The Bomb (2016)

Separate.

Based on the description, it sounded like an alternative teaching material for today's youth. And in itself it may well serve that purpose, although this film focuses not so much on facts, rather on feelings.

At the end it turns out that this documentary is strongly intended to be anti-bomb, but certainly during the first half hour people look for the beauty in the destructive power of the atomic bomb. With highly edited images, smoothly woven together and provided with a suitable soundtrack, it sometimes resembles a modern Koyaanisqatsi. I had seen many images before, but they are brought together beautifully and powerfully.

It is only in the second part that more attention is paid to the negative consequences of all this destruction. This part is also quite powerful, although I found the first half hour clearly more interesting. Part two is just a bit more informative and just a bit more narrative.

Fascinating documentary, for sure. Deviates quite a bit from the norm and for that reason alone interesting to have seen. And if it is disappointing, then you have lost little time.

3.0*

Translated from Dutch · View original

The Bomb is a sequence of images around the subject of the atomic bomb, supported by a fairly chill electro soundtrack. So it's a Koyaaniqatsi-esque film and every now and then it's nice to watch, but it's also a poor substitute. So do not expect an extensive story about how the atomic bomb was developed and how the nuclear powers hold each other in their grip with this weapon. You only see fragments of images that are somewhat categorized by subject. A lot of footage looked familiar to me by the way.

Halfway through I thought the documentary became the most fun with all those years

'50 instructional videos from the US what to do if the bomb still goes off: Duck and Cover! Very awkwardly you see acting men, women and children suddenly plunging to the ground and hands covering the face. Well, tell that to the victims of Hiroshima, who you see fifteen minutes later. The images of those unreal explosions also have something hypnotic. Anyway, a pass is in order for this otherwise not very exceptional documentary.

Translated from Dutch · View original

Very beautiful for a long time, with that music and the images of military parades or exploding atomic bombs, preferably a little delayed. It's all cut and paste, but the director knows how to get the right images. Somewhere also funny to see the warning videos in America during a nuclear attack, and then without sound the horror from Hiroshima. No prevention will help with that. The ending is a bit more substantive about the Manhattan Project, but visually I thought that was a lot less and didn't really fit with the rest in terms of style. 3.0*.

Translated from Dutch · View original