusions to needed to protect ourselves against the danger of another more ominous other, the Soviet Union. The most haunting image of all was at the end of the documentary. Horses raced onto a mock battle field, faces and eyes covered with gas masks. Riding the horses were similarly masked human soldiers. When the mask was removed we saw the rise of a new other--the Chinese tested their own nuclear bomb.The horrifying cycle continues. German. Japanese. Soviet. Chinese. Muslim. We can't seem to find a way to see the other as part of ourselves. See http://irreverentpsychologist.blogspot.com/2012/07/demons-of-sixth- grade-red-circles-of.html for more

dougandbethany-640-355777 This movie was shown during the US Air Force Academy's Chemistry of Weapons course as background for the nuclear weapons portion. A visually stunning documentary.I cannot believe the sheer ignorance collectively shown towards this movie. Apparently some think only 15 nuclear tests would have been necessary altogether instead of the 331 performed tests. Really??? Do you know why all of the harmful long-term side effects are now common knowledge? Because of these tests! I'm sorry you think they were so unnecessary, but what are your credentials to claim that 15 would have been enough? Did any of you know that there is a ring a few miles in diameter around both 'ground zeros' (Hiroshima and Nagasaki) where the local populous has a lower occurrence of cancer or any other birth defects than any other area (including the areas both closer and farther from the detonation site), leading scientists to the remarkable conclusion that our bodies may actually benefit from a small amount of radiation? (source is former head of Dept. of Chemistry, USAFA) And here everyone demonizes the US for both using the bomb during time of war as well as subsequent testing... what utter ignorance. People need to go look up the facts before making themselves look like idiots.

Paul Lindgren This film would have been nothing were it not for the outstanding scoring by the Moscow Symphony Orchestra. The music amplifies the horror, the bizarre and grotesque beauty, the grandiose irony of this film and its subject. Shatner's fact-like voice is like monochrome, and never distracts from the subject with character. It is a purposefully amoral film to good effect. Without stretching far beyond the immediate implications of a nuclear blast, and by staying devoid of ideology, we are left with the terrible phenomenon itself - the atomic blast.To me, this was a real horror movie... sitting paralyzed, bug eyed, shocked, mouth agape and all that, complete with surround sound and weighty, ponderous Russian orchestrations in grotesque minor keys. You pray to God they make presidents watch films like these.I also thought the ending "However..." sequence was perfect. To say that weapons find rest in the hands of fools becomes a truly shocking understatement when you see the sheer unhinged lunacy of the final scene.

mike-1230 I was somewhat disappointed with this film. This is a hugely important part of human history that has somewhat disappeared in our present time. Although politicians today (2004) like to spit out superlatives about ¡°the most dangerous times¡± and ¡°the world has changed¡±¡¦ Oh Please¡¦. Although unimaginable-- an entire city being destroyed by a terrorist atomic bomb, we MUST try and contemplate thousands of cities being hit by multi megaton bombs. Sorry folks, that is a far greater danger. This doc did little to really set that tone and remind us of those extremely dangerous times. Fog of War did a far better job of that. Still, its worth seeing and I will give his other docs a try