The new set looks like this:
This 3 pack of dvds includes
Trinity and Beyond: The Atomic Bomb Movie,
Atomic Journeys: Welcome to Ground Zero, and
Nukes in Space: The Rainbow Bombs. These three dvds, each narrated by William Shatner, give a well rounded presentation of the development, testing, usage, and eventual disarming of nuclear weapons. They present both plenty of history and footage (some top secret which has been declassified) - if you have any interest or curiousity in nuclear weapons, this set will satiate it. All three discs are unfortunately presented in full frame, but they do come with pretty impressive 5.1 tracks. Yes, there is plenty of low end rumble from these discs, but what I enjoyed even more were the original scores. There are several parts in these films with little to no talking while footage is being played, and the original scores do a great job to ellicit the right responses. The picture quality is good enough considering these films are mostly made up of restored material from the 50s, 60s, and 70s.
Trinity and Beyond focuses on the development of the first nuclear bomb and then goes in to a pretty dazzling showcase of each consecutive bomb that was tested thereafter, each one bigger or more efficient than the last. Some of the blasts are just plain awe-enspiring and fun to watch. One of the special features displays certain explosions in 3d when you wear the included glasses, but I found it pretty gimmicky. The largest detonation ever was the Russian Tsar Bomba which had a 50 megaton yield - seeing where we started off at and then the advancements that led to that beast make for a very interesting showing. Atomic Journeys takes a deeper dive into the actual testing of nuclear bombs in the United States. From vast deserts to the bottoms of oceans to the inside of mountains, we tested nuclear bombs in many environments and situations in order to determine if there were suitable purposes for them besides weaponry. What I found hillarious were the RVs fully loaded with test equipment that had tall legs and huge shocks positioned directly over an underground nuke test site. When the bomb would explode, the sheer force and seismic wave that rocked the surface would send the RVs flying 20-30 feet up into the air before they would come back down and bounce their way to stability. These weren't dirt surfaces either, the bombs would easily reform the structure of solid rock caves and mountains. Nukes in Space goes into detail about the arms race for intercontinental ballistic missles and satellites. I found this disc to be the least enthralling of the set, mainly because it seemed to present the least amount of information and footage over the ~1.5 hour presentation. Plenty of failed rocket launches to be found on this one, from early attempts by Russia to recreate the Nazi V2 to our own attempts to create a rocket that could carry a nuclear warhead halfway around the world. The detonations outside of our atmosphere come across as pretty weak looking too - it would have been nice if they spent more time documenting the auroras created as after effects.
This set definitely isn't for everyone, as there is a fair amount of historical information presented, but if you have any interest in this sort of thing, I definitely think you'll like it. It's a nice break from a regular movie - you'll actually learn a thing or two. If you just want to see a bunch of pretty explosions though, you may want to only pick up Trinity and Beyond
08-23-07, 12:15 AM
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